Examples Of Conservatism

Ronald Reagan, President of the United States from 1981 through 1989, created economic policies throughout his presidency that aimed to pull the United States out of a recession. His policies, called Reaganomics, reduced government spending and reduced tax rates in order to foster economic growth. Reagan also appointed many conservative judges to the Supreme Court and federal courts in order to shift ideologies to the right. Because of this, Reagan was both underrated and overrated as a president.

The country was billions of dollars in debt. Lowering the government's income by lowering taxes would only make this worse. But Reagan believed that lower taxes would help the economy. With a stronger economy, people and businesses would make more money. These increased profits would mean more taxes would be paid because the extra money would be taxed. The economic program Reagan implemented during his presidency became known as Reaganomics. This approach to healing the economy focused on low taxes, fewer and cheaper government programs, and high military spending. Reaganomics was intended to keep inflation down. The president believed his program was the best way to rebuild America's failing economy. (Benson 79)

Reagan really focused on improving the economy during his presidency, with a plan he called Reaganomics, or supply side economics. The main parts of this plan were cuts on taxes and budgets, and monetary policy. Also, he wanted to reduce government regulation on businesses. He thought that these and increasing defense expenditures would heighten economic efficiency. Reagan managed to cut taxes by twenty five percent in three years. However, the plans did not work out at first, causing a recession that some call “The Great Inflation.” The national debt heightened substantially, and the rate of unemployment reached up to eleven percent. Despite these negative outcomes, the economy experienced a sudden growth and prosperity in 1983, which was

In addition, Reagan’s 1981 Program for Economic Recovery had four major policies, which are: to reduce the growth of government spending, reduce the marginal tax rates on income from labor and capital, reduce regulation, and to reduce inflation by controlling the growth of the money supply (Niskanen). Reagan’s Economic Recovery Program, also known as Reaganomics, was the most serious recession of the U.S. economic policy since Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal (Niskanen). However, according to historian, Eric Foner, there have been many issues with Reaganomics since the new policies, rising stock prices, and deindustrialization inevitably resulted into the rise of economic inequality, also known as the second gilded age (Foner 832).

Towards the end of the 1920’s the economy in America took a drastic turn. This was when Calvin Coolidge’s presidency had ended and changes in the government began to take place. “Just seven months after Herbert Hoover entered the White House, economic trouble mocked his campaign statement about being near ‘the final triumph over poverty.’ On October 24, 1929 panic swept the New York Stock Exchange as nearly 13 million shares changed hands” (Hamilton). The start to Hoover’s presidency was also the start of the Great Depression. His term consisted heavily on working on taking steps to bring America out of the drastic economic fall that they had just entered. He began taking action by launching public works programs, tax reductions, and the formation

President Herbert Hoover, a Republican, had control of the United States from 1929 to 1933, the beginning of the economic downfall. Hoover created a laissez-faire government; the government was not involved in everyday business, instead it was a very hands off approach and daily life just took its path. When Franklin D. Roosevelt became president in 1933 the economy was now deep in a huge downward spiral, and he raised a new Democratic approach to run the government and United States. The United States was in for a lot of reform movements being that a Democrat was president, and something needed to be done to prevent the status of the United States to fail even more. Franklin D. Roosevelt responded to the problems of the Great Depression

When President Hoover entered office in 1929, stock market prices were at all time highs and the American economy prospered. Suddenly, in October of 1929, the stock market crashed and thousands of Americans lost their entire life savings. The crash sparked the most horrific and devastating economic crisis of all time. In the tedious years to follow, records suggest that stock prices fell “about 80% from their highs in the late 1920s” (Stock Market Crash). Soon after Black Tuesday, the United States economy crumbled to pieces. Many people became unemployed and homeless. Through the course of a decade, Presidents Herbert Hoover and Franklin Roosevelt tried and failed to bring an end to the Great Depression with their own domestic policies and political ideals. Before Hoover’s election, federal administrators praised his humanitarian spirit. When Hoover became president, he fell short of his glowing reputation and failed to recognize the severity of the situation America was facing. The nation felt out of touch with their commander-in-chief and in the presidential election of 1932, Hoover was squarely defeated by his popular Democratic opponent, Franklin Delano Roosevelt who promised a “New Deal” to the suffering American people. The Great Depression was a long and difficult time for many Americans ended only by the beginning of World War II. Two utterly different presidents guided America through the worst financial crisis ever seen with two different policies, two

