and as for Reaganites. In my guts I know they're nuts.

"The biggest war on poverty was the economic boom started by Reagan"

Right. So the fact that the poverty rate was 15% in 1964 but only 9.7% in 1969 means the war on poverty was a failure. And the other fact that the poverty rate was 10.3% in 1980 when Reagan asked "are you better off than you were four years ago?" and after 8 years of Reaganomics it was reduced all the way down to, uh 10.3% in 1989, and then, as Reaganomics was continued under Bush, it, uh "fell" to 10.7% in 1990 and to 11.5% in 1991, and 11.9% in 1992 and 12.3% in 1993. That means that Reaganomics totally defeated poverty. Rrrriiiiight.

But it's not like there wasn't some prosperity under Reagan. After all the share of income going to the top 5% went from 15.6% in 1981 to 18.3% in 1989, and then to 21% by 1993. By 1993, there was an extra $359 billion going to the wealthy every year. Reaganomics certainly benefited SOME people, but it wasn't the poor.