Some More News - Some More News: Everything Bad Is Ronald Reagan's Fault

Episode Date: July 10, 2024

Hi. Today we're looking at America's 40th president – Teflon Ron, 'ol Dutchy, the Gipper himself – Ronald Reagan, and how nearly everything bad in the U.S. today can be traced back to something he did and/or said. SOURCES: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Dqlq2cLTYnNaq6sRnvAgf7SQznDQwdngnLi0yNZFlX0/edit?usp=sharing Give Trade a try and see how you can make better coffee at home. Right now, they’re offering 30% off your first order when you visit drinktrade.com/MORENEWS and subscribe. Babbel’s quick 10-minute lessons are hand-crafted by over 200 language experts to help you start speaking a new language in as little as 3 weeks. Here's a special, limited-time deal for our viewers. Right now get up to 60% off your Babbel subscription at https://babbel.com/MORENEWS. Head to Factormeals.com/morenews50 and use code morenews50 to get 50% off your first box plus 20% off your next month. That’s code morenews50 at Factormeals.com/morenews50 to get 50% off your first box plus 20% off your next month while your subscription is active! Sign up for a one-dollar-per-month trial period at shopify.com/morenews, ALL LOWERCASE. Go to shopify.com/morenews to take your retail business to the next level today. shopify.com/morenews. We’ve worked out a special offer for our audience! Receive 15% off your first order. Go to tryarmra.com/MORENEWS or enter MORENEWS to get 15% off your first order. That’s tryarmra.com/MORENEWS. Check out our MERCH STORE: https://shop.somemorenews.com   SUBSCRIBE to SOME MORE NEWS:

Previously on Some More News. King, the time is near. Corn cream's coming down. Big corn cream day in the studio. What I mean is that there's literally corn cream gooping down the walls, filling the walls, gooping me up. And hey, speaking of trickling down, here's some goop news. The Republican National Convention is trickling down

the leg of America next week to collect in a pool in Milwaukee and splashing around in the middle of it once again for some reason is Donald John Obius Trump, the wettest trickle of them all. While his unique brand of hooting populism has shown diminishing returns in the last several elections, the son-kissed piss gnome, everyone's favorite son-kissed piss mascot,

will no doubt clinch the Republican nomination for president, despite the fact that he was recently convicted of 34 felonies in the state of New York. And here is some not at all news. Since Trump's first and so far, only political victory, the Republican Party has seemingly shifted more and more to the right. Some might say, disturbingly so. And in that process, policies that made people support the Democratic

Party in the first place are also getting left behind. Stuff like social programs and education and laws that forbid children from being consumed by meatpacking machinery before their 17th birthday. Democrats are like Chet Hanks DJing a birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese. Nobody's getting anything they want, and everybody is very upset. Even Big Main. After all, deregulation is one of the Republican Party's favorite songs and they play it every chance they get. One recent example is when the Trump administration

waged a noble war against environmental protections, rolling back over 100 regulations during his first term, while claiming, as they always do, that regulations hurt business, and business, we all agree, is the most important thing. And you know, this whole thing feels very familiar, actually. And not just in 2016 or 2020 or an evil prophecy way. The Republican Party has completely reshaped itself around a populist media star candidate before in order to retake power after a string of democratic victories.

To get Carter, if you will, but the Stallone version. A racist celebrity who is aggressively anti-union, who botched the response to a national public health crisis and who ballooned the national debt, despite claiming it was a major problem and using it against his opponents. And when this candidate won the presidency, it threw the Democratic Party into a terminal panic

that has been slowly playing out ever since. All of this has happened before. Spooky! Silence! In fact, everything we're experiencing right now, from the extreme wage gap to the rise of neoliberalism to the string of disappointing ass presidents can be gap to the rise of neoliberalism to the string of disappointing ass presidents, can be laid at the feet of one man, either directly or

as a progression of his policies. Deja vu for you and Marty McFly too, the man who Ronald so Trump could Donald, Ronald Reagan. Ronald Reagan, the actor? Yep, the him. Ronald actor. It's time for a Reagan episode. Dare I say the Reagan episode. The curse of Ronald Reagan. Now I know what you're thinking, because my mind thirsts.

You're thinking, duh, Cody, everybody knows Ronald Reagan ruined everything. And then you turn your hat around backwards, no need, it already was, and you skateboard away because you're so fucking cool. For people under the age of 40, Reagan is more like a mascot than an actual person. We know what he represents,

and it's fun to throw stuff at him. But like, how much stuff did he ruin and what stuff specifically? And while it may be obvious to all you showties that he sucked harder than Colossus' fleshlight, Reagan is generally popular. He's still remembered fondly by a lot of people and not just far right goofballs. In fact, there is a Reagan movie coming out this year

just in time for the election, with Dennis Quaid playing the lead role. And it is, by all accounts, embarrassingly driven by the same reverence you'd normally reserve for Abraham Lincoln saving a flaming truck full of blind puppies. Bluppies. Ronnie, remember when we met, you told me that you wanted to make a difference

in this world. You know what you have to do. Governor Reagan again, typically, is against such a proposal. There you go again. But he was not afraid to take us on. There's nothing a retired governor can do about the Soviets, but a president. Now he can do a thing or two. That's right, folks.

From the director of Orphan Horse and the writer of God's Not Dead, A Light in Darkness comes a totally objective and not at all propaganda look at Reagan's legacy. Get your tickets today. Fun fact, that movie was announced in 2010, as in 14 years ago, and has been in production hell on account of nobody wanting to finance a film about Reagan. And that's probably because this film,

as well as the perceived accomplishments of Reagan, were nostalgic more than they were factual. While he typically scored well on questions about his character and likeability, Reagan's approval rating hovered around 53%, which is pretty mid-tier. If that was his kill death ratio, you'd wait to see who else was on

before inviting him to your fire team in Call of Duty, a video game that featured Ronald Reagan. Ronald Reagan, the actor? Yep, that one. Don't get me wrong, Reagan was very popular when he was president. His time in office began with a landslide win in 1980. Dude won 44 states.

