By Greg Rehmke — June 13, 2024
“We have long discovered that nothing lasts longer than a temporary government program.” (- Ronald Reagan)
In the 1970s – fifty years ago now –The Energy Crisis jolted the U.S. economy, causing shortages and long lines at gas stations. In response, various federal energy policies and programs were passed. And as the decades passed, layer-upon-layer of new federal energy programs and regulations were added, then extended and expanded.
The energy crisis is decades past, and technology advances in oil and natural gas drilling have yielded booming supplies, allowing the U.S. to become a major oil and natural gas exporter. So maybe it is time (or past time) to “push the button” to end the dense and expensive thicket of federal energy market interventions (including subsidies and mandates for wind, solar, ethanol, electric vehicles, plus fuel economy standards).
Ronald Reagan, before he ran for President, had a popular radio program featuring three-minute addresses on key public policy issues. Some of these were written by speechwriters, and others Reagan wrote himself. Below are the two pages, in Reagan’s handwriting, of Economic Fairy Tales.
Drawing from an article by Foundation for Economic Education founder Leonard Read, Reagan offered three historical example of major federal programs that were quickly abolished, against the wishes of government and business advisors.
Chaos and economic downturns were predicted if these programs were ended too quickly. But instead, economic adjustments were rapid and ending these failed programs helped and healed the economy. Click here for the audio for Economic Fairy Tales.
If alive today, Leonard Read and Ronald Reagan would advocate these same reforms for current U.S. energy policies. Push the button!
Note: See here in regard to 15 extensions of the ‘temporary’ solar Investment Tax Credit (ITC), and here in regard to 14 extensions of the ‘temporary’ wind Production Tax Credit (PTC).
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Could national high school debaters run a Ronald Reagan/Leonard Read push-the-button affirmative? We can’t undo the past but we can, debaters can, lift the dead hand of the state from today’s Constitutional republic. (Called “legislative fiat” in debate.)
Even business leaders can be fearful of dramatical policy changes proposed by “radical” reformers. If voters could push a button to sunset all federal energy policies by the end of 2024, would they? And if voters (i.e. debate judges) would, politicians could as well.
For anyone fearful of economic dislocation or natural security concerns from ending current energy policies, no problem. Congress could simply reinstate energy policies and programs deemed “critical.”
Subsidies and tax reductions for fossil fuel industry would also sunset, but, again, Congress could vote to renew these or any other subsidies thought essential.
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After serving as governor of California but before running for president, Ronald Reagan recorded over a thousand radio broadcasts, most focused on reducing the size and scope of government:
Reagan gave 1,027 of these addresses to an audience of 20 to 30 million listeners each week, interrupted only by his initial run for the White House in 1976. A researcher visiting the Reagan Library found that the former governor wrote at least 679 of the commentaries in longhand on yellow legal pads. The manuscripts are currently archived at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California.Ronald Reagan Radio Broadcasts (1976-1979), (National Registry, 2007)
Researchers found the yellow legal pages with Economic Fairy Tales in Reagan’s handwriting, including edits (see images above). In Economic Fairy Tales (link to MP3 audio), three historical episodes are given, drawn from an essay by Leonard Read, founder and then president of the Foundation for Economic Education.
Play it again Sam.
Before Bidenomics, there was Jimmy Carter. He started a lot of this from the belief that crude oil would soon run out.
Amen. Subsidies of any kind, always attract corruption like flies around a cow pat.
Elect Trump, and a lot of this stuff will get done!
Trump was elected 8 years ago, and none of this stuff was done when he was in office. Such short, or rather selective memories.
Trump did not expect the onslaught of attacks from Democrats and RINOs. These provided much distraction for his administration and uncertainty among those that wanted to see his policies succeed. Toward the end of his administration, he started having success, but it was too late.
A second term may not suffer those headwinds. Americans are now well aware that elected Democrats were quite willing to fabricate stories against Trump and bury negative news about his opponents. They will have a harder time fooling much of the American public a second time, and if the House and Senate are retaken, with the GOP having ridden itself of many RINOs, Democrat fabrications will be seen as momentary distractions.
