In a bizarre move that began as a joke, Democrats have begun to carry around a life sized cardboard cutout of Ronald Reagan in an attempt to argue that amnesty should be implemented by executive order and fuel taxes should be hiked.
The cutout appeared twice on the House floor last week as Democratic Congressmen Earl Blumenauer and Luis Gutierrez argued that Reagan once favored similar actions to those they are pushing.
Blumenauer wants the GOP to support his bill to raise federal gasoline by 15 cents, while Gutierrez is advocating for an immigration amnesty.
A CNN report notes that the cutout was bought as a rib by a Democratic staffer who would place it at colleagues desks while they were out of their offices. The likeness then made its way to the party members’ private dining room.
Now, the prank has been taken much further. Blumenauer and Gutierrez used the cutout on the House floor and at a major press conference last week.
“Reagan’s held in such high esteem by conservatives and they need to be reminded of things he did when they turn away from him,” the staffer who purchased the cutout said, sarcastically adding “We would never hold back Mr. Reagan from the people.”
Of course, the problem with all of this, discounting Democrats treating the issue of rampant illegal immigration as a joke, is that Reagan didn’t actually do what the Congressmen are advocating.
With regards to amnesty, Reagan merely signed a statute that had already been debated and passed by Congress, where as Obama is set to write and enact a law by himself. In addition, Only about 50,000 people ultimately gained legal status under Reagan’s so called amnesty’s, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement data. This can hardly be compared to the 5 million that are set to become de facto US citizens at the hands of Obama’s magic pen.
The Atlantic’s David Frum also notes that the so called Reagan amnesty did not work and was “riddled with fraud” and led to an increase in illegal immigration.
“The argument that ‘Reagan and Bush did it,’ is essentially an argument that future generations should not learn from the errors of previous generations.” Frum notes, adding that “With the advantage of experience, it is clear that their decisions did not produce the desired result, and actually greatly worsened the problem they sought to solve. Let’s not repeat their mistake.”
As far as fuel tax hikes go, Reagan signed the Highway Revenue Act of 1982, which led to a temporary increase in the federal gas tax from 4 to 9 cents. However, during Reagan’s tenure, the top individual income tax rate was reduced from 70 to 28 percent. In addition, the tax code was also indexed for inflation. Tax rates across-the-board were dramatically reduced by Reagan, not hiked.
But never mind the facts, it’s all just a joke anyway.
Reagan, Cardboard Version #2016?
— BiasedGirl (@BiasedGirl) December 4, 2014
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Steve Watson is a London based writer and editor for Alex Jones’ Infowars.com, and Prisonplanet.com. He has a Masters Degree in International Relations from the School of Politics at The University of Nottingham, and a Bachelor Of Arts Degree in Literature and Creative Writing from Nottingham Trent University.
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