Lonzie Cox, Jr. – 9/9/12

This page was last updated on September 13, 2012.

Reagan lost steel industry; Lonzie Cox, Jr.; Beaver County Times; September 9, 2012. At the time of this writing, this letter appeared only in the print edition of the BCT. I apologize for any transcription errors. I am not related to Mr. Cox.

Most of Mr. Cox’s at least 79 letters since 2004 are tinged with race, and all take leftist positions. The most recent previous Cox letter I critiqued was “We could use Veon now.”

Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.

“Half of the world’s people weren’t alive when Neil Armstrong stepped on the moon. So they can’t grasp the fear and exhilaration experienced by those of us who 10 years earlier had watched the first U.S. Vanguard rocket tip over on the launch pad and explode into tiny pieces on live TV. Sputnik continued beeping its way around the Earth. We Americans were totally bummed out.”

[RWC] I don’t know what this paragraph has to do with the rest of the letter.

“Letter writer Paul Dici is uninformed where Ronald Reagan is concerned. He constantly points out that Jimmy Carter was president during the ‘Great Inflation.’ What he doesn’t know is that almost nothing Carter did influenced the inflation rate – some of which was caused by the Vietnam War bills coming due and the increase in oil/gas prices due to early hostility from OPEC.

“But even with inflation, high gasoline prices and hostages in Iran, Jimmy Carter handed over to Ronald Reagan American economy that was still a world class powerhouse.”

[RWC] What we had during the Carter years was “stagflation.” The misery index (inflation rate + unemployment rate) was 12.72 Carter’s first month in office and got as high as 21.98 during June of his last year in office. Mr. Cox forgot to mention gasoline lines and rationing, 7.8% unemployment, 14.8% inflation, and 13% mortgages. I don’t hold Mr. Carter solely to blame for the poor economy of his administration. After all, Mr. Carter inherited a poor economy from Messrs. Nixon & Ford and most presidents deserve neither full blame nor credit for the economy. That said, the aforementioned economic indicators worsened at least in part due to Carter administration policies

While it’s not completely correct to blame Mr. Carter for high energy prices, his policies eventually hurt domestic oil production. Why? If you recall, that’s when a so-called “windfall profits” tax was imposed on domestic oil production. Though not the intent, the effect was to discourage domestic oil and gas exploration and production.

“Brainwashed by Fox News, Limbaugh, Beck and the teabaggers, Paul Dici’s worship of Reaganism is predictable. Mr. Dici should, however, go to the library and get informed as to how Beaver County had dozens of good paying unionized steel producers when Reagan took over and almost no steel industry or unions when he left office.”

[RWC] This is at least the eighth time since 2004 Mr. Cox made this claim, usually referring to the steel industry in particular. As I’ve written before, “blaming President Reagan for steel’s collapse is like blaming an emergency room doctor for the death of a DOA patient. What is it with lefties and history? Mr. Cox wants us to believe the steel industry was strong and vibrant until the day Ronald Reagan took office and he somehow managed to kill it within a few years. … Earth to Mr. Cox. The U.S. steel industry had been displaying serious problems since at least the mid-1950s. Mr. Cox never tells us what Reagan and Bush policies allegedly caused steel’s collapse.”

If you are familiar with Mr. Cox’s letter-writing body of work, you have to laugh when he tells someone they need to “go to the library and get informed.”