I think the media will still try to Wag the Dog
Trump may change back to being a Democrat if elected and they have the majority in Congress. There is no telling. He has changed parties 6 times since 1989, about every 6 years.
He took us out of the Paris Accords. Not his fault Biden put us back in. He got a tax cut that helped the economy but there is a time limit that will expire later this year. Biden wants it to expire and Trump does not. He cut illegal immigration to nil. Fought to get the fence.
I sympathize with your frustration but Trump was robbed and if I can help I will.
Trump was a big employer of illegal immigrants at his golf courses and hotels. They were cheap, worked hard, and didn’t complain.
That’s because the Dim-O-Crats kept him otherwise occupied with Russiagate and Disinformation and constantly trying to impeach him for numerous things that never panned out.
The Democrats, which included Joe Biden. Biden has been part of a Lawless Democrat effort to get Trump since before Trump won the election in 2016, and continuing to this day..
Once again Tom, do you have any evidence that Biden has made any illegal efforts to get Trump?
He was impeached twice as I recall. Both times for things he provably did. Hell they had a recording of the phone call where he tried to extort the Ukrainian president.
Ronald Reagan both ran and governed as a conservative and he also practiced conservative, responsible governance – he did not just mouth policies and do nothing about them, as all Republicans since him have done, including Trump. Reagan was a one of a kind because he governed from a set of principles that he actually believed in. He was called a simpleton by his enemies (mostly Democrats furious that he actually got his way even some of the time when they controlled Congress). He didn’t get everything done that he wanted to because he had to deal with a Democrat run House his entire time in office, and for part of his two terms, a Democrat run Senate. It’s amazing that he got so much of his plan enacted despite not being in direct control of the levers of government.
Partisan people get vastly too caught up in ideological rhetoric, of “owning” the other side in arguments. Arguments that end up accomplishing little to nothing. Governing from principle and not trying to be the all time great Insulter in Chief is how stuff gets done. I have little faith that anything decent will come from this next election featuring two old long-past-their-sell-date geezers who are nothing more but rhetorical mouthpieces.
Republicans actually had the opportunity to nominate the real deal – a Governor of a major state who actually gets stuff done, and puts his money where his mouth is, and takes all the horrendous crap from the media and and the liberal Democrats (hey, I repeat myself). Yet remained focused like a laser on getting conservative legislation and executive policies enacted and carried out to great effect.
Yet the party went for the Insulter-In-Chief.
Who is to blame for that? Republican voters. Democrats only do what is in their nature to do, which is to tax, spend, regulate, and crush free speech. Republicans should know much better than that.
The next four years are likely to be more of the same, no matter who wins in November. To quote William Shakespeare’s Macbeth from 400+ years ago:
“Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” Politics in America today. Thanks largely to social media and a very weak Republican Party.
And yet, the Democrats offer long-suffering US voters a vastly inferior choice for president.
What to do –
1) abstain?
2) vote for the unknown puppeteers who are controlling Biden?
3) hold your nose and vote for Trump?
4) register a protest vote with RFK Jnr.?
5) Write-in
Really???
I had to hold my nose to vote for McCain. ( I actually voter FOR Palin hoping McCain won then croaked)
I had to hold my nose to vote for Romney. Look what an @ss he has been as a senator.
I vote proudly for TRUMP! because he will do what he says he will do if allowed to by congress and the courts. The reason almost all long term politicians of both parties are against him is that he showed it was possible to DO what you campaign on. Neither parties normal politicians DO anything to eliminate their campaign platforms since then what would they run on. Sorry actually that is not the case. Even when the Democrats get what the want, they always want more money, because whatever they wanted didn’t work and only more money can solve the “problem”.
Lots of people can ignore the unattractive personality of a political candidate and just vote for his approach to the job and his policies.
Churchill comes to mind.
Trump is the anti-Biden. His Supreme Court appointees were enough for his election last time. This time he will seal the border and that alone is justification for his election. That covid stuff threw him off track but Joke Biden looks like he needs a covid booster …or three. Demrats always want to remain in office regardless – Wilson remained after a stroke knocked him out literally….FDR died in office with a war going on – would not step aside as if no one else qualified.
