Reagan only took two years!

[(vikm)]

Had a friend compare the situation Obama inherited and has been digging us out of to what Reagan "fixed". Point I was making at the time was that Bush was given 8 years to completely run us aground and many expect Obama to have fixed everything in half the time. His response to that was that it "only took Reagan 2 yrs to fix things". I was dumbfounded that the comparison of the overall situations was even taking place. I can only shake my head and as much as I'd like to discuss it further with him, I know it'd be a complete waste of my time. What is it with Reagan and these people? Sorry, just had to share my frustration... lol

[Chakravartin]

Technically, Reagan may have "fixed" things even before he was president.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_su...acy_theory

[decay]

did you remind him that Reagan also raised taxes several times?

[michaelb]

Carter fixed things by appointing Paul Volker as chair of the fed and having him ratchet down on the money supply to control inflation.

[Lux Interior]

decay wrote:
did you remind him that Reagan also raised taxes several times?

He has a filter that changes "Reagan raised taxes" to "Reagan ended the Cold War."

[Filliam H. Muffman]

Does he have a filter for Reagan raising the debt 200% along with raising taxes? A real Tea Party darling that one...

[(vikm)]

I actually did see a breakdown of the percentage increase of the deficit under the Presidents since Carter. I think Reagan was like 188.6%. I was astounded. It dwarfed all of the others and iirc, the Republicans were always higher than the Dems. Just incredible how glaring the Reagan years were.

[Lux Interior]

Filliam H. Muffman wrote:
Does he have a filter for Reagan raising the debt 200% along with raising taxes? A real Tea Party darling that one...

The filter for that one goes by absolute $ values and not percentages.

[freeradical]

michaelb wrote:
Carter fixed things by appointing Paul Volker as chair of the fed and having him ratchet down on the money supply to control inflation.

Yep

Economic tough love. Reagan reappointed him too.

[Speedy]

Pres. Carter broke the back of stagflation which set up things for his successor. Pres. Reagan's massive deficit spending (now known as 'stimulus'), increasing the national debt, as a percentage, more than any other president who was not fighting a world war, thus managing an increase in employment and GDP. Pres. Bush II was second only to Pres. Reagan in driving up the debt by percentage increase. That is why Democratic presidents are the more fiscally prudent.