Ronald Wilson Reagan, the 40th president of the United States of America was best known for his acting career before entering the political arena. Reagan’s great public speaking skills, wonderful sense of humor, and little to no experience in politics landed him the highest position in government in the United States of America. He was empowered by his supporter and doubted by skeptics like any ordinary president. Through it all, history and facts regard him as one of the most effective and accomplished Presidents of all times. As a matter of fact, leaving office in 1989, Reagan held a high approval rating leaving him, as one of the highest rated departed presidents in modern time. Unarguably, based on results, Reagan provided equal opportunities …show more content…
William E. Pemberton describes Reagan as a president that was against affirmative action by stating, “He attacked affirmative action on the grounds that it violated American principles of equal treatment of individuals” (Pemberton 85). While many believed that affirmative action was created to provide opportunities for the less fortunate, Reagan proved it to be an idea that caused more inequality. Affirmative action denies the right to those who actually deserve and have the qualifications for a position in the work place, entrance into higher learning institutions, and other merit based positions. Reagan believed that meeting specific criteria should allow a person a better position rather than basing it on religion, race, ethnicity, or sexual orientation. Reagan’s stance against affirmative action clearly indicates his vision of equality for all and not for a select minority. This mentality of equality and willingness to address it, regardless of how controversial of an issue it is, was one of the characteristics that made him an outstanding president in history. Similarly, to further explain Reagan’s views on equality, Pemberton states, “He made racial justice his highest priority and changed the focus of civil rights programs from establishing equal opportunity to insuring equal outcomes” (Pemberton 54). Reagan had a more profound view on equality than that of the American people. …show more content…
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)
The nation’s economy was in turmoil which led Reagan to think outside of the box. Reagan’s innovative ways of thinking about tax reform led to a boost in the economy. Reagan’s plan for the economy was so significant and unique to him that it was given its own name. It was called Reaganomics. This uniqueness in thinking was another one of the factors that set him apart from other political figures.
At the time of Reagan’s presidency, there was turmoil in the world. Making Reagan’s priority during his presidency national security. Benson points out the drastic difference in view points toward defense spending between the Democrats and the Reagan administration by
Reaganomics was economics policies which were propelled by United States President, Ronald Reagan during 1980s. These policies were based on fours pillars namely; reduction of the growth of government spending, reduction of income and capital gains marginal tax rates, reduction of government regulation of economy, and controlling of the money in supply so as to reduce inflation. Their basic aims were to lower taxes and create a leaner government. According to Reagan his decision was informed on stimulation of the economy taxes, financed by borrowing. Lowering taxes was aimed at reviving the economy, which in turn would see the increased tax revenues being used to offset the debts incurred (Niskanen
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.
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).
Reagan played a large part in restrengthening the weak, ineffectual, and vulnerable military which left behind after President Carters time in office. The Reagan administration funded research and development of weapons systems, including stealth technology and precision weaponry, later used in Persian Gulf wars. Reagan’s buildup was the largest peacetime defense enlargement in history, which included larger training ranges and military pay increases, helped invigorate the American military from its Vietnam War-era despondency. The Vietnam War had left severe damage on America’s military forces as well as the country as a whole, and even years later still had an impact on our military efforts. Reagans contributions began rebuilding it up, and eventually
Thesis Statement: Ronald Reagan’s presidency was one of the most successful in United States history because he revitalized the failing economy, used his remarkable communication skills to reestablish America’s lost morale, and even played a vital role in ending the Cold War.
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
Reagan implemented policies based on supply-side economics and advocated a classical liberal and laissez-faire philosophy, seeking to stimulate the economy with large, across-the-board tax cuts. Reagan’s outlook on economics was what he and the public called “Reaganomics”. “The blueprint for “Reaganomics,” was a sketched out supply-side approach to the economic, including massive cuts in income taxes, capital gains taxes, and corporate taxes,”(340). His platform advocated reducing tax rates to spur economic growth, controlling the money supply to reduce inflation, deregulation of the economy, and reducing government spending. Reagan's policies proposed that economic growth would occur when marginal tax rates were low enough to spur investment, which would then lead to increased economic growth, higher employment, and wages. Reagan’s beliefs on cutting taxes were supported by ideas of William Sumner who believed that the best equipped to win the struggle for existence was the American businessman, and concluded that taxes and regulations serve as dangers to his survival. Reagan believed strong nations were composed of people who were successful at expanding their empires and these strong nations would survive in the struggle for dominance.