“That covid stuff threw him off track “
It would surprise me if covid was release specifically for that purpose.
but Joke Biden looks like he needs a covid booster “
or has had a few too many !!
“It would surprise me if covid was release specifically for that purpose.”
Of course it was. Those sneaky Chinese. They knew Trump would screw it up with his “bleachen” so they released it with enough time for hm to get his mouth into action before his brain caught up.
Wrong as always., Mindless junk created by the far left media.
And no, Fauci was funding the Wuhan lab.
Your brain will never catch up to anything you type.
It moves like that of a slug in reverse.!
Have you ever taken an “anti-septic” throat lozenge?
Have you ever gargled Listerine or Betadine cough medicine?
Ever taken an inhaler remedy or know someone who has?
Trumps actual suggestion was eminently sensible
The main very confused person was, as always, Mr 10%. !
….and you for believing what Mr 10% said and the media parroted..
Why don’t you just quote what Trump said? I know… I’ll do it for you.
“And then I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in a minute. One minute. And is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning.”
The crazy thing is some “Trumpkins” went out and actually injected bleach. You would think they would have learnt you should check everything the man says… but apparently not for some.
Anyway all that aside, there is absolutely no doubt that had Trump not catastrophically butchered his covid response (he did get the vaccine thing right I’ll give him that) he would almost certainly now be president.
Oh dear , you really do fall for all the manic far-left garbage, don’t you !!
… Have you ever taken an “anti-septic” throat lozenge?
… Have you ever gargled Listerine or Betadine cough medicine?
… Ever taken an inhaler remedy or know someone who has?
Why didn’t you answer the questions, simpleton !
Trump was suggesting “something like that” ie delivering a medicine somehow to the main site of infection.
Maybe say a cortisone spray or similar .. or a bronchial dilator spray.
Oh Wait.. that already happens. !!
We all agree he should never have listened to Fauci, who was essentially a far-left totalitarian stooge.
Trump wanted to close the airports.
Trump wanted the use of Ivemectin and other medicines that proved effective elsewhere in the world.
It was the democrat states that put sick patients back into nursing homes.
It was the medical deep-swamp that disallowed any other treatments so they could push their experimental vaccines
I do hope you are “up-to date” 😉
Just one name as as citation will do.
“Some” names will be even more convincing of your claim.
Well I don’t tend to know people who think Trump is someone who should be listened to on medical matters…. but here’s a Forbes article that spells it out. Hope that helps.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/nicholasreimann/2020/08/24/some-americans-are-tragically-still-drinking-bleach-as-a-coronavirus-cure/
All that shows is that “some Americans [were] tragically” stupid. Your attempt to twist what Trump actually said into what you prefer to think he said reflects more on you than on him.
“All that shows is that “some Americans [were] tragically” stupid. Your attempt to twist what Trump actually said”
I’ve twisted nothing. I quoted him. I’m a bit bemused as to how I could be more accurate than that. Maybe you can help me?
So they didn’t listen to what Trump actually said…
They listened to what Jo Biden said he said. !
The blame is totally on Joe Biden.
Trump said absolutely nothing about drinking bleach… you have shown that to be the fact. !
2024, the article is from 2021. Look at the timeline before you make things up.
Without short-term memory you don’t vote for trump anyways – so drinking or injecting – whom of his followers could remember?
But if you are so well-versed in trump hermeneutic: enlighten us on the true meaning of the battery and shark parable?
“The would almost certainly now be president.”
True..
The Covid lock-downs (suggested by the far-left medical swamp), allowed for massive vote fakery by the Biden camp.
Thanks for backing-up my comments about the possibility of the whole episode being planned from the start.
You are doing well. 🙂
Got the vaccine right? Ok, #DiedSuddenly
Not quite sure what you are saying here…. Trump was vaccinated. He is not dead as far as I know. Brain dead sure… but his heart still beats.
You are talking about the walking zombie that is Joe Biden… right ???
Heart still beats.. brain not so much !!
Guess I died already three times.
https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/united-states-rates-of-covid-19-deaths-by-vaccination-status
Your mind certainly isn’t very functional.
