Quote:
Originally Posted by molson
If we're going to give presidents credit for the economy of the country, then Regan has to be a slam dunk.
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That's why I handicap the terms of Carter and Reagan a bit. Carter wasn't nearly as bad a president as the economy made him look -- the economy was already in the tank and wasn't going to recover as long as inflation and the energy crisis were both raging. There wasn't much he could do about either one. The economy almost had to improve under Reagan, 'cause it couldn't get any worse.
Conservatives will point toward tax cuts as being the saving grace of the '80s economic recovery and as a pinko commie liberal I'll agree that the top tax rates were too high. But the runaway government spending helped too, and the combination of both solidified the face that we will almost certainly always have a federal deficit that we cannot possibly repay.
I voted for Clinton but I handicap him as well -- he had almost as much to do with the booming economy of the '90s as Reagan did with the '80s. But whereas Reagan piled up debt during an economic recovery, Clinton actually found ways to cut debt.