If nothing else, 2011 was the Year of the Great Republican Lie about taxes. Desperate to preserve low rates for the richest Americans, GOP leaders pretended tax cuts increase government revenues, pay for themselves and magically spur supposed "job creators." On Sunday, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor showed Americans can expect more of the same in 2012. Despite the fact that the sainted Ronald Reagan raised taxes in seven of his eight years in office, Cantor and his frantic press secretary insisted in CBS 60 Minutes that it never happened.
As Steve Benen summed up Majority Leader's pathetic responses to Leslie Stahl, "Eric Cantor can't handle the truth about Ronald Reagan." Crooks and Liars captured the exchange in which Cantor's press secretary interrupted the interview in a failed attempt to rewrite history:

STAHL: But you know, your idol, as I've read anyway, was Ronald Reagan. And he compromised.
CANTOR: He never compromised his principles.
STAHL: Well, he raised taxes and it was one of his principles not to raise taxes.
CANTOR: Well, he-- he also cut taxes.
STAHL: But he did compromise--
CANTOR: Well I --
[Press Secretary: That just isn't true. And I don't want to let that stand.]
STAHL: And at that point, Cantor's press secretary interrupted, yelling from off camera that what I was saying wasn't true.

Of course, it was true. As detailed in "Meet RINO Reagan," the Gipper raised taxes repeatedly while presiding over the rapid growth of the federal government he claimed to detest:

As ThinkProgress noted, the inedible image of Ronald Reagan the tax cutter is "false mythology." (It is also worth noting that it was President Obama and not Reagan who delivered the largest two year tax cut in American history.) While Governor Reagan doubled California's state spending and signed the biggest tax hike up to that point, as President he raised taxes in seven of his eight years in office. As former GOP Senator Alan Simpson, who called Reagan "a dear friend," told NPR, "Ronald Reagan raised taxes 11 times in his administration -- I was there."

As Benen explained, in place of the false mythology propagated by the likes of Eric Cantor is the inescapable truth that "no peacetime president has raised taxes so much on so many people" as Reagan.

Of particular interest is the "Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 1982," the largest of Reagan's tax increases, and generally considered the largest tax increase -- as a percentage of the economy -- in modern American history. In fact, between 1982 and 1984, Reagan raised taxes four times, and as Bruce Bartlett has explained more than once, Reagan raised taxes 12 times during his eight years in office.

Nevertheless, Ronald Reagan tripled the national debt during his time in the Oval Office. (The GOP's debt orgy continued under George W. Bush, whose own tax cuts nearly doubled it again.) All of which goes to show that Republican tall tales about both Ronald Reagan and tax cuts are fantasy. Put another way, the New Year didn't make the GOP's old lies any more true.