So the vaccine works? Who da thunk? Maybe Bnasty can post a graph that shows how effective his horse dewormer was against covid? I’ll look forward to that. I’m just playing… I can tell him. It’s not. It never did. It was a myth pushed by the right to trick the gullible. Guess it worked better on some than others.
The vaccine did its job…. Big pharma made a mint, just as they intended.
For the people.. Not so much.
They even had to change the definition of “vaccine”.
to something that didn’t block the disease,
didn’t stop transmission
didn’t act as a cure,
and actually cause physical injury to many people.
Plenty of evidence from places where it was allowed, that Ivermectin had a good suppression effect if used properly.
“Plenty of evidence from places where it was allowed, that Ivermectin had a good suppression effect if used properly.”
Well let’s see it then? Come on don’t be shy…..
Review of the Emerging Evidence Demonstrating the Efficacy of Ivermectin in the Prophylaxis and Treatment of COVID-19 – PMC (nih.gov)
Keep up man. Your study is 2021. Here is a more recent study. Give it to horses not people.
https://www.phc.ox.ac.uk/news/new-study-shows-ivermectin-lacks-meaningful-benefits-in-covid-19-treatment
You have taken many of those “vaccines for dummies”, Luser.
It is what you are.
Oh dear .. the simple one STILL thinks ivermectin is purely a horse wormer
Ivermectin is an antiparasitic drug. After its discovery in 1975, its first uses were in veterinary medicine to prevent and treat heartworm and acariasis.
Approved for human use in 1987, it is used to treat infestations including head lice, scabies, river blindness (onchocerciasis), strongyloidiasis, trichuriasis, ascariasis and lymphatic filariasis.
It works through many mechanisms to kill the targeted parasites.
Don’t be scared just because it is anti-parasitic !!
Quinine was also found to efficacious against COVID in tropical regions such as Africa, India, South America.
It’s in your own quote, assuming you are smart enough to understand what you write. “is there any way”.
He’s asking a question, not making a recommendation as you and brain dead Biden have claimed.
The people who butchered the COVID response were the big city Democrats and various Democrat governors.
The federal government has very little responsibility when it comes to that kind of public safety, as you well know.
Mark, don’t you think a man in his position, who has a huge chunk of the country who hang on his every word, should be more careful in what he says? He was winging it then. Doing what Trump does, thinking out loud. It was one of many examples during covid, of him talking when he should have been silent (it will be gone by Easter etc etc….) It is fine to throw ideas around, but not at a press conference. Do it with your advisors before the meeting.
Historians are already pretty clear. Trump was headed for victory, but for his poor confused handling of the covid response. His flip flops and lying showed his weakness at a time of crisis.
And his “it isn’t my fault” strategy at the end was the icing on the cake for many who flipped to Biden last minute.
The votes that “flipped to Biden at the last minute” were the sackfulls that arrived in the dead of night at the counting centers that had earlier been closed for counting for the night.
Watch the documentary 2,000 Mules.
Hours of CCTV showing blatant jigggery-pokery with votes handling and counting.
“The votes that “flipped to Biden at the last minute” were the sackfulls that arrived in the dead of night at the counting centers that had earlier been closed for counting for the night.
Watch the documentary 2,000 Mules.”
All the time you clowns cling to this myth you risk losing this election. 2000 mules was a work of fiction debunked on so many levels. It’s why all the court cases brought re the election failed. It is why the guy Trump put in charge of the election said it was secure…. because it was. It’s why Trumps own daughter said it was secure, because it was. It’s why Trumps attorney general said it was secure, because it was. Time to pull your head out of your sphincter, man up and admit your team lost. And while you are at it, why not actually do the right thing and congratulate the guy who actually won… or is that too tough for your brittle ego to do.
Who did the “debunking”?
(and don’t say the courts. They said they didn’t have jurisdiction to hear cases of federal election challenges. And so they didn’t.)
It really is amazing how you are able to see things that no rational person is able to see. All in defense of your twisted anti-human world view.
When a Republican says something that can be twisted and distorted, it’s because he’s stupid.
When a Democrat says something that can be misinterpreted, it’s because Republicans are evil.
Trump got five million more votes the second time he ran for president.
