Bush and Reagan: More alike than you would think
Ronald Reagan is called by some people, the greatest president of our time, so naturally our current president, George W. Bush would stive to be as good a president as Reagan was. This is why there are striking similarities between the policies of the two republican presidents. During reagan’s president he supported “trickle-down economics” dubbed by most people now as “reaganomics” where he would give income tax cuts to the wealthiest people in the nation, hoping that the extra money that they had would then cause them to invest in other things such as factories and manufacturing, giving the lowerclasses more job opertunities and other chances to earn money.
Both administrations seem to favor the wealthier classes. In fact, they don’t seem like they do, these administrations DO support the wealthier classes, making the wealth gap grow bigger and bigger each day. According to the Boston Globe:
About 1.7 million more people fell below the poverty line last year, bringing the total number of poor in the country to 34.6 million. The poverty rate edged higher than 12 percent for the first time in five years, rising to 12.1 percent from 11.7 percent. It was the first time in a decade that the number of poor people has increased for two straight years. More broadly, median household income dropped 1.1 percent between 2001 and 2002, to $42,409.
That is crazy! I thought that the whole point of trickledown economics was to benefit all of the classes, but obviously it is not working if 1.7 million people have just fallen below the poverty line!
Another similarity between the two administrations, is thier policies on defense. Both Reagan and Bush are very supportive of the war effort, and offering funding to help the armed forces. Bush is spending so much on the war in Iraq that it is almost impossible to immagine!
Since he is following in Reagan’s footsteps, Bush thinks that the economy has become much better as a direct effect of his tax cuts, but as a result of the tax cuts and the big government spending on the war money is being drained from the federal budget, therefore less revenue is coming in making teriffic deficits. The deficit has skyrocketed during the Bush administration, therefore making the economy worse on the grand scale. One example is that the housing market is slowing, which effects other things. Just yesterday I heard something on the radio that really intrigued me. Fed Ex expects great revenue losses due to this decline in the housing market, because less people will be shipping things to their new houses. It is amazing to think that all of these effects upon the economy are effected by George Bush’s tax cut program, which he infact modeled after Reagan’s economic policy.
Using Reagan’s policies as a model, Bush has added on to them. A modern example of this is Bush’s policy on the Inheritance Tax, which he is trying very hard to phase out. Some people call this tax, the “death tax” because they are forced to pay taxes on the ususally enormous sums of money that they inherit. I can understand why Bush would think that people should not have to pay taxes for the money that they inherit, but I mean come on, again he is helping the wealthies classes in the United States, and leaving the other classes behind in their wake. Think about this for a second. Who ususally inherits money? THE WEALTHY CLASS! Many, not all, but much of the wealthy classes come from “old money” or money that is inherited from their ancestors. Now, I am not saying that Bush’s reasoning is wrong. But he should really stop for a second and think about what his new policies could mean. Becasue if he really wants to follow in the footsteps of his economic idol, reagan, the wealth gap should get ready to be rocked and rattled, and stretched beyond belief.