When Ronald Reagan became the president of the United States in 1980, he took on the worst economic mess since the Great Depression. The United States was involved with the Cold War with the Soviet Union, mortgage rates were two and a half times that of the amount in 1960 (15.4%), seven million Americans were unemployed, the national debt was $934 billion dollars, and tax rates skyrocketed as high as seventy percent (Reagan, “The State of the Nation’s Economy” 290). Reagan’s predecessor Jimmy Carter planned to fix this dreadful economy of the 1970s with a tax increase of fifty billion dollars, whereas Reagan knew that the best way to fix the economy was with tax decreases. Under the Reaganomics program, “tax rates were to be cut by thirty percent. Tax revenues were to be reduced by forty-four billion dollars in 1982 and eventually result in a $500 billion reduction over the next five years. Never before in the history of the nation had a president proposed reducing taxes by so much for such a long period of time” (Wilson 25). Reagan’s tax cuts involved a greater decrease for the wealthy, but everyone else also received massive tax relief. Reagan’s idea was that when the

Hoover was the type of conservative that believed the economy would repair itself and the dead parts would fall. He refused to give direct federal relief to the people. in business affairs, Hoover kept America as a rugged individualist, capitalist society with little regulation. In fact, when the depression hit he bailed out the businesses rather than the American people. He established the Reconstructive Finance Corporation, which supplied corporate relief for corporations identified to be too big to fail. He was the first president that used his money made for being the president, for donations to charity. He was living the American Dream. Publicity of being a self-made man torched him when his strategies failed to relinquish the burden of the Great Depression (Hughes 1).

He inherited a misery index (the sum of the inflation and unemployment rates) of 19.99%. Under Reaganomics, sixteen million new jobs were created, and helped fuel an economic boom that lasted two decades. At the same time, not only did he cut tax rates, but the Tax Reform Act of 1986 simplified the income-tax code by eliminating many tax shelters, reducing the number of deductions and tax brackets. After years of drowning in unemployment, high taxes, and a slow economy, America was finally looking up. Ultimately, one of the reasons Reagan was the best president was because of his attentive ears for the public.

A liberal pursues change in the government whilst conservatives seek to preserve the status quote. The Great Depression redefined liberal and conservative policies. Herbert Hoover was deemed a liberal president at the start of his presidency and was considered a conservative when he left office. While by todays’ standards Herbert Hoover would be considered a conservative. His divergence from the public purpose oriented policies of Teddy Roosevelt, and support of laissez faire economics made him a liberal in his time. Therefore, to state that he was conservative throughout his presidency would be a false generalization. In contrast, FDR was considered liberal during his presidency as well as by modern day standards due to the shift in ideology

Prior to Reagan’s inauguration the country was suffering from double-digit inflation, high interest rates, high unemployment, oil shortages, and

The legacy that President Hoover passed to his successor was disastrous. The country experienced an unprecedented economic depression. However, in his speech during the presidential campaign in 1936, he expressed a deep concern that the New Deal is directed against the interests of ?poor Americans?[footnoteRef:2]. He also blamed the Roosevelt policy in violation of ?fundamental American ideals and liberties?[footnoteRef:3]. While Roosevelt was rebuilding America, Hoover attacked

The Roaring 20’s was period of prosperity, it was quickly brought to halt by Black Thursday. On Black Thursday, October 24th, 1929, the stock market crashed; thus, begun the Great Depression. Our 31st president, Herbert Clark Hoover, presided over this period of economic decline. Hoover did not start the Great Depression, but he didn’t do anything to help it; this was his downfall. He was called the “Great Humanitarian” by many, he was well liked and respected. In fact, future president Franklin Delano Roosevelt once said, “Herbert Hoover is certainly a wonder, and I wish we could make him President of the United States. There could not be a better one” (Moore 367) Herbert Hoover once was a great man, but thanks to the Depression (and Franklin

Reaganomics refers to economic policies implemented during President Reagan’s administration from 1981-1989. The main ideology of Reaganomics was conservation which promoted that “government is the problem, not solution”. That means, society and market would function better with limited government power and regulations. Accordingly, Social wealth was distributed by unrestricted market, and profits that capitalists earned would trickle down to the bottom of society. In this way, people were in charge of improving their lives instead of relying on the aid of government. In order to recover from the economic crisis occurred between 1981and1982, the major Reaganomics objectives was to reduce government intervention in business and social aids. The policies were specified as marginal tax cut, tightening money supply, reducing social welfare programs and regulations. Generally, Reaganomics that impact citizens the most would be tax cut, reducing welfares and regulations.