Best Presidident 1980-current

[ViperOverLord]

I was around when Clinton was in office, not Reagen...Sooooo my vote goes to Clinton.

I suggest you go to college and learn how to formulate informed opinions.

[ViperOverLord]

Ron Paul!

2012

RP is one of the best economic choices out there. But he will NEVER be president. He would not go to war if a terrorist killed his own mother execution style. He's weak.

[ViperOverLord]

A question for those who chose Obama. Is this his economy yet? are his plans he implemented taking root? or is it still in the works and just beyond the horizon? Are we still suffering from Bush? Wondering what you guys think

To be honest I mostly chose Obama out of spite. I don't realy think he should be included in the poll as his Presidency is still in progress and there is still much he could do/fail to do.

On your other questions. I think Obama actualy did the right thing with the bailouts, it was unpopular but I think it prevented allot of market instability which could have done allot more dammage than we care to know. Is it "his" economy well he inherited a nosediving one which has started to level out somewhat, the downturn was a global one so it may very well be that the recovery has more to do with global trends than any one national policy. The dammage Bush did or didin't do is still too soon to tell ( I think more dammage than good), but I think that whatever was done so recently as three years ago would still be affecting the present day.

In the short run, the bailouts will work. But long run the bailouts that Obama and Bush implemented will be America's downfall. We basically told corporate America and the unions that they have a blank check. America's moral future and cosequently its solvency was severely damaged by the bailouts.

[ViperOverLord]

Reaganomics, and tax cuts/gov't cuts in general, work. Its simply been a generation since the last time we tried.

It shouldn't surprise anyone that the nine states without an income tax are growing far faster and attracting more people than are the nine states with the highest income tax rates. People and businesses change the location of income based on incentives.

Now, if people know tax rates will be higher next year than they are this year, what will those people do this year? They will shift production and income out of next year into this year to the extent possible. As a result, income this year has already been inflated above where it otherwise should be and next year, 2011, income will be lower than it otherwise should be.

Also, the prospect of rising prices, higher interest rates and more regulations next year will further entice demand and supply to be shifted from 2011 into 2010. In my view, this shift of income and demand is a major reason that the economy in 2010 has appeared as strong as it has. When we pass the tax boundary of Jan. 1, 2011, my best guess is that the train goes off the tracks and we get our worst nightmare of a severe "double dip" recession.

In 1981, Ronald Reagan—with bipartisan support—began the first phase in a series of tax cuts passed under the Economic Recovery Tax Act (ERTA), whereby the bulk of the tax cuts didn't take effect until Jan. 1, 1983. Reagan's delayed tax cuts were the mirror image of President Barack Obama's delayed tax rate increases. For 1981 and 1982 people deferred so much economic activity that real GDP was basically flat (i.e., no growth), and the unemployment rate rose to well over 10%.

But at the tax boundary of Jan. 1, 1983 the economy took off like a rocket, with average real growth reaching 7.5% in 1983 and 5.5% in 1984. It has always amazed me how tax cuts don't work until they take effect. Mr. Obama's experience with deferred tax rate increases will be the reverse. The economy will collapse in 2011.

Consider corporate profits as a share of GDP. Today, corporate profits as a share of GDP are way too high given the state of the U.S. economy. These high profits reflect the shift in income into 2010 from 2011. These profits will tumble in 2011, preceded most likely by the stock market.

Agreed. I had a poly-sci professor (head of the department) that railed against Reagan for an entire semester. 'Reagan would cut taxes and spend his butt off on the military and his advisors constantly told him it did not work,' he would constantly say.

It was only years later that I realized he was lying. The tax cuts gave us unprecedented prosperity and the military spending crushed communism and won the Cold War. Reagan is a very smart person and you would have never known it because the media was fond of portraying him as an old geezer that took naps and ate jelly beans. They even retroactively tried to rewrite history that he was a bad actor when he was actually a good actor in his time. Google Reagan quotes and you'll be very impressed.

[Baron Von PWN]

the military spending crushed communism and won the Cold War. Rea

This is bogus .

Communism was ended by a loss of will on the part of Soviet leadership to keep being repressive. When gorbachev decided to tried to reform the system he moved too quickly and the rest is history.