That is a devastating victory. Although the popular vote was somewhat narrower, securing 51% of the vote to Jimmy Carter's 41%, which is still a lot. Reagan would go on to win re-election with 59% of the popular vote and an even more devastating 49 states. So while his approval rating wasn't very high,

Americans still overwhelmingly chose him to lead the country. I guess that either speaks to how unpopular his opponents were or how strong his election game was, or maybe some other factor involving a genie wish. And while his approval rating was low, it has actually increased in retrospective polls in the decade since he left office,

jumping up a full 20 points to 73% in 2002, just two years before his death, which I had nothing to do with. The point is, there is a myth of Ronald Reagan that has been gradually glorified more and more over the years, partially by people conflating their memories of Reagan's folksy charm

with his performance in the White House, but also by those seeking to justify the continuation of his policies and to push a return to the politics of the era. Put another way, the GOP has been chasing the Reagan administration since the man shuffled out of office in 1989, and it's in their best interest

for us to remember it fondly. And so today's episode is about dispelling the myth and in turn pointing out just how many things that Ronald Reagan screwed up for this country. So many things. Look at the runtime of this episode. It's all about these things. So tuck that little nog of info away in your backwards hat

and let it trickle down into your brain. Trickle down like Reaganomics. We've been talking about him the whole time. And hey, no better place to start than his big quotes, best accomplishment. Reaganomics was a failure. So the majority of Reagan's policies align with a political philosophy called neoliberalism,

a broad term that essentially refers to a reactionary shift from New Deal liberalism. Whereas New Deal liberalism believes the government should be heavily involved in business regulation, public goods, and social programs, neoliberalism is the view that the government should provide minimal programs and services and let the free market regulate itself. If you're thinking, that just sounds like a Republican, you're right. And Reagan's signature policy, the bell of the ball, the nitro to whatever the rest of the American gladiators were called, was Reaganomics.

Also known as supply side economics, this is basically the Santa Claus of the Republican Party, a fairy tale they invented to disguise who is actually paying for everything year after year. The concept has a few other nicknames, including trickle-down economics and voodoo economics. And that last one should give you an idea of how much magical thinking is required to have it make any kind of sense. So, here's a visual aid. Whoa whoa whoa, Cody! Don't you dare, don't you dare introduce another puppet.

Hey, I'll stop making puppets when you clean out all this corn cream. It's in the walls, Katie. I have no clue what you're talking about, but this is the last puppet. I'm sick of puppets. Show you who's a puppet. I'm a puppet.

Anyway, when former actor and California governor, Ronald Reagan took the reins as the 40th president of the United States of America and ruler of all its mighty cowboys, Voodoo Economics was one of his signature platforms. So it felt appropriately spicy to use a little Voodoo Reagan to keep a tally of just how many truly evil things he did while in office and how problems in 2024 can be forwarded

to his inbox in Valhalla or whichever Plane of Torment you believe in. That one's just for me, you don't have to worry about it. He knows what he did. Anyway, time to opie those lobbies, showedies, because we're gonna talk about economic theories. Ha ha, all right, let's get another one in there. Yeah.

When Reagan took office in 1981, he inherited a struggling economy and a high unemployment rate, which peaked around 11% by 1982, Reagan's second year in office. The 70s may have seen the release of a lot of awesome movies like Star Wars, The Godfather, Jaws, and hopefully one day,

The Godfather Jaws Wars. I've been leaving that script all over town and people like it, it's good. You think it's, they're nodding in my head, so check it out. But otherwise, it was kind of a tough decade for Americans. The gas shortage and subsequent rationing was just one of many issues.

Inflation and interest rates were high and there was an increasing budget deficit in the federal government. Reagan's proposed solution was supply-side economics, a controversial economic theory, which argues that tax cuts will encourage economic expansion, thereby broadening the amount of taxable things over time,

basically taking less money individually, but from a pool that is gradually getting larger. The entire principle hinges on the idea that giving these super wealthy, generous tax cuts will incentivize them to spend more of their money rather than save it, thus leading to more jobs, more revenue, a robust clown harvest, and so on. Reagan specifically pushed the Laffer curve,

an unproven theory developed by University of Chicago economist, Arthur Laffer, which suggests that lowering taxes at certain levels will somehow increase tax revenue overall. If that concept seems to defy how math works, allow me to stress the word unproven, because even though this has been the guiding principle of Republican economic policy ever since Reagan ripped his first jellybean fart in the Oval

Office, we've never seen any evidence that it's true or will actually work in practice, which is strange. The Laffer curve was apparently first drawn on a cocktail napkin for Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld. So you'd think the theory would be airtight. That story probably isn't true, but it's the version they tell everyone, which kind of feels like a prank.

Incidentally, Laffer served as an advisor for Reagan, helped Donald Trump draft the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act in 2017, and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his efforts. In other words, we are still under the thumb of Reaganomics and the Laffer curve, despite 40 years of evidence that it's total bullshit. Ha ha.

Oh, and to be clear, they know it's bullshit. They just hope we'll believe it. You see what I mean? Santa Claus. The thinking at the time was that significant cuts in government spending would make up for the revenue lost by tax cuts, or at least that's how Reaganomics was sold to voters.

I know the tax portion of our package is of concern to some of you, but let me make a few points that I feel have been overlooked. First of all, it should be looked at as an integral part of the entire package, not something separate and apart from the budget reductions, the regulatory relief, and the monetary restraints. Probably the most common misconception is that we are proposing to reduce government revenues to less

than what the government has been receiving. This is not true. Actually, the discussion has to do with how much of a tax increase should be imposed on the taxpayer in 1982. As you see, he didn't even frame it as tax cuts at the time, but rather preventing a tax increase. And that the cuts in government spending

were interwoven into this plan, as in they were crucial to making it work properly. The problem is those cuts in government spending never materialized because of course they didn't. This is America in the 80s under Ronald Reagan. Ronald Reagan, the actor? Okay, let's settle down. So yeah, the government wasn't about to spend less money.

They just weren't going to spend any of it on social programs. For example, military spending under Reagan went from $143 billion in 1980 to $280 billion in just his first term, and he kept spending. By 1985, Reagan was pushing another boost for over $300 billion, and he was only getting started.

For the full duration of his presidency, the Department of Defense would have an average budget of $523 billion, which after 9-11 would be considered cute. But when you look at our defense spending over time, adjusted for inflation, you see this hilarious mountain right in the center of his two terms. You can even see how it matches modern spending when accounting for the war in Iraq.

How the hell was that responsible? Anyway, the point is that our fiscally responsible Reagan sure loved to spend a lot of money. And ultimately, government spending actually increased from $746 billion to $1.1 trillion in the eight years Reagan was in office. Reagan and Congress had to pass several tax increases over the following years just to pay for the cuts.

Heck, the next two presidents had to pass significant tax increases to cover it. But because they weren't changes in income tax and instead focused on subsidiary taxes like excise and payroll, had to pass significant tax increases to cover it. But because they weren't changes in income tax and instead focused on subsidiary taxes like excise and payroll, those increases didn't get nearly as much attention and aren't as well known.

Now, according to former Reagan economic advisors, Reaganomics was successful in reducing inflation and lowering unemployment. Reagan supporters usually point to these broad economic factors as a positive legacy and proof that Reaganomics works. However, Reagan had to raise taxes five times over the duration of his presidency

and government revenue fell by 9% for the next few years, which is the exact opposite of what he insisted would happen. Who could have predicted that collecting less money would lead to less revenue? The plan also fell short of Reagan's initial promises to abolish entire federal agencies and made no substantial reforms

to social security and Medicare. In other words, it accomplished none of its stated goals, which means it, what's the word? What's the word? Failed. It failed. Absolutely didn't work at all. A total pigeon screw stepped on a rake,

screwed the pooch, got the wrong end of the stick, the wrong end of the rake you stepped on and screwed the pooch with that stuck that rake in. Ronald Reagan, the actor? I said rake in, rake in, not Reagan. Come on, get it together. Anyway, so in the end, the Federal Reserve's decision to dramatically reduce

sky high interest rates nearing 20% was a much bigger factor in turning the economy around in the 1980s, along with considerable government spending on things like defense and highways. The tax cuts don't appear to have done much more than cost a whole lot of people a whole lot of money. And mind you, at this point, we have 40 years of data on this.

