The Presidency of: Ronald Reagan, George Bush Sr. and William “Bill” Clinton
...ietnam War era, but just in case he was drafted he signed up for the Army ROTC program. Clinton was also a Democratic like Bush. During their presidency they had many assets that were good and that was bad, but they managed to get through them. Reagan first asset that made the U.S. love him was the “Economic Tax Recovery Act” that was to cut tax across the U.S. brackets. This tax was to help out the poor and wealth people in America. The tax act also caused inflations while the government was pumping money into the hands of the consumers. The tax cut was mainly to funnel to the upper income households, and so that it could get out of congress. Due to the tax cut it was the longest economic expansion in U.S. history and it was also the cause for new jobs that were created in 1981. This happened before Federal Reserve Chairman Allen Greenspan pulled the plug on the operation by raising interest rates to avoid a “spike” in inflation. Another good asset that Reagan had was the fact that he was a good some of his foreign polices that he had faced. When Jimmy Carter was president he had some troops in Iran that he couldn’t seem to get back home, but as soon as Reagan got in office the troops were put on a plane headed back home to America. Reagan also had success with the regional instabilities with Argentina. He helped them dispatch America naval forces to patrol the Persian Gulf to make sure that the shipping lanes remain open for the flow of global oil during the Iran-Iraq War. The down fall of Reagan was the Iran-Contra affair (scandal). It was a scandal because Reagan and his aids and two of his national security advisors violated congressional law by using profits from illegal arms sales to Iran to fund anti-communist guerillas in Nicaragua that nearly cost Reagan his presidency. The next biggest thing that made Reagan look bad was the fact that he looked over terrorism. The Iranian hostage crisis was solved before Reagan got in office but was brought back up when seven America troops were taken hostage by pro-Iranian militias in Beirut. As part of the scandal the deal to get the hostages free blew up in his face. Just like Reagan Bush also had strength in foreign policy. During his presidency the Soviet Empire collapsed under its own “economic and political weight”. Bush led the way through the collapse, and through the crucial periods of peace and reconciliation. With the breakup of the Eastern bloc and the arms reduction most of the people realized that the cold war was over. Another thing that made Bush famous was the fact that he looked out for the disable and the issues of childcare. In 1990 Bush signed the “American with Disabilities Act (ADA)” which forbade discrimination towards employers who were disabled that was previously excluded from any civil rights legislation. This act was a great legislation for Bush because it was a good social and civil rights policy since the 1970s. This act also made the employers and educational people look at the disable differently. Bush thought strongly about the childcare reform laws, so he signed the “Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act” of 1990. The act was so that the parents could choose their own childcare arrangements, and not the government. The federal government would provide a large increase in the basic earned income tax (EITC). Now that Bush was in office he wanted to cut deficits and he thought the only way to do that was to raise taxes. The only way that he could that was to do some major spending cuts, which will cause Bush to talk or negotiate with the congressional Democratic Party. These negotiations were pushed to the back burner because of the international crises in Panama. Because of this and the fact that the Democrats thought that Bush was not strong on the domestic front, Bush had to rethink his no new tax pledge which will hurt him in his 1992 election. The demise in of hundreds of savings and loans in the late 1980s created a huge hole in the national financial system in which the federal government had to fill before it pulled the rest of the economy down into the drain as well. Enron was one of the energy trading companies that escalated the savings and loans. The federal government had to bail out the failed savings and loans that were over a hundred billion dollars, and it also created a stain on the American economy. Just like Reagan Bush was also involved in some kind of scandal. This was when Federal Reserve Chairman Allen Greenspan raised interest rates in early 1991 to try to offset inflation from increasing in oil prices. Because oil prices failed to increase, the interest rates hiked up and became a slower drag on the slowing economy. When Thurgood Marshall decided that he was going to retire, Bush saw that a...