Was Reagan the Greatest AMERICAN ever?

Question

This poll says he was; I think he was also!

"He edged out Abraham Lincoln, who abolished slavery, and civil rights leader Martin Luther King.

George Washington, the first US president who is considered the father of the nation, comes in at fourth place.

Current US President George W Bush #6 and his predecessor Bill Clinton #7 , whose presidency was tarnished by the Monica Lewinski sex scandal, are both in the top 10".

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4631421.stm

Warsaw to erect statue to Reagan

"Polish admirers of Ronald Reagan say they will erect a statue of the late US president in Warsaw to thank him for helping to end communist rule.

They say the 3.5-metre (10.5ft) stone and bronze statue will stand opposite the US embassy in the Polish capital".

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/5366992.stm

"Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops
moving, subsidize it."

- Ronald Reagan

"The nearest thing to eternal life we will ever see on this earth is a
government program."

- Ronald Reagan

Answer 1

I don't think he qualifies for the "Greatest American" honor, he was by far a great President...but many more men and women have sacrificed much more than Reagan has...I think the "Greatest American" Title should go to the past, present, and future members of our Armed Forces, because without them, the freedom we have enjoyed since the conception of the United States would be null and void...

Answer 2

The Great Communicator! Reagan, was a patriot. A true American who thought it an HONOR to serve his country. He was in it for the LOVE OF AMERICA.

Ronald Reagan ended the Cold War, and in doing so defeated Communism. He lowered the taxes dramatically, and in doing so created the longest period of sustained economic growth this nation has ever experienced. One of Reagan’s first acts after taking office was to raise military pay by fifty per cent! He didn’t like government waste, but he knew how to spend money where it counted.

His other major goal was to rescue America from the slavery of big government and over-taxation. Reagan often said, “Government is not the solution; government is the problem.”

Ronald Reagan’s optimism and pride in America crushed the defeatism and cynicism that had overtaken our nation before he took office. President Reagan honored the Office of the Presidency. He was always attired in a suit and tie when he was in the Oval Office. Once when an aide suggested he remove his jacket during a meeting, he answered in his soft voice, “Oh, I could never take off my coat in the Oval Office.” Old fashioned? Perhaps. But I would much rather see that kind of respect for the Office (and the nation it represents) than the disgraces that took place in the Oval Office a few years ago.

Ronald Reagan was a man of the people. He understood regular Americans as few politicians ever have or will........we need another Reagan conservative in the White House!

Answer 3

I think that saying he was the greatest is a little to subjective considering none of us were even alive to experience Lincoln or Washington, so it's hard to say. I do think the one thing that Reagan, Lincoln, King, and Washington all shared, was a vision of America, where our countries best days were ahead of us, not behind us. This view is what helps to make a great leader for our nation. To realize that this country has been a nation of hope and promise, and that opportunity has grown, and will continue to grow is what drives us to success.

To answer your question directly though, I think each great leader faced different challenges, and to pick out one, would be difficult, but Reagan would definitely near the top.

Answer 4

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 5

I would put him right up there!

But to me our greatest Americans are those millions who work hard, obey the laws, and contribute greatly to our country without ever getting much back in the way of recognition or rewards.

And our veterans and their families, with their brave and selfless sacrifices, are at the very top of the list. We don't treat them nearly as well as we should. I'm not sure we're always worthy of their sacrifices. God bless them!

Although Reagan took a bullet to the chest serving his government, don't forget.

PS What part of my answer gets a thumbs up? Or a thumbs down? I can never figure it out . . . :)

Answer 6

Yeah ! Right, and he should have avenged the murder of our troops in Beruit while he was bringing down the Soviet Empire and the Berlin Wall, guess he did,nt have time for that being too busy becoming a superhero and all!!

Answer 7

Damn, Penelope, you sure know how to piss me off. A poll taken by the BBC? Of who? I can remember only since Eisenhower, but he was by far the worst president I have had the pleasure to live through. A total phony that could care less about anyone that wasn't rich. And a liar. " I don't recall " doesn't cut it with me. I will give him credit for being the best bullshitter we have ever had. Of course he WAS an actor. Should have stuck with it.

Answer 8

Funny thing about polls... Republicans only seem to use them to their benefit when the numbers are in their favor or if they progress their policies. That 70+ % of America that wants us out've Iraq, unfortunately, isn't being heard.

But Reagan was voted the "Greatest American" ever, so that's something.

Answer 9

Ronald Reagan was certainly the greatest world leader of the 20th Century

A figure of his caliber comes along only once in every few generations. He will certainly be remembered amongst the finest men to have walked upon this earth

Answer 10

it was under Reagan that the Neocon Zionists got control of the Republican Party completely- he was their useful idiot.