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Reagan passed on the debt to our generation. He cut taxes and drove up spending. We weren't exactly in the black fiscally during Reagan years.
He gave people stuff and didn't expect them to pay for it, expecting the later generation to do so. Now, almost 30 years later, we're in more debt, more oil dependent, and even more childlike because the bill is long past due. Thanks Reagan.
LOL, we would love to have his deficits today. If you are angry with Reagan for the deficit you must be beside yourself with Obama.
LOL, we would love to have his deficits today. If you are angry with Reagan for the deficit you must be beside yourself with Obama.
Well it is true that Reagan increased military spending, at a time when it probably didn't need it. He also didn't raise taxes to pay for those expenses either, which would have been the "conservative" answer.
Of course, Reagan really wasn't a conservative. He was a christian morals democrat, so I give him a pass on that one.
Well it is true that Reagan increased military spending, at a time when it probably didn't need it. He also didn't raise taxes to pay for those expenses either, which would have been the "conservative" answer.
Of course, Reagan really wasn't a conservative. He was a christian morals democrat, so I give him a pass on that one.
Wow, you do realize it was because of Reagan's defense spending that there is no more Soviet Union right? Of course military spending needed to be increased, it help free half of Europe.
Raising taxes is a decidedly liberal thing to do, Reagan understood that reducing taxes is pro growth.
LOL, Reagan a Democrat. Of course I know why you would like to claim him, however there is nothing you could point to that would put him in the Democrat camp. He was probably the most hated figure by Democrats at that time. The hatred still lingers as is demonstrated in this thread.
Anyone else remember having Reagan blasted in their history books and "Reganomics" failing America? Only to have those same rules bloom our economy years later.
Wow, you do realize it was because of Reagan's defense spending that there is no more Soviet Union right? Of course military spending needed to be increased, it help free half of Europe.
Raising taxes is a decidedly liberal thing to do, Reagan understood that reducing taxes is pro growth.
LOL, Reagan a Democrat. Of course I know why you would like to claim him, however there is nothing you could point to that would put him in the Democrat camp. He was probably the most hated figure by Democrats at that time. The hatred still lingers as is demonstrated in this thread.
Thats a myth.
Truman, Ike, Kennedy, and all Presidents before Reagan put the Soviets down. Reagan was simply the guy who picked up the ball at the one yard line, and broke the plain.
We know from the Soviets own papers, they were doomed starting in the 70's.
Are you saying it doesn't matter what he does because so far he isn't as unpopular as past presidents? Is popularity the only that that matters because if it is Lady Gaga may very well be our next POTUS
it matters because the pelletheads on the right seem to think that all history began with their beloved Ron. The fact of the matter is that most who think that RR was akin to Zeus were crapping their diapers when he was driving this country into a hole.
Truman, Ike, Kennedy, and all Presidents before Reagan put the Soviets down. Reagan was simply the guy who picked up the ball at the one yard line, and broke the plain.
We know from the Soviets own papers, they were doomed starting in the 70's.
Huh? It was SDI that scared the heck out of them they knew they could not keep up with us. Our economy basically buried their economy.
You are entitled to your own opinions, not your own facts.
"By the mid-1980s, the Soviet Union devoted between 15 and 17 percent of its annual gross national product to military spending, according to United States government sources. Until the early 1980s, Soviet defense expenditures rose between 4 and 7 percent per year."
it matters because the pelletheads on the right seem to think that all history began with their beloved Ron. The fact of the matter is that most who think that RR was akin to Zeus were crapping their diapers when he was driving this country into a hole.
The fact that their poll numbers at this point in their presidency is about as relevant that they both are tall. It matters where they are at the end of their terms. Even more important where the economy is at the end of 4 years. Obama's agenda is 180 degrees different than Reagan's. Reagan was successful Obama will not be.
"By the mid-1980s, the Soviet Union devoted between 15 and 17 percent of its annual gross national product to military spending, according to United States government sources. Until the early 1980s, Soviet defense expenditures rose between 4 and 7 percent per year."
This theory has several flaws. First, Reagan and his advisors never believed they could destroy the Soviet political system. In fact, they believed that the Soviet Union would be a permanent fixture of U.S. foreign policy. There was never any plan to bankrupt the Soviet Union. Reagan felt threatened by the Soviet military, as he believed it was stronger than America’s. “The truth of the matter is that the Soviet Union does have a definite margin of superiority,” argued Reagan in 1982, “enough so that there is risk and there is what I have called… ‘a window of vulnerability.’”
Second, the Soviet Union only adjusted its military spending during the Reagan years by 0.4% and this spending increase was planned ahead of time as a response to the military spending of the Carter Administration. If you want to argue that America outspent the Soviet Union, Carter's your man, not Reagan.
Finally, the “Reagan Victory” theory ignores the changes in his policies towards the Soviet Union. Reagan was only a hard-line anti-communist for the first few years of his presidency. The famous “Evil Empire” speech was from 1983. The rest of his Presidency was spent trying to reconcile with the Soviets.
In fact, Truman set us on the course of build bigger.
In reality, none of the Presidents had any idea they were going to out spend the Soviets, it was an arms race, we just happened to win. We won because we were more open to other countries of the world, and their money floated our military spending until the end of the cold war.
I am going to break with some of the posts from fellow conservatives in this thread.
RRs numbers are instructive. While seeing Bammers numbers slide gives me hope, there is NO WAY I will consider these numbers right now a harbenger of things to come.
Bammer has plenty of time to recover.
He can make course corrections.
He can be the beneficiary of cyclical changes that improve things for him.
He can lose the congress and benefit (as Clinton did) from a Congress intent on cutting spending and improving the economy.
He can lose the congress and if things do not improve, blame Republicans for whatever they do or do not do.
The only way he loses in 2012 is for the economy to be very bad or for Republicans to do a smash up job of both fixing things and at the same time not letting Bammer get credit. That will be very very hard to do.
In the last 100 years, 5 sitting presidents have not won re-election. In all cases those 5 had an interparty rival that ran a hard primary campaign against them. The only one that can is Hillary and there is no indication that she will.
Beating Bammer in 2012 will be very hard work. We had all better be ready for a dog fight to the bitter end.
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