It doesn’t sound to me like his people were unhappy with him if his vote count increases by five million. Most presidents don’t get as many votes the second time around, like Obama, who got fewer votes than his first time. He still won, but had fewer votes..
Something else was at play in 2020, directly related to Lawless Democrats.
“Trump got five million more votes the second time he ran for president.”
And? More people voted. Simple as that. It was a contentious election.
“It doesn’t sound to me like his people were unhappy with him if his vote count increases by five million.”
They are not. They love him. They will never leave him. But they are not the ones who cost him the election. It is the swing voters and they swung away at the last moment mainly because of his covid handling and the deaths that followed unnecessarily.
“Something else was at play in 2020, directly related to Lawless Democrats.”
Well prove it then. Stop lurking in the shadows winding each other up. Actually find some evidence that will stand up in court and go for it.
“[Trump]: “And then I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in a minute. One minute. And is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning.”
This should be put in context for an honest representation of what Trump said.
Trump is asking questions about bleach and if it can be effective against Covid. Trump is not suggesting that anyone take bleach. Can you find somewhere in Trump’s words you quote where he tells anyone to take bleach, Simon?
This is a distorion of reality which is a common occurrence when the leftwing Media translates what Trump says. They always lie and distort the truth. This is one of those, and Simon spreads the lie around.
“This is a distorion of reality which is a common occurrence when the leftwing Media translates what Trump says. They always lie and distort the truth. This is one of those, and Simon spreads the lie around.”
Both sides do it, (happy to give you right wing examples), but when you are the president, especially a populist one like Trump, you need to choose your words carefully. Your position comes with responsibility.
It wouldn’t matter what words Trump chose to use, the radical Left would distort what he said in their constant effort to portray Trump in the worst light possible.
That’s what the radical Left does. They have no policies worth voting for, so they attack the character of their political opponents as a substitute.
“Both sides do it,”
That’s your excuse for perpetrating a lie?
And you didn’t answer the question: Where in that Trump quote did Trump tell anyone to drink bleach?
You don’t really need to answer. It is obvious to anyone with any intelligence that Trump did not recommend that anyone use/drink bleach in that quote.
You lefties just make things up. You are living a lie.
I quoted what he said. That is not making thing up. And it is true that people poisoned themselves with bleach/disinfectants because they took him literally.
This is exactly what should be done. Those energy sources that have received subsidies should by now be able to stand on their own two feet; e.g., fossil fuels, hydro and nuclear that have proved they can provide the energy demanded of them and profit in doing so. Those that can’t, like wind and solar, should be cut off and let them prove alone that they have a viable product to offer rather than have taxpayers prop them up while they continue to show they can’t deliver the goods.
At the same time they have to stop penalising coal and gas with punitive taxes, threats of closure, feed-in priorities for unreliables… etc etc etc,
The subsidies for fossil fuels have proven to be nothing more than run of the mill tax deductions, of the type that all businesses take advantage of.
The subsidies for the nuclear industry turn out to be mostly compensation for the absolutely insane regulatory and legal environment in this country.
Ronald Reagan was President of the US from 1981 to 1989.
Bob Hawke was Prime Minister of Australia from 1983 to 1991.
While President Reagan was writing these encouraging words, what was Bob Hawke spreading?
Here is a prominent example. It is PM Hawke addressing the Fabian Society Centenary Meeting, in May 1984.
http://www.geoffstuff.com/fabian.pdf
Today, Bob Hawke is regarded by most of the political left as the darling of all Labor Prime Ministers. Left politicians take inspiration from such Fabian words, while I personally find a high content of up-chuck material.
Bob was not amused when at a Labor Party Annual Convention my dear wife asked “WHY” when our escort for the night, Deputy PM Howe, asked “Would you like to come to the top table beside us and get Bob’s autograph?” Cameras whirred.
So, it is the other way round with President Reagan, whom the US right like while the US left do the spits. The message is not in political sides so much as the horrors that Fabianism exerts on normal people.
Geoff S
“The Democrats belief system: If it moves, tax it. If it continues to move, regulate it. If it stops moving, subsidize it.” Ronald Reagan
Great quote but he left out, “If it exist, control it.” 😎