85% of U.S. Unhappy With Economy

[Theben]

Originally posted by rmsharpe
A Gallup poll taken last year puts Reagan just behind Lincoln. Of course, you're probably one of those people that thinks America is right-wing anyway...

Like I said, not everyone had the wool pulled over their eyes. A lot of those people are Young Republicans who never lived thru the 80's.

Are we still talking about Reagan or are we talking about Franklin Roosevelt?

Roosevelt had the excuse of a World War going on. And even in relative dollars, Reagan still outdid the fed deficit by a considerable margin.

It didn't raise taxes, it reduced deductions. It had an effective impact of raising payment rates for many Americans, but it wasn't an increase. The Tax Reform Act lowered taxes again and simplified the bracket structure.

"The top tax rate was lowered from 50% to 28% while the bottom rate was raised from 11% to 15% - the only time in the history of the U.S. income tax (which dates back to the passage of the Revenue Act of 1862) that the top rate was reduced and the bottom rate increased concomitantly."

Well, Dick Gephardt was the sponsor of said bill...

Point. But it was passed thru a Repub senate and, like I said, signed by the prez.

Investigated and proven entirely false.

Uh, excuse me?
"The Iran-Contra affair was a political scandal which was revealed in 1986 as a result of earlier events during the Reagan administration. It began as an operation to increase U.S.-Iranian relations, wherein Israel would ship weapons to a moderate, politically influential group of Iranians opposed to the Ayatollah Khomeini; the U.S. would reimburse Israel with those weapons and receive payment from Israel. The moderate Iranians agreed to do everything in their power to achieve the release of six U.S. hostages, who were being held by Hezbollah. The plan eventually deteriorated into an arms-for-hostages scheme, in which members of the executive branch sold weapons to Iran in exchange for the release of the American hostages, without the direct authorization of President Ronald Reagan."

And there was evidence implicating Reagan, but his famous "I can't recall," speech, while laughable, apparently was enough to stop prosecutors from pursuing him.

I agree. Historians and Americans should know that the communist system was a fundamentally uneconomic idea and would eventually collapse.

The Soviet system, anyway. At least we agree on something.

[rmsharpe]

I assumed you were talking about the 1980 embassy hostages and the conspiracy suggesting that George H.W. Bush had some sort of deal with Iran then, not the later incident with the Hezbollah hostages.

Also, any collectivism fails over time; most of Israel's kibbutz had to adopt at least some form of market ideology... the strict communalism of the past has all but disappeared.

[MrFun]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui
But Nixon actually a lot of good in his time in office... unlike W. Bush.

Didn't Nixon promise Southern political leaders during his campaign that if they support him, he would do whatever he could to obstruct further racial desegregation in South, and try to undo some of the enfranchisement of black voters??

[Jon Miller]

I think they are referring to foreign affairs.

JM

[MrFun]

Originally posted by Jon Miller
I think they are referring to foreign affairs.

JM

Really? I didn't notice.


I may have been threadjacking, but since Imran drools everytime we talk about anything on Nixon, I wanted to bring up a pointed question about Nixon for once that concerns some of the bad things, like, I don't know . . . .

endorsing white supremacy and seeking to reverse civil rights achievements for political gain?

[Jon Miller]

He did more wrong than that. The issue is that everyone knows that he did a lot wrong. I guess you are focusing on some things that are more rarely discussed.

JM

[GePap]

Nixon signed the clean air and clean water acts, so he certainly had a vastly better environmental record than W. can ever claim.

[MrFun]

Originally posted by Jon Miller
He did more wrong than that. The issue is that everyone knows that he did a lot wrong. I guess you are focusing on some things that are more rarely discussed.

JM

The more rarely discussed issues can often be more interesting.

[GePap]

Originally posted by MrFun


Really? I didn't notice.


I may have been threadjacking, but since Imran drools everytime we talk about anything on Nixon, I wanted to bring up a pointed question about Nixon for once that concerns some of the bad things, like, I don't know . . . .

endorsing white supremacy and seeking to reverse civil rights achievements for political gain?