Reagan's policies widened the racial wealth gap because the tax cuts overwhelmingly benefited white Americans who earned salaries and owned stock. Most black and Hispanic Americans, on the other hand, felt very little relief. Meanwhile, the federal deficit increased from 2.5% to 5% of GDP and trickled down economics kicked off decades of complete stagnation for the rest of America.

In fact, middle-class Americans in the 41st to 60th percentile of earnings would see an almost comical gain of just $32 per year for the next three decades, while the top 20% saw their wealth soar, especially those lucky one percenters. Because as it turns out, drum roll. When you cut taxes for the rich,

they just sit on that money or buy themselves yachts and jets. That pool of taxable money never got larger, it just got deeper. And as we began to see in the 1980s, these rich dips would start using all that extra cash to create think tanks and influence politicians to push whatever bonkers worldview

their unchecked wealth creates. And wouldn't you know it? One thing they continuously push for and receive, tax breaks for the wealthy. So Voodoo economics created an endless stream of wealth and influence for the top 1% of Americans. Really, really cool. Boop.

For instance, recurring some more news characters and probable escaped mummies, the Koch brothers first started gaining major influence during the Reagan era, allowing them to establish their spidery grip on American politics. What? Pass that on to David, Ron. Because he's dead, you see.

Yeah, they got it. There's no need to joke, explain screen words, unless I said it weird, but either way you get it now. The bottom line is the American economic boom post-World War II saw productivity and wages grow hand in hand for decades, right up until 1979, the year Smashing Pumpkins was born. But starting in 1980, productivity continued to grow

while wages remained stagnant. Shockingly, all those tax cuts didn't ever manage to trickle down to anyone with fewer than two addresses. When Reagan took office, the federal minimum wage was $3.35. Today, 40 fucking years later, it's $7.25, which isn't enough to afford a one bedroom apartment in 93% of all the counties in the United States.

That's an increase of $1 per decade or 10 cents a year. Meanwhile, prices have steadily increased by a minimum of two to 3% per year. And while some states have raised their minimum wages to as high as $17, that still means those workers are spending more than half of their income on rent. The only reason $17 an hour is above the poverty line is because the government gets to determine

what that line is. And so all of this, all of it began with Reagan insisting on an economic plan that made everything worse. But Reagan's policies didn't just hamstring wages for the middle and working class, his administration also invented a fun new way to keep virtually every American trapped in debt for their entire lives.

Ooh, a little tease for our next segment. But first let's get into some showdynomics, by which I mean ads. Katie. Katie. Yes, my lover? The time has- what? Did you say lover? Oh, are we not... Sorry, I misunderstood the vibes.

We'll talk about this later. Katie! Katie! The time has come. I am here. Understood, my boyfriend. I will prepare for your arrival. Our time is now.

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slash more news for 30% off your subscription order. www.drinktrade.com slash more news to enjoy 30% off your first order when you subscribe. Hi, happy birthday. Maybe not today, but it's coming or already happened. I'm making a connection is the point. Connection is important, as important as learning. Did you know that learning makes a sound? It's true.

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They use babbel, now they speak American English. So they said it the same way I did just now. Katie. Katie. Katie. Katie. Katie. Katie. Okay, hi, I am here. What's got your face all twitchy today, newsboy? Ooh, are there new baby blocks to play with in your baby block game? You absolutely know it's called Minecraft. They're making a movie.

Yeah, there are new blocks. Copper and tough variants. Okay, fine, but do you have a real problem or is this something that can wait until I never have to hear about it? You know, I put up with a lot. Between you and this room full of corn and that sock who's also my boss and somehow also my hand.

I shouldn't know that. That is cursed knowledge. Really hoping there's a point hidden in all this sad ranting. The point is, get rid of the corn cream. I can't even walk around anymore. I can't leave. I've got glass in my feet.

I've been making toilet in a corner, I think used to be the copy machine, but it's all corn cream now. All is corn cream. You wanna get rid of the corn cream? Well, then you need to sell it, egg boy. Either that or just wait for the natural life cycle

to complete. What natural life cycle? What fucking natural life cycle? Katie! Well, welcome back, I guess, while I wait to die. We should keep talking about Ronald Reagan. Ronald Reagan, the actor? Yeah, doc, yes, doc, yes Reagan, the actor? Yeah, doc.

Yes, doc. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, doc. I got enough going on right now. I don't need you piping in too. So we just feasted on the main course that is Reaganomics. Now it's time for a series of desserts. So many in fact, that it'll make us all sick because while trickle-down economics

was absolutely the thing Reagan was most known for, it certainly wasn't the only thing his presidency screwed up in this country. In fact, one of the most insidious things he did happens to be something we're all still feeling today. Right now, you most likely are struggling with this. And that thing is student freaking loans. Do that actually, and I'm just gonna cap. There we go, we got that. One more!

Reagan created the student loan crisis. Yep, he did that. Public education was another big target of Reagan's deregulatory regime. He already had a long history of vilifying public universities and its students and faculty during his time as governor of California. He had particular ire for UC Berkeley,

a public university that had become an organizational center of anti-war activism against America's involvement in Vietnam. Once he was governor, Reagan exerted considerable pressure to get UC Berkeley's president fired, whom he long suspected of being a communist sympathizer, probably because the school was doing commie things

like accommodating student activism and offering a college education that was virtually free for residents of the state. He actually shut down all UC and Cal State campuses in 1970 following mass protests against the Vietnam War. He also cut millions of dollars from the UC operating budget, suggesting that the universities

should charge students a tuition or take out loans if they couldn't afford it. It would be Reagan's let them eat cake, except unlike Marie Antoinette, he actually said that shit. Also, we didn't behead Reagan, yet. He wasn't cremated after all. Just saying, there's still a chance.

When critics pointed out that this was antithetical to the purpose of a public university and that the move would take educational opportunities away from many people, Reagan called the objections hysterical and obviously untrue because every school would be required to offer loans along with tuition. You see, no problem.

That's basically the same as being free. So yeah, there it is. Student loans became more common under Reagan's- Ronald Reagan, the actor? Student loans became more common under Reagan's governorship. Once he was president, he continued his crusade against publicly funded education,

which he and his ilk were portraying as a bunch of debauched privileged brats wasting taxpayer money. Nevermind that an educated populace is all but a necessity for a stable country, or that those students and their parents were presumably also taxpayers. Reagan led an early effort to cut back on federal money

that helped students repay their loans and attempted to throw hundreds of thousands of students off of the Pell Grant, which is awarded to students based on their financial need. So cool, dude. Real folksy. He's just a humble old cowboy who thinks education should be a privilege of the elite.

