Thomas Oliphant praises Reagan in the Boston Globe today:
[W]hat the critics forget is that Reagan stuck with this extremely tough medicine and made sure it worked, even at the large personal and political cost of the worst recession since the Depression itself.
In addition, the shouting match that still goes on about tax cuts obscures Reagan’s truly lasting achievement: his refusal to let inflation any more become an automatic vehicle for higher taxes to finance a larger government. This so-called bracket creep was stopped in its tracks by the indexing of the tax rates. He retreated on his tax cuts after his initial triumph over Congress, but he left a tax system with lower rates, inflation protection, and fewer tax breaks….
History will be tough on Reagan as more is learned about his occasional sloth and inattention, but this wonderful guy could take the heat back then, and his legacy will be able to withstand more knowledgeable scrutiny far into the future.