Ronald Reagan lauded 1986 reform for eliminating taxes on the poor

In response to the Occupy Wall Street protests, some leading conservatives have begun referring to themselves as "the 53 percent"--a reference to their view that the 47 percent of mostly lower-income Americans who don't pay income taxes are getting an undeserved break. Conservatives also argued against closing tax loopholes for the richest Americans and for corporations.

Which is why it's interesting to see President Ronald Reagan, a conservative icon, laud the passage of the 1986 Tax Reform Act--whose 25th anniversary is this week--by declaring that under the new law, "millions of the working poor will be dropped from the tax rolls altogether" and that rich people and big corporations would "pay their fair share."

Watch (it's at the 7:36 mark):