So we're actually just gonna boop. Overall, Reagan was successful in cutting college funding should be a privilege of the elite. So we're actually just gonna boop. Overall, Reagan was successful in cutting college funding and student aid, while overall tax cuts forced states to cut back on spending that had previously been used to subsidize colleges, which raised tuition. According to estimates by the college board, the average cost to attend a private college

in the 1980 to 81 school year when Reagan took office was around $17,410. And the cost to attend a public college was about $8,000, both adjusted for inflation. Nine years later in 1990, the price of tuition had shot up to $26,000 and $9,800 respectively. Today, tuition at a private in-state college

averages about $42,000 per year, while attending an in-state public college can run you anywhere from 10 to 15,000 per year. And that's not even counting all the drugs you need to buy to be cool. And while Reagan's desire to cut public education was always framed as a way to maintain fiscal responsibility and a balanced budget.

His conservative counterparts made their motives pretty clear. Roger A. Freeman, Reagan's former academic advisor during his time as governor, once defended Reagan's anti-college actions in a press conference saying, quote, we are in danger of producing an educated proletariat. That's dynamite.

We have to be selective on who we allow to go through higher education. So we're just gonna actually, boop. Okay, and James M. Buchanan, an economist, often regarded as one of the architects of modern conservatism, who worked with none other than Charles Koch to push neoliberal policy throughout the 1980s, wrote an entire book

called Academia and Anarchy, in which he argued that public universities were hotbeds of chaos loaded with overprivileged kids, and that the only solution was to charge them all tuition that was so prohibitively high, they would have to take out loans to cover it. Ostensibly, this would teach all those rowdy punks to value their college experience

instead of squandering it, protesting the litany of injustices in America. Whenever that worked. But of course, in private conversations with Gordon Tulloch, another economist, there can't possibly be this many economists. Like tone it down. It was revealed that the actual purpose

was to deny an education to those who couldn't afford it. Because to quote Tullock, we may be producing a positively dangerous class situation. Or as historian Nancy McLean puts it, educating so many working class youth who would probably not make it into management might make trouble having had their sights raised. Wouldn't want to get all the poor's upset

when they learn the system has been impossibly rigged against them. So hey, if you're currently being crushed into powder by student loan debt or were denied the opportunity because you couldn't afford it, piss all over this guy's face tonight. Go ahead, I'm serious. You can use my printer, print out the face and piss on it. Go to the devices and search for the storyteller,

all caps, all one word. I'll leave all the photos in a stack outside, covered in piss. Did you piss on those pics? I will wait for you to do it. Are you pissing? Don't lie, are you pissing? Anyway, speaking of pissing on things,

school tuition wasn't the only thing Reagan made harder to obtain for the express purpose of punishing the undesirables. As we already alluded to, Reaganomics wasn't about cutting all government spending, just the stuff designed to help the most vulnerable. Reagan gutted social programs. Upon coming into office, Reagan's 1981 budget

set a new standard for the federal government that disinvested in the working poor and middle-class by making dramatic cuts to safety net programs like welfare and Medicaid. So scores of Americans who had previously depended on those subsidies suddenly found themselves deprived of meaningful healthcare and one source of income.

And while Reagan cited a number of high-minded excuses to justify these cuts, a 1984 study on the impacts of Reagan's spending and tax policies found that families making less than $12,000 per year lost over 4% of their income during Reagan's first term, while families earning $45,000 or more gained 1.6%. Adjusted for inflation,

that would be families making around $36,000 versus families making $135,000. In other words, it's not about saving money, it's about giving it to rich people. Part of the reason Reagan was so hell bent on slashing all public programs like welfare and food stamps was that he only measured success in terms of money made or status gained.

He felt that Lyndon Johnson's great society, which sought to create a number of social programs to eliminate racial and economic inequality in America was a mistake, claiming that safety net programs did nothing but destroy pride and create a feeling of helplessness, which are things a person who's never been poor would say.

Also Reagan, who grew up poor. Reagan pointed to the billions of dollars spent on food assistance programs since the 1960s and how those programs had little impact on actually lifting people out of poverty. But hey, Ron, fun fact, you can't buy a house with fucking food stamps, can you, Ron?

Soup kitchens don't pay people's bills, do they, Ron? What those programs did do was lift millions of people out of hunger. Now, a normal human being might call that a net win for society. But Reagan's animus towards federal programs dovetailed with the general conservative viewpoint that any federal aid should include work requirements

to guide recipients towards self-reliance. He and his supporters argued that without means testing and strict limits, the mythical welfare queen would take hold and get fat on government handouts. More on that phrase in a second. However, the higher eligibility standards created by Reagan's policies actually pulled benefits away from people who were already working full time.

Because again, it was never about saving money or helping people climb out of poverty. It was about immobilizing poor people to ensure a docile working class and keeping up little extra money in the process. So, there we go, boop. And it really helped if he also got the country on board with that idea.

So for instance, did you know he's the reason everyone turned against welfare? And he did it by being racist. Reagan created the welfare queen. Dog whistling, the practice of concealing a message for a specific group within a seemingly benign statement wasn't invented by Ronald Reagan. But he gave far right ghouls and ghoulettes

the dog whistle of the century when he invented the concept of the welfare queen, the mythical drain on society who does nothing but have babies and collect government checks. Man, there is no world in which that doesn't sound aggressively racist. And the reason for that is because the welfare queen was one of Reagan's most popular euphemisms

for lazy black people. And before anyone watching this says, but Reagan wasn't racist, here is a clip of him referring to black people as monkeys who are uncomfortable wearing shoes in a call with Richard Nixon. Last night I tell you to watch that thing on television that I did.

Yeah. To see those, those African countries. Damn, they're still uncomfortable wearing shoes. Yeah. Aw, Nixon loved that. Boy, you should never be the most racist person in a conversation with Richard Nixon. Reagan began laying the groundwork

to make deep cuts in public assistance by turning it into a racial issue even before he became president. During his failed 1976 bid for the White House, Reagan called out the woman from Chicago to persuade Americans that fraudsters were abusing the welfare system, taking tax dollars from hardworking Americans.

Although Reagan never mentioned her by name, the woman in question was Linda Taylor, a career con artist implicated in a number of other crimes, including at least one kidnapping and a murder. In other words, she was a dangerous criminal and far from the average welfare recipient. And while Taylor did swindle hundreds of thousands of dollars from the government in various schemes,

she defrauded just under $9,000 from welfare, which was a far cry from the $9,000 from welfare, which was a far cry from the $150,000 per year figure that Reagan kept quoting on the campaign trail. Reagan used Taylor's story and speeches across the country to build up the idea that there might be thousands of welfare queens, black women taking money from local and state governments without remorse.