Even though Reagan was very confident about his economic plan many others were weary of his ideas. George W. Bush Sr. proclaimed Reagan’s economic ideas as ‘Voodoo’ economics believing Reagan’s policy would not live up to its predicted outcome; ironically enough Bush and his son both adopted these policies during their presidencies. Many important congressmen had many fears in Reagan’s policies, they believed that imposing such tax cuts would raise inflation and cause higher interest rates. The public on the other hand, praised these
Inflation and unemployment numbers rose simultaneously, in contrary to the Keynesian theory that the Nixon administration based their policies upon. Criticism of Keynesianism became louder as the belief of a declining US economy grew and instead, economic liberal theory associated with Friedrich von Hayek and Milton Friedman won popularity. Inevitably this led to a paradigm shift towards laissez-faire economics and the idea that “government intervention necessarily impedes growth and prosperity” (CroG, p. 89). President Jimmy Carter executed the 1978 Revenue act that lowered corporate, capital gains and individual tax. In line with neoliberal ideas, numerous sectors were deregulated. In 1981, Ronald Reagan took office and carried out reforms that built on the legacy of Carter. Comparing the Reagan administration to Carter’s, the former manifested even stronger support for neoliberal ideas (CroG, p. 89). The 1981 Economic Recovery Tax Act was inspired of the Laffer curve, a theory that lower tax rates increases government revenues and economic growth as people will increase their productivity when allowed to keep a greater part of their income. Tax levels retained progressive and were in average cut by 30 % (CroG, p. 91). Following the reforms, the U.S economy grew and income levels
As President, Ronald Reagan encountered many significant events; from surviving an assassination attempt, to the space shuttle Challenger disaster. Perhaps the most significant event was the economic downturn. He came to office (much like President Obama) in the midst of an economic crisis; however, President Reagan was able to turn the economy around. How did he do this? In order to answer this question, you must first ask what the economy was like when he was sworn into office, how his policy changed from the prior administration’s policy, and how it contrasts our present economic policy.
This investigation assesses the significance of Ronald Reagan’s Tax Reform Act of 1986 in the overall decrease of unemployment levels during the last year of his presidency, 1989. Reagan’s Tax Reform Act is analyzed in comparison to other economic and political events taking place during his presidency; the Act’s policies and implementations are investigated and evaluated for their effectiveness in economic recovery, the role of the Keynesian economic cycle during his presidency, and the policies of previous presidencies that lapsed into Reagan’s. Economic Analyses and Historical encyclopedias are used to evaluate the Tax Reform’s significance. Two of the sources used in the essay, Reaganomics : An Insider’s Account of the Policies and the People by William A. Niskanen, and Why Reaganomics and Keynesian Economics Failed by James E. Sawyer are evaluated for their origins, purposes, values and limitations.
I have decided to write my research paper on the topic of Ronald Reagan's Domestic and Foreign Affairs. The reason that I choose this topic was because I have always been personally interested in Ronald Reagan's time in office and the national crisis he had to deal with. Reagan was awesome when it came to foreign policy because he knew how to negotiate with foreign leaders and their countries to get what he wanted. There were several instances during his time in office that he had the chance to use his ability to get the country out of danger. Domestic Affairs is another part of Reagan's presidency that was very important. He was able to take the country, which seemed to be in an economic slump and turn their economic status around.
Bill Clinton was the 42nd President of the United States. Elected in 1992 and again in 1996, Clinton served as President until January of 2001, when George W. Bush became the 43rd President. Ward Connerly is the founder and chairman of the American Civil Rights Institute. He has gained national attention as an outspoken advocate of equal opportunity for all Americans, regardless of race, sex, or ethnic background. In this paper, I will discuss the position of these two politicians from affirmative action, I will highlight how each of them thinks about affirmative action, whether he sees it beneficial or harmful to the American society, and how he argues to
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.