Reagan, taxes and the Minnesota shutdown
Now that both sides in the two-week-old Minnesota government shutdown dispute seem to have reached an agreement of sorts to end the deadlock, an exchange I had earlier this week with the Speaker of the Minnesota House, Kurt Zellers, is worth digesting.
It helps explain the mindset and the stiff resistance of Republicans in Minnesota and elsewhere to tax increases.
I started off the interview by noting that Zellers' office was practically a shrine to President Ronald Reagan, with campaign photos and buttons covering almost every space.
"One thing that strikes me about this office is that I see all this Reagan memorabilia here," I told Zellers. "You must be a big fan of Ronald Reagan."
Zellers smiled.
"And you must know of course," I continued, "that he raised taxes too when he had to."
Zellers nodded and smiled again.
"He compromised for spending cuts," Zellers said of Reagan. "He would probably tell you after the fact that the spending cuts that he was promised didn't quite come in after the tax increase. I think it was a lot different time."
Zellers then went on to say that what really appealed to him about Reagan was his faith in the country and its entrepreneurial spirit.
But I pressed.
"I think the point is that he was not doctrinaire, dogmatic about no taxes. He didn't want taxes. He cut taxes."
But he did raise them too, even though the White House back then called them "revenue enhancements."
"Are you saying that in retrospect he would have said that that was a mistake?" I asked.
Zellers responded: "Well, I would never want to get into the mind of the president."
Even though that's exactly what he did. And he interpreted what Reagan did to fit the mood of the party today. "... a lot different time" indeed.