In reality, fraud is not that common in welfare programs, by most estimates, accounting for less than 2% of payments. Furthermore, recipients are more likely to be defrauded by the government than the other way around, which is absolutely not hard to believe. My driver's license had an extra N in my name for 10 years and not in the spot you'd think. But of course, Reagan didn't stop at gutting the safety net.

He wanted to Calvin ball his way into a free market with no rules, which is another way of saying he didn't care if babies drank poison. ["Dreams of a New World"] Reagan didn't care if babies drank poison. ["Dreams of a New World"] Just gonna... Cool. So if Reagan's policies were the dynamic duo, I'm just gonna...

Cool. So if Reagan's policies were the dynamic duo, Reaganomics would be Batman and deregulation would be the guy who hangs out with Batman. As part of his sweeping deregulations, Reagan sought to disentangle the federal government from pretty much any oversight role, no matter how fucked up.

For example, in 1980, Congress passed the Infant Formula Act, along with stringent FDA rules, to enforce a law that would make sure baby formula had all the proper nutrients. This was in response to a wave of thousands of cases of infants suffering convulsions and even brain damage when they were fed improper formula. However, Reagan blocked the new law in 1981,

delaying it for 18 months while his administration came up with a new set of guidelines that, according to a House Oversight Committee, were more relaxed and allowed more flexibility. During that time, three million cans of substandard baby formula were sold. But no babies died probably. Every regulatory body felt a similar pinch.

Even OSHA, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. OSHA is a government oversight group responsible for ensuring that workplaces are held to a reasonably safe standard, a role which obviously had no value in Reagan's vision of America. You may have heard about the draconian authoritarian OSHA,

which during the pandemic forced employees to get vaccines. Wait, sorry, that's not right. The policy was either get a vaccine or if you don't want to test for COVID instead. And if you have it, you'll stay home from work for a while on account of being sick. OSHA! Anyway, in the first two years of Reagan's presidency,

the number of OSHA inspections dropped 17%. During that same period, punitive fines issued for violations fell 78%. So not only were inspections down, but workplaces were simply not being held accountable for nearly any safety violations. And the Department of Agriculture stopped requiring processed meats to carry labels identifying

their more unsavory ingredients, including pulverized bone and bone marrow. And while all you warmbo sympathizers are out there, maybe thinking, oh, well great, more bones. It's actually probably important for everybody to know that we've all eaten a lot more bones than we realized. Even if you've eaten actual bones. There's just a few extra bones we didn't know about

and we should have, okay? We should know about the extra bones. Let's keep it going. Because this wasn't by far the only way this bone lover would screw over America's employees. The Reagan Brought Back Union Busting. Of course, an early controversy of Reagan's presidency developed after he fired over 11,000

air traffic control workers in the middle of a strike, barring them from ever working for the federal government again. In August of 1981, the air traffic controllers union called a strike when contract negotiations with the FAA had come to an impasse. The strike was technically illegal because it's against the law

for government workers to strike, which is a whole other can of worms I'm not going to get into today, except to say that it's pretty weird that's against the law. Sure, maybe elected officials shouldn't get a strike, not that they'd ever have a reason to, because they make all the rules

and in fact go out of their way to entrench themselves in the government for as long as possible. And also they get to cosplay going on strike by threatening to shut down the government every year. But my point is that most government employees are just blue collar people working a nine to five job, like the air traffic controllers.

But workers rights had no place in Reagan's America, which sought to unchain business and set it loose like the mighty rancor. So Reagan fired every single one of them two days into their strike. Now, this might not seem like such a big deal, you know, considering President Joe Biden did a similar thing to 100,000 rail workers

who went on strike to demand paid sick leave in 2022. Biden stepped in and literally changed the law to make rail strikes illegal. This could be seen as comparable to Ronnie Reagan's union busting, but it turns out for Joe Biden, busting does not make him feel good. And eventually four of the largest rail carriers

agreed to four paid sick days for workers, leading the director of the railroad department of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers to thank Prezzy Jobo for playing the long game. We salute you, Dark Brandon. But Reagan's hard line stance on union strikes gave corporations more leverage in union negotiations because they knew they would have the backing

of the federal government on their side. And when one of the most popular presidents in recent history took a folksy old dump on unions, it started a domino effect that eroded their power, as well as their reputation with the American people. Today, when you say union to people, they invariably picture a mobbed up teamster exerting unfair control over a poor, helpless business owner. And it's hard to argue that Reagan's handling of the air traffic controllers had zero influence

on Biden's decision to break the rail strike, despite the eventual difference in result. Thanks to Reagan, Union elections began a stark decline during his presidency. In a 2003 speech at the Reagan Library in California, Alan Greenspan, then the chair of the Federal Reserve, gloated over the rise of flexible markets, a fancy phrase here, meaning completely unregulated markets,

citing Reagan's decision to fire the air traffic controllers in 1981 as perhaps the most important contribution. But this absolute rat fuckery may not even be the most important contribution, at least when it comes to screwing over the working class, because after the break, oh boy, we're going to talk about health care. The hits, they keep coming. Gonna have to celebrate when this is all over.

Oh, maybe go out and get a nice dinner, you know? As soon as the corn cream lets me leave, we'll go out and we'll- ...stay. Which it won't. It turns out it won't. Glad we learned that. Because it talks. Cut to ads please. Ooh, what's that sound?

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Ah. Hey gang, I'm back. The corn cream has grown a full inch since the ad break started. I can see it grow with my naked eye. Actually looks like it's gotten closer to me too. But don't worry, we're nowhere near out of shitty evils perpetrated by Ronald Reagan, an old man who sucked.

We're gonna cut to that clip, aren't we? Ronald Reagan, the actor? Yep, yes we are. Yes we did. Yes, we will continue to. Where did it go? So we got done talking about how the ragers screwed the economy, deregulated basic safety measures,

cut programs for the poor, made student loans worse, and began a long hostility toward unions. It's just everything wrong with America today. All of it starting with this one folksy country boy like he's the Forrest Gump of political tragedy. And so why not throw fucking healthcare on the pile? Reagan created the modern bad healthcare industry. A big priority of Reagan's presidency

was reducing the government's role in both the private and public sector, meaning sweeping deregulation of private markets and severely reducing social safety net programs or eliminating them entirely. There were a number of bodacious consequences to that, but one major one is that Reagan shifted the burden of healthcare costs from the government

onto healthcare providers in 1983. Previously, hospitals would bill Medicare based on the costs of its services, and the government would pay it, allowing for a modest profit for the hospital. But after Reagan's reforms, Medicare began setting fixed prices based on the patient's specific condition.

