Why or why do you like/dislike Reagan's Era?

Question

What policies did you agreed with or disagreed with?

Answer 1

Reagan believed the rich were too poor, and the poor were too rich. So he made policies to correct that problem.

We became a society that was totally self-absorbed, devoted to making money.

We're suffering from it right up 'til today.

Answer 2

Reagan developed the phrase "trickle down economics." That meant that business owners would get big tax breaks. But instead of being greedy with the money that they were saving, they would pass that money along to the people that work for them and their community. YEAH RIGHT! These guys got rich by looking out for themselves.
Also these tax breaks along with his outrageous defense spending (remember the Star Wars program) amounted to a huge national debt. This is a debt which we are still burdened with although his predecessors have added to it greatly.
Regean also granted hundreds of thousands of Cuban and other illegal immigrants amnesty under the guise that it would help with America's work shortage and illegal immigration problem (sound familiar).
He also started the war on drugs. It was more a philosophical war that had no ending in sight and allowed the government to spend billions (again this is vaguely familiar to a war we are fighting now). Results of this war can be found everywhere in America. I see it all over my town.
He also took credit for the fall of the Soviet Union. This is only partially correct. THe fall of the Soviet Union was created mostly from poor leadership by Gorbachev. Gorbachev was by far the worst ruler the USSR ever had. He often showed himself in luxurious suites and having things that ordinary people could not dream of. The Soviet Union spent most of their money on military items trying to keep up with Regean's outlandish spending that the people of the USSR suffered by having little food. They would see their leader and generals endulge in these luxuries and resented him because in a communist society, everybody is supposed to be on a level class. All of these things added to unrest in the USSR Parliament which lead to the rise of Boris Yeltsin. So, the USSR collapsed from within, not because some Hollywood actor told him to tear down a wall.
When Regean came to be President, the country suffered through 4 years of the Carter administration. Inflation was high, energy shortages were too many, and morale was low. Regean came in with a new idea and made sure that the Federal Reserve got inflation in check. As for the rest of his policies, what we did not pay for then, we are paying for now.
BTW, does anyone remember the Savings and Loan crisis from the 80's? You see this little scheme was devised by a savings and loans bank that was run by, guess who, a Bush. That is how it became an issue for the taxpayers. Bush didn't want to have his boys go to jail for handing out faulty loans, they would have had to accept responsibility. So George H.W. Bush went to Regean and asked to allow the taxpayers to bail them out. Regean agreed and thus the Bush boys and every other loan officer that committed the same crime did not have to serve time or pay restitution. Way to go.

Answer 3

Reagan like Bush,birds of a feather.Reagan cut VA benefits,Busted Unions.Iran/contras coke canine for weapons.Coke went from $2000 a ounce to $800 over night,then we got crack.Maybe GW got his flying time bring in military plane loads of coke.That was the Mena incident.Made the rich richer and the poor poorer.Being he had Alzheimer's,everything he enacted should be null and void,as he wasn't of sound mind and body at the time in office.Well,I can't recall...remember.I say he got what he deserved.God works in mysterious ways.

Answer 4

Reagan encouraged the rich to get richer and caused the poor to get poorer. Under him, the town I lived with closed several factories and 3000 people moved out of town in one year. The town went from 14,000 to 11,000. I lost my teaching job because we lost so many students. My dad lost his job of 30 years.

So I hate Reagan and think he was a very bad president.

Answer 5

Reagan ended the cold war and boosted the economy by cutting taxes on businesses. Its partially the reason we've had such a strong economy for the last 20 years... before Reagan inflation was out of control and tax where sky high for everyone... He will go down in history as one of the greatest presidents in history.

Answer 6

You mean the era of Iran/Contra, of selling weapons to Iraq to kill Iranians, and selling weapons to Iran to kill Iragis? Siding with, training and funding the Future Leaders of Al-queda? The beginnings of NAFTA?

The Reagan era really set the tone for our future, didn't it?

Answer 7

I like the fact that Reagan nominated Robert Bork for the Supreme Court. It's a shame that Bork did not get confirmed.

I dislike the others whom Reagan succesfully appointed to the Court -- O'Connor, Scalia, and Kennedy. Those 3 have turned out to be just plain awful.

Reagan should have been looking for more people like Bork, not appointing people who just want to be "tough on crime."

Answer 8

Ronald Reagan believed in America. He believed that she was truly a "shining city upon a hill," that she was an exceptional nation of hard-working decent people. He believed that American power obligated us to strong-arm the Soviets into freedom: "Mr. Gorbchav: Tear down that wall!"

He was a funny man who believed in the dignity of even the unborn. He saw the traditional family as the bedrock of civilization. He knew that the best kind of government was a government that governed least. Most of all, he instilled into America an unapologetic belief in itself. He made us proud to say "God bless America."

Answer 9

MASSIVE DEBT

(record 260% increase - not to help the nation, but to make the rich richer)

Answer 10

I thought Reagan was one of our greatest presidents..
He brought down the Soviet Union without firing a shot..
He brought it down using American economic power...
He got them into a space arms race that destroyed them
economically....There was never a "Star Wars" program,
it was a ruse to get the Soviets to invest money they did
not have in hugely expensive space weapons technology.