Ronald Reagan?

Question

Love him or hate him?

Why?

Answer 1

He's my favorite president.

Answer 2

He was a great president. But like Deidre k. Said on here. Reagan got worried about the social security and reagan started to save. Then he cut education funds for those of familys who were in the world wars 1&2. There use to be a education fund for those family's back then ages 18-22 years old. And reagan stopped it just when my younger brother was gonna be 18. The rest of our family back then got the funds then. for college etc. ( my dad was in war) But Reagan other than that...He got Got U.S.A. & U.S.S.R. back together then.

Answer 3

Ronald Wilson Reagan is and will always be MY president. I grew up in a Democratic family, and was a Democrat in belief up until 1979. Jimmy Carter did more harm to this country than anyone I can think of. After his "Help me America" speech I thought to myself " My god, this WIMP is the leader of the free world?" Why do I adore President Reagan so? Because he believed in US. When he took office America was down trodden. We were emasculated from our experience in Viet Nam, suffering through double digit inflation, double digit unemployment, and a stagnant economy. Militarily we were the laughing stock of the planet, referred to as a "paper tiger" and "toothless".
President Reagan changed that. His belief in America, and his ability to articulate his vision of America was a major factor in pulling us out of the funk we had sunk into. His revamping of the military was a key factor in the fall of the Soviet Union ( they went broke trying to keep up ), and his economic policies made the research and development possible that spurred the wonderful tech revolution we saw in the 90's. He put PRIDE back in the hearts of America.
Downsides, yes every President has them, and while the deficit soared, the political "goods" that it bought more than made up for the expense.

Answer 4

I don't hate him but he is a convicted war criminal pardoned by Bush!

He was giving missiles to Iran, our enemy! That is just about treason, as is the Iran/Contra affair that he lied that he didn't know anything about!

He is also the one who cut and ran from Beirut after 242 of our Marines were killed by Iran and Hezbollah in 1983 in a barracks blast!

Oh yes, then there was David Stockman and his Voodoo economics. More tax cuts for the rich that never did trickle down!

The third worst president in US history, behind Bush and Nixon!

Why are Republicans such liars and crooks?

Ricard, what a rag!

Answer 5

What do you do when you want to screw only the working people of your nation with the largest tax increase in history and hand those trillions of dollars to your wealthy campaign contributors, yet not have anybody realize you've done it? If you're Ronald Reagan, you call in Alan Greenspan.
Through the "golden years of the American middle class" - the 1940s through 1982 - the top income tax rate for the hyper-rich had been between 90 and 70 percent. Ronald Reagan wanted to cut that rate dramatically, to help out his political patrons. He did this with a massive tax cut in the summer of 1981.
The only problem was that when Reagan took his meat axe to our tax code, he produced mind-boggling budget deficits. Voodoo economics didn't work out as planned, and even after borrowing so much money that this year we'll pay over $100 billion just in interest on the money Reagan borrowed to make the economy look good in the 1980s, Reagan couldn't come up with the revenues he needed to run the government.
Coincidentally, the actuaries at the Social Security Administration were beginning to get worried about the Baby Boomer generation, who would begin retiring in big numbers in fifty years or so. They were a "rabbit going through the python" bulge that would require a few trillion more dollars than Social Security could easily collect during the same 20 year or so period of their retirement. We needed, the actuaries said, to tax more heavily those very persons who would eventually retire, so instead of using current workers' money to pay for the Boomer's Social Security payments in 2020, the Boomers themselves would have pre-paid for their own retirement.
Reagan got Daniel Patrick Moynihan and Alan Greenspan together to form a commission on Social Security reform, along with a few other politicians and economists, and they recommend a near-doubling of the Social Security tax on the then-working Boomers. That tax created - for the first time in history - a giant savings account that Social Security could use to pay for the Boomers' retirement.
This was a huge change. Prior to this, Social Security had always paid for today's retirees with income from today's workers (it still is today). The Boomers were the first generation that would pay Social Security taxes both to fund current retirees and save up enough money to pay for their own retirement. And, after the Boomers were all retired and the savings account - called the "Social Security Trust Fund" - was all spent, the rabbit would have finished its journey through the python and Social Security could go back to a "pay as you go" taxing system.
Thus, within the period of a few short years, Reagan dramatically dropped the income tax on America's most wealthy by more than half, and roughly doubled the Social Security tax on people earning $30,000 or less. It was, simultaneously, the largest income tax cut in America's history (almost entirely for the very wealthy), and the most massive tax increase in the history of the nation (which entirely hit working-class people).
But Reagan still had a problem. His tax cuts for the wealthy - even when moderated by subsequent tax increases - weren't generating enough money to invest properly in America's infrastructure, schools, police and fire departments, and military. The country was facing bankruptcy.
No problem, suggested Greenspan. Just borrow the Boomer's savings account - the money in the Social Security Trust Fund - and, because you're borrowing "government money" to fund "government expenditures," you don't have to list it as part of the deficit. Much of the deficit will magically seem to disappear, and nobody will know what you did for another 50 years when the Boomers begin to retire 2015.
Reagan jumped at the opportunity. As did George H. W. Bush. As did Bill Clinton (although Al Gore argued strongly that Social Security funds should not be raided, but, instead, put in a "lock box"). And so did George W. Bush.
The result is that all that money - trillions of dollars - that has been taxed out of working Boomers (the ceiling has risen from the tax being on your first $30,000 of income to the first $90,000 today) has been borrowed and spent. What are left behind are a special form of IOUs - an unique form of Treasury debt instruments similar (but not identical) to those the government issues to borrow money from China today to fund George W. Bush's most recent tax cuts for billionaires (George Junior is still also "borrowing" from the Social Security Trust Fund).
Former Bush Junior Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill recounts how Dick Cheney famously said, "Reagan proved deficits don't matter." Cheney was either ignorant or being disingenuous - it would be more accurate to say, "Reagan proved that deficits don't matter if you rip off the Social Security Trust Fund to pay for them, and don't report that borrowing from the Boomers as part of the deficit."

Answer 6

I think he's policies were terrible:

- HUGE deficit spending
- savings and loan scandal cost Americans tens of billions of dollars
- ran from terrorists in Beirut
- funded islamic terrorists in Afghanistan. These guys would later become the Taliban as well as other terrorist groups
- sold arms to Iran and then used the proceeds to fund terrorism in latin america. His "freedom fighters" were busy raping nuns in Nicaragua
- took Iraq off the terrorism list
- let Iraq buy ingredients from American corporations that he knew would be used to produce chemical weapons

I'm sure I'm forgetting a few more big disasters as well.

Answer 7

I like him , even though I'm a democrat , and I think he was a good president , he made HUGE Tax cuts, but I think he was not responsible for ending the Cold War, he was just president when the Cold War ended. Nothing special about him lol .

Answer 8

Okay Actor, Good Governor, Great President.

Answer 9

He was an awful president.

No respect for the environment or for average hard-working Americans.

He was an arrogant narcissitic jerk who spent the country into a massive deficit that we still have never recovered from.

The big lie that his arrogant approach to Gorbachev ended the Cold War is directly responsible for the failed policies of the Bush administration toward Iraq, Iran, and North Korea.

It was GORBACHEV who ended the cold war, not Reagan.

Reagan did NOTHING good and a HUGE amount of harm.

Answer 10

Greatest American in history, bar none. Rebuilt our economy after Carter's screw-ups. Finally brought the old Red Menace to it's knees. Brought pride back to America.

Answer 11

Absolutely adored that man!!!! What a guy.. :)