On paper, this seems like a great idea, but it also seems weirdly anti-Reagan. After all, price fixing is a form of regulation. Reagan and his supporters argued that it forced hospitals to become competitive, which would make them more efficient and deliver higher quality care. Because in their minds, people are not human beings with health needs, only consumers looking for the best deal.

It technically did make hospitals more efficient in that there was no longer any financial incentive to keep patients in hospital beds for long recovery periods. Instead, it incentivized them to flip those beds as quickly as possible and treat more people with outpatient services. So, yeah, probably a no on that higher quality care goal, but hey, it did kickstart the corporatized

profit-driven healthcare system that we have today. Many states followed Reagan's deregulatory example and relaxed restrictions on healthcare costs and investor capital. So now we have for-profit medical groups that exist to generate revenue for shareholders, managing the majority of healthcare in the United States. Reagan didn't care much about public health,

which we know because he pretended AIDS wasn't real for three fucking years, right? Remember the AIDS? Reagan ignored the AIDS epidemic. Just in case you thought America got the idea to handle a public health crisis like the emperor's new clothes from Donald Trump, Rapin Ronnie would like to have a few dope words.

While Trump feverishly denied COVID was a crisis, even after it nearly killed him, the playbook for ignoring an historic epidemic was written 40 years earlier by Reagan and his cabinet. The first cases of AIDS were reported in June of 1981, although the syndrome didn't have that name yet. It was alternatively known as GRID, Gay-related Immune Deficiency, or the 4-H disease,

which stood for heroin users, homosexuals, hemophiliacs, and Haitians. Hey, that's racist! Boy, the bigotry is just top to bottom in this one. In July, the CDC reported that 26 gay men had been diagnosed with KS, a deadly cancer later linked to AIDS over the last two and a half years. Finally, in 1982, the CDC used the term

acquired immune deficiency syndrome for the first time. But even as thousands of people died of AIDS through the 1980s, Reagan remained silent on the matter. The first time he even mentioned HIV was at a press conference in 1985, three years after the epidemic had been in full swing. He expressed sympathy for parents who were afraid of sending their children to school

with classmates diagnosed with HIV, despite the fact that by that time, the CDC had already determined that the virus couldn't be transmitted by casual contact. Also, I think we can hopefully all agree that maybe the sympathy should have been directed towards those actually affected by it. By the time Reagan finally deigned to mention AIDS,

it had already become one of the leading causes of death for young adults at that time. By all accounts, Reagan and his cabinet didn't take the epidemic seriously. In fact, they seemed to regard it as a running joke. Is the president concerned about this subject, Larry? That it seems to have evoked some unjocular reaction here. as a running joke. Is the president concerned about this subject, Larry? That it seems to have a much jockier reaction here.

I haven't heard him express. It isn't only the jocks, Lester. Is he sworn off water faucets? No, but I mean, is he gonna do anything, Larry? Lester, I have not heard him express anything. I'm sorry. You mean he has no, no, express no opinion about this epidemic? No, but I must confess I haven't asked him about it.

Would you ask him, Lawrence? He's going back into this problem. Have you been checked? President gonna pay him lots of money. I didn't hear the answer. Oh, it's hard work. I don't get paid enough. Is there anything else we need to do here?

That's Reagan's press secretary, Larry Speaks, you just heard, having a merry chuckle about fucking AIDS. At the time, AIDS was derisively known as the gay plague and was believed to be a punishment from God by many on the religious right, including Ronald Reagan. No clip? Okay.

That recording also reveals just how little the public and government officials knew about the disease. In that clip, we're listening to a reporter begging the White House for any information about AIDS and receiving nothing but dismissive laughter and a casual homophobic joke as a response. At the time, three years into the epidemic, there were no federal education

or public service announcements about AIDS, how it was transmitted or how to avoid it. Because Reagan didn't think it was a problem. After all, it was only killing the gays and Haitians. In private, Reagan commonly made homophobic quips and believed homosexuality was a sin because he was a big piece of shit who also hated black people

and anyone who made less money than him. In 1987, he told biographer Edmund Morris that maybe the Lord brought down this plague. And Larry Speaks himself later admitted that Reagan would frequently make homophobic jokes in a lisping gay voice. And if Larry Speaks is like, damn, that's homophobic, it's probably time to sit down and eat some jelly beans.

Reagan also surrounded himself with advisors who believed the AIDS epidemic was a moral and religious challenge, and that the deaths were the result of moral decay. In other words, a disease that primarily affected gay men was not a terribly pressing issue to them. In 1985, legendary screen actor and mutual friend of the Reagan's,

Rock Hudson, was diagnosed with AIDS. Hudson had lived most of his life as a closeted gay man, and it wasn't until after his death that Reagan finally became personally interested in dealing with AIDS. Still, his cabinet was adamant on keeping the subject at arm's length. So Reagan wouldn't take any action until 1986,

when he finally declared AIDS to be one of our highest public health priorities and commissioned Surgeon General C. Everett Koop to draft a report on the virus. Again, five years after the disease had first appeared in America and after thousands of lives had already been lost and after years of, you know, laughing about it.

The Reagan administration believed that Koop, who was a fervent religious conservative, would submit a mild and subdued report that downplayed the virus according to their evangelical Christian values. However, much to Reagan's dismay, Coop turned out to have integrity. He was a scientist first and a God botherer second,

and had actually been growing frustrated at what he viewed as the administration's flippant response to a public health crisis. So when it came time to draft his report, he didn't hold back, later writing that he believed the Reagan administration tried to thwart his attempts to educate the public about AIDS.

Thwart was his word. To quote his memoir, "'The conservative politics of the middle and late years of the Reagan administration attempted to thwart my attempts to educate the public about AIDS and try to stir up hostility toward its victims." End quote. Reminder, Coop was a pretty right-leaning ultra-Christian

and he still thought the AIDS epidemic mattered because he wasn't a shameless ghoul like Ronald Reagan. He actually refused to be a mouthpiece for the entirety of his tenure as Surgeon General. When he was pressured to create a report about post-abortion syndrome, a slapdash concoction of a bunch of vague symptoms Reagan intended to use as the basis

for overturning Roe v. Wade, Coop refused. Even though he believed that abortion was morally wrong and staunchly argued against it, he found there was no scientific evidence to support the existence of such a syndrome. A Republican who was unwilling to lie for the president, imagine that.

After scrupulous research, including discussions with Dr. Anthony Fauci, who would later play a major role in the government's response to COVID, Coop wrote a 36 page report on the AIDS epidemic. He did not submit it for review by the Reagan administration because he knew they would hack it to pieces

to water down his findings. Instead, he mailed it directly to all 107 million households in the United States in one of the largest mass mailings in the country's history. The report explained in clinical, straightforward language that AIDS was transmitted by the exchange of bodily fluids during oral, anal, and vaginal intercourse.

That might sound like standard health textbook stuff to you, but at the time, the government mailing every one of its citizens a document containing the word semen was pretty outrageous. I did that once and I got in trouble. In his report, Coop predicted that 270,000 Americans would contract AIDS by 1991, and that two thirds of those cases would be fatal.