Yes, yes, Nixon was a hate filed, paranoid, scheming SOB, I don't think that Imran would ever fail to accept that. At the same time:

During the Nixon Administration, the United States established many government agencies, including the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the National Railroad Passenger Corporation, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Supplemental Security Income program, and the Office of Minority Business Enterprise; the Post Office Department was abolished as a cabinet department and reorganized as a government-owned corporation: the U.S. Postal Service. Nixon proposed in 1971 to create four new government departments superseding the current structure: departments organized for the goal of efficient and effective public service as opposed the thematic bases of Commerce, Labor, Transportation, Agriculture, et al. Departments including the State, Treasury, Defense, and Justice would remain under this proposal.[28]

On January 2, 1974, Nixon signed a bill that lowered the maximum U.S. speed limit to 55 miles per hour (90 km/h) in order to conserve gasoline during the 1973 energy crisis. This law remained in effect until 1995, though states had been allowed to raise the limit to 65 miles per hour in rural areas since 1987. Nixon also suspended the converting of the U.S. dollar into gold, a central point of the Bretton Woods system, allowing its value to float in world markets.

In his 1974 State of the Union address, Nixon called for comprehensive health insurance.[29] On February 6, 1974, he introduced the Comprehensive Health Insurance Act. Nixon's plan would have mandated employers to purchase health insurance for their employees, and in addition provided a federal health plan, such as Medicaid, that any American could join by paying on a sliding scale based on income

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nixon_%28president%29

So in terms of governing, he was far more "progressive" than Reagan, and certainly more than W.

[MrFun]

Okay GePap -- you get a cookie.

[Seeker]

Why was going off gold 'progressive'?

[Kuciwalker]

GePap forgot the whole China thing. Only Nixon could have done it

[tinyp3nis]

Originally posted by GePap


Yes, yes, Nixon was a hate filed, paranoid, scheming SOB, I don't think that Imran would ever fail to accept that. At the same time:

During the Nixon Administration, the United States established many government agencies, including the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the National Railroad Passenger Corporation, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Supplemental Security Income program, and the Office of Minority Business Enterprise; the Post Office Department was abolished as a cabinet department and reorganized as a government-owned corporation: the U.S. Postal Service. Nixon proposed in 1971 to create four new government departments superseding the current structure: departments organized for the goal of efficient and effective public service as opposed the thematic bases of Commerce, Labor, Transportation, Agriculture, et al. Departments including the State, Treasury, Defense, and Justice would remain under this proposal.[28]

On January 2, 1974, Nixon signed a bill that lowered the maximum U.S. speed limit to 55 miles per hour (90 km/h) in order to conserve gasoline during the 1973 energy crisis. This law remained in effect until 1995, though states had been allowed to raise the limit to 65 miles per hour in rural areas since 1987. Nixon also suspended the converting of the U.S. dollar into gold, a central point of the Bretton Woods system, allowing its value to float in world markets.

In his 1974 State of the Union address, Nixon called for comprehensive health insurance.[29] On February 6, 1974, he introduced the Comprehensive Health Insurance Act. Nixon's plan would have mandated employers to purchase health insurance for their employees, and in addition provided a federal health plan, such as Medicaid, that any American could join by paying on a sliding scale based on income

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nixon_%28president%29

So in terms of governing, he was far more "progressive" than Reagan, and certainly more than W.

He heard the rumble from the people. There is no such thing today, young people rather worship Obama and blame Bush for everything.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Yes, yes, Nixon was a hate filed, paranoid, scheming SOB, I don't think that Imran would ever fail to accept that. At the same time:

Indeed. Everyone knows Nixon was a scummy guy who was breaking all sorts of laws and considers him to a horrible President. But what people don't consider is that he had a LOT of achievements in office (China, Clear Air and Water acts) and even proposed universal health care! As said, far more progressive than the Republicans that came afterwards. That legacy gets overshadowed by the crookedness, but we should forget Nixon's successes and the fact that he was a highly intelligent man (who was, unfortunately, highly paranoid).

[DirtyMartini]

Originally posted by Seeker
Didn't Bush get elected twice

Do you really want to start that debate yet again?