As the heat continued to rise in negotiations over whether (and/or how much) to increase our national debt limit, President Obama tried to scold Republicans into being more cooperative by suggesting that they needed to act more like Reagan and be willing to compromise.

"Ronald Reagan repeatedly took steps that included revenue, in order for him to accomplish some of these larger goals," Obama told CBS in an interview.  "And the question is if Ronald Reagan could compromise -- why wouldn't folks who idolize Ronald Reagan be willing to engage in those same kinds of compromises."

Of course, as you can imagine, Obama is clearly (and intentionally) misleading in how he characterizes Reagan, and what he would have done.  And the article doesn't do much better.  It goes on to report:

He (Reagan) was known for adopting aggressive tax cuts, but amid a burgeoning deficit agreed to several measures designed to raise revenue for government coffers such as closing loopholes and cutting tax breaks.

In a parallel with today's drama being played out between Democrat Obama and Republican House Speaker John Boehner, Reagan forged a budget with Democratic speaker Tip O'Neill despite their political and ideological differences.

All of this leaves out a very, very significant fact.  Reagan made a budget deal with Democrats that increased revenue by closing loopholes IN EXCHANGE FOR flattening overall tax rates AND for and agreement by Democrats to cut three dollars in spending for every new dollar in revenue increases.  Of course the spending cuts never happened.  Instead, Democrats spent even more when the new revenue came in.

Republicans in Congress are simply doing exactly what Reagan would do if he were in their shoes: he would learn from that past mistake.