He also advocated for the use of condoms and other contraceptives to prevent transmission of the disease, a sensible piece of advice that enraged Reagan. In a 1987 interview, he told reporters that sex education should begin with teaching the moral ramifications of the act. The man was literally so repulsed by gay sex

that he completely ignored the deaths of thousands of Americans for half a decade. But tell us some more about those moral ramifications, Ron. In stark contrast to Coop's detailed report, Reagan released a PSA campaign called America Responds to AIDS in 1987, which mainly promoted abstinence and failed to provide any useful information

on HIV and AIDS. So at least it was an extremely accurate title. That same year, Reagan gave the first major speech dedicated to AIDS after 21,000 Americans had already died. So close! Despite the efforts of his supporters to whitewash history and somehow claim Reagan was a crusader against AIDS, which is a laughable position once you've heard

that Larry Speaks clip, Reagan continually attempted to reduce funding for AIDS research in budget proposals, only to be rebuffed by Congress each time. Health experts at the time made it clear that Reagan was failing miserably at handling the AIDS crisis. Any progress in research, care, and antivirals was accomplished through the efforts

of other dedicated health specialists far from Reagan and his administration. There, I should cover it. Or will it? Reagan pushed private prisons and mass incarceration. No, no it won't. Okay, so Reagan led a renewed push for the private prison industry

and harsher sentencing guidelines, which is a pretty well-known policy of his. It's a big part of how we got elected, which we'll get into in part two. Oh yeah, there's gonna be a part two to this. The nightmare only begins. However, Reagan also passed a series of lesser known bills that are still inflicting major consequences to this day.

For example, he spearheaded the 1984 Bail Reform Act, which allowed judges to deny bail to defendants if they feel the defendant is likely to re-offend. You know, just however the courtroom is vibing that day. Previously, only considerable flight risks were denied bail and jailed before trial. This bill gave judges unchecked discretion

and led to a boom in pre-trial incarceration. Today, it's not uncommon for people to sit in jail for a year or more waiting for their trial because they can't make bail. That's pretty fucked up, right? Well, Reagan kind of invented it. Meanwhile, the 1984 Sentencing Reform Act introduced federal sentencing guidelines, which imposed a system of fixed punishments for particular crimes and largely stripped judges of their ability to show discretion in sentencing. In other words, Reagan's act essentially forced judges

to impose harsher sentences than they normally would under the auspice of fairness. Basically, we're empowering judges to be more harsh and removing their ability to be more lenient. Hey, fun fact, establishing sentencing guidelines is the same thing as regulation, which Reagan claimed was bringing America down when what he really meant was it's making rich people

be less rich. We're doing great. Are we? Mass incarceration isn't just the result of stricter sentencing guidelines or the proliferation of private prisons. After all, the vast majority of incarcerated people are in public prisons.

John Faff, a Fordham law professor and author of Locked In, found that as violent crime declined in the 90s and aughts, the number of felony cases in state courts inexplicably doubled, and believed this was due to the over-empowerment of prosecutors at the local, state, and federal level. Guess whose fault that was? I said guess whose fault that was! Ronald Reagan, the actor! Thank you. Guess whose fault that was? I said guess whose fault that was? Ronald Reagan, the actor?

Thank you. From his first year in office, Ronald Reagan, the actor, lobbied to empower prosecutors, notably the Federal Crime Bill of 1984, which thanks to current President Biden created asset forfeiture laws that the police use as an excuse

to rob American citizens to this very day, and the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986, which implemented 29 new mandatory sentences for drug-related offenses. But big surprise, the mandatory sentences disproportionately targeted black Americans. Despite accounting for just 12% of the population, black Americans made up 23% of those arrested

for drug charges in 1980, a figure that increased to 40% by 1990. Reagan passed another crime bill in 1988, creating the cabinet position of National Drug Czar to direct even more money towards law enforcement and the construction of prisons. Well, he may have been a proto-fascist dickhead, but at least he got all those drugs under control, right?

Because if there's one thing we've learned as a society, it's that mass incarceration curtailes drug abuse, right? Look at all the drugs that aren't in America. Now, shockingly, despite stiffer sentencing and pushing drug arrests to over 1 million a year, drug use doubled while Reagan was in office. Specifically cocaine use, which makes sense. I'd need to be pretty fast and loose

if I had to deal with this shit every day, which I guess I do actually. Siri, bring cocaine. No, and don't call me Siri. Wait, then who am I talking to? Oh, the monkey. Give me cocaine, monkey. Even as crime started to decline,

the legislation laid by the Reagan administration made sure that arrests and prosecutions would remain steady by greatly expanding the power of prosecutors. Reagan's tough on crime legislation spree laid the groundwork for even harsher legislation in the 1990s. Kind of feels like that should be more than one.

I don't want to run out of pins, but I don't know, one more, I guess we're out of things to be mad at Reagan about. I guess this is the end of the episode, but still maybe you guys could like secretly trade me some pins. I'll give you money. Ha, psych, you just got a Ron Contra!

Bonus round, the Iran Contra Affair, a Ronald Reagan mystery. Hell yeah, we wouldn't want to leave without a little Ron Contra after after dessert. Reagan's final few years were marred by the Ron Contra scandal, also known as the Ron Contra Affair for people who like lifetime movies and love Ronald Reagan.

They just hate seeing that ugly word scandal next to his glorious golden name. Okay, Iran-Contra. Don't worry, I'm not even old enough to remember Iran-Contra, and I have a beard. Something about Oliver North? Who can say? I was waiting for Alf to come on.

Ronald Reagan, the actor? I said Alf, I didn't, okay. So there are a lot of moving parts here, which is something many government scandals have in common, which probably has something to do with why they're scandals. But stick with me, and if you get lost, just rip a blood-curdling shriek. Better yet, stick a pin into your own wrapping Ronnie doll,

and I will get the message. Zim! Message received. In the 1980s, Lebanon was going through a brutal civil war with several factions vying for power in the country. One of those factions was Hezbollah, a name you may recognize because they're very much still around.

Labeled a terrorist organization by virtually every nation in the world, Hezbollah was backed by Iran and regularly kidnapped foreign nationals. Iran was also fighting a war with Iraq, which at the time was an ally of convenience with the United States. You can find images of Saddam Hussein

palling around with the US officials from around this time, because as long as you play ball, America truly does not give a shit. Throughout the early 80s, militants in Lebanon kidnapped more Americans, putting pressure on the Reagan administration to find a solution. Iran was in desperate need of weapons

for their fight with Iraq, but Congress had banned the US from selling arms to countries that had sponsored terrorism, such as Iran. So Reagan's solution was to sell the arms in secret, in exchange for the release of hostages in Lebanon. It runs directly counter to America's we don't negotiate with terrorists position, which is an extremely dangerous precedent to set,

kind of the whole reason that rule exists in the first place. But hey, being president is about getting your hands dirty. And at least this time, he was actually trying to help people. Not so fast! We're talking about Ronald Reagan here. You didn't think- Ronald Reagan, the actor?

Right, yes, him. You didn't think he was gonna take any action that was purely for someone else's benefit, did you? No, no, no, no, no. See, it may have looked like the Reagan administration made a difficult decision in order to defend human life, but they only actually freed three people as a result of this trade,

and they sold those weapons at a hugely inflated price. I probably wouldn't have tried to price gouge the ransomers, but whatever, I'm not the president. I'm not the president. And they took those secret illegal profits and funneled them into the Contras, a right-wing militia group in Nicaragua to support a coup, which is what they really wanted to do all along.

We know this because Reagan's National Security Council initially ignored the 1982 Boland Amendment that forbade the US's involvement in the toppling of Nicaragua's government and tried to raise money for the Contras from other countries like Saudi Arabia. We say this a lot on the showdy, but these people generally don't bother

to hide their crimes very well. Because I mean, what are we gonna do about it? Make a YouTube video? Feelings deleted. The whole operation was run by Reagan's National Security Council, which was spearheaded by Colonel Oliver North. That's, there he is.

I knew I remembered something from the news. I do not remember how Alf ended though. Probably fine. North was dead set on getting contra rebels as much support as possible, going as far as to facilitate contra drug smuggling operations to raise cash for weapons. In other words, he was assisting in the trafficking

of cocaine into the United States. That probably wasn't his goal, but like I said, if you play ball, America truly, truly does not give a shit. However, North wasn't the most meticulous or careful of masterminds. The Sultan of Brunei accidentally wired $10 million to a random person because he'd been given the wrong transfer numbers. And North perjured himself several times in front of Congress before the scandal even came to light. Sorry, before the affair even came to light. He was presumably a popular character on Saturday Night Live, but I'm not gonna look those up.

In fact, whatever company owns them probably took them offline, because that's happening everywhere. We're not talking about that right now. Once the story broke on the Reagan administration's involvement in the scandal, North and his cronies destroyed thousands of pages of documents to conceal their involvement

and shield the president from any blowback. Reagan set up an investigative body to investigate himself, I guess, but everyone involved more or less got off with a slap on the wrist. Those who were actually convicted, including North, received favorable probations and their convictions were later pardoned by George H.W. Bush, Reagan's former vice president,

and the former head of the CIA, an organization that knows a thing or two about toppling governments. But I'm sure none of those things are related. North was, until recently, in charge of the NRA and founded the Freedom Alliance, a conservative political organization that disguises itself

as a charity by offering a meager $1,000 scholarship to less than 100 people every year. Way to go, Olly! Really following your North star of being, you know, a piece of shit. Due to the coverup, the destruction of evidence and North's willingness to jump on a grenade for the president, investigators never found a direct link

between Reagan and the actions of the National Security Council. But they did find that at the very least, Reagan's supervision had been careless, giving the NSC room to operate with impunity. If you're wondering, that Reagan movie trailer appears to completely gloss over any of this and treats the whole thing like a passing witch hunt

that he heroically overcame. You just wait. What did the president know? And when did he know it? What would you have me do? I want you to fight. Adorable. Thing is, the Iran-Contra scandal

was one of the most obvious examples of Reagan's hypocrisy. He constantly harped on the threat of illegal drugs entering the country and turning people into violent criminals. But rather than investing in drug programs, education or healthcare, he created a slush fund with illegal arms sales to funnel a bunch of money into cocaine trafficking.

Apparently that's how you fight a supply side war on drugs. The Reagan administration continually vilified Nicaragua's left-wing Sandinista government, which they were trying to topple with their support of the Contras, claiming the Sandinista party was involved in the drug trade to finance international terror. Reagan would continually accuse the Sandinistas

of trafficking drugs, even though there was very little evidence of that. Boy, that sounds familiar. At the same time, Reagan dismissed evidence that the Contra rebels were doing the same exact thing, probably because he knew they were, because the US government was literally helping them do it. Altogether, his legacy in Central America

was a massive failure. Despite his aggressive stance on crime and all the shady dealings, Reagan's strategy was completely ineffective at slowing the flood of drugs into the US and it further destabilized countries like Nicaragua that are still dealing with the fallout today. We will never see leadership like that again.

Yes, we will. They're all like this. Of course, the reason I braved the corn cream to tell you all of this is because we are still dealing with Reagan today in a bunch of thrilling ways that have slowly eroded both political parties, like a jar full of hungry corn. Like we didn't even cover everything in this video. This was just the highlights.

There was more we could have said. So in part two, we'll unpack all the ways that Republicans are still chasing Reagan and Democrats are still twisting themselves and us to become more Republican. But based on all this, it kind of seems like in addition to being cruel, racist, and ignorant, none of Reagan's policies actually worked.

They were a net loss for literally the entire country, not even the beloved Trojan horse of Reaganomics containing all his ludicrous tax cuts worked out in the end because he had to raise taxes four times to pay for them. The next two presidents had to continue raising taxes to foot that bill. And again, the entire principle behind supply side economics

was an unproven economic theory that, according to the official record, was drawn on a fucking napkin. Even if we take Reaganites at their word, which we shouldn't, and believe that all these policies were about empowering people to lift themselves out of poverty

and create a more fiscally responsible country, neither of those things happened. So here's a thought. Maybe it's time to admit that Reaganomics and neoliberalism in general were a failed experiment. Like it didn't work, did it? Ronald Reagan, the actor. Ronald Reagan, the actor?

Right, Ronald Reagan, the actor, basically propped up this economic policy and was wrong. He gutted social safety nets and degraded healthcare and student loans and workers' rights, and he was, as time has shown us, wrong about all of that. We know he was wrong. That's how time works. None of what he did was good.

And yet we have a political party that still looks to him as the answer to all of our prayers, even though we objectively know he was wrong. Maybe we shouldn't trust any party that worships him, considering that facts him, considering that fact. Unless, of course, it was never about empowerment or fiscal responsibility,

and it was just about making rich people the richest they've ever been in the history of the world. In that case, Reaganism was a pretty big success. Okay, something moving down here. I've been trying to ignore it, but that has become impossible. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. What, what, what, wait, what, what, what?

Katie, Katie, I need you! Listen, slick, just break a window and start throwing your BMS outside if it's getting too... Oh... Dang. Yes. Yes, it is the dawning! The what?

The dawning. The dawning. Good God! Hello, Mommy. Thank you for watching the show. Make sure to like and subscribe. Check out patreon.com slash some more news, Mommy. And furthermore, the merch store, Mommy, shop dot some more news dot com. The podcast, even more news. And the other podcast, which is this show, some more news.

Some more news as a podcast. Get it at the podcast store. I love my podcasts. I love Mommy and Jelly Beans. But furthermore, thank you Mommy.