Why Ronald Reagan is Overrated

      We've all heard it, Ronald Reagan, the great savior and patron saint of the Republican Party. The major reason he is regarded as a great president is because of the security and safety he gave the country during the Cold War. A sense of strength. This part may be true, but the reality is the Reagan years were plagued by recession, high unemployment, skyrocketing debt, wasteful spending, questionable and shady foreign policy, and an ignorance of domestic issues, specifically AIDS, education, and the environment.
      First I'm going to take a look at the economics of Reagan's presidency. The most common misconception is that Reagan saved our economy with his famous Reaganonmics. This of course included the modern trickle-down theory or supply-side economics, which included major tax decreases, specifically on the wealthy. These tax decreases, coupled with high military spending, created a massive debt and led the country into the worst depressions since the Great Depression.
      When Reagan entered the presidency in 1981 the national debt was at $900 billion. By the time he left it had over tripled to $2.8 trillion. To top it off, many of the military projects the money was used to create went unused or incomplete. Remember Star Wars?
      Skyrocketing debt was not the only problem. With the recession obviously came unemployment. After the Reaganomics policies were put in place unemployment steadily and quickly grew until it peaked at 11%, one of the highest unemployment rates on record. Also hit by the recession were businesses. Growth and sales stalled. This did not affect many major corporations, however. Reagan's policies were leniant, and in some cases even encouraging, when it came to outsourcing, and moving companies and jobs overseas. All of these elements created a recession which lasted about two years.
      Reagan did however get the country out of the recession, but he did it by abandoning his beloved Reaganomics, and raising taxes 11 times in his last 6 years. The largest of these was the Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibilty Act of 1982. It was written and proposed by the Democratic Congress, and was reluctantly signed in by Reagan. This was the turning point and boost the economy needed, and spurred economic growth. For some reason today's Republicans still cling to the failed policy that is trickle-down.
      Reagan also struggled with domestic and foreign issues. Something not talked about a lot is Reagan's mishandling of the AIDS crisis, which killed tens of thousands. Little medical aid, money, or policies were set up to combat it. It was put on the back-burner, to be dealt with after military issues. Also ignored was the education system. He did nothing to stop the downhill slide of inner city schools, and crumbling systems. Reagan publicly denounced public education and tried, unsuccessfully, to privatize many schools. He continued his campaign against public education by halving federal aid for higher education. As stated before, the environment, an important issue for many preceding years, was ignored by Reagan. He famously removed the White House solar panels put in place by Carter. He didn't stop there however. Funding for clean energy projects was cut and he worked to privatize government land as well as clean energy facilities.
      It's apparent that issues overseas took precedence. But even with all this focus, Reagan became misguided. He was so caught up with fighting communism and keeping the Soviets out of Afghanistan, that he failed to see he was aiding a western and U.S. hating militant group. The Taliban, the same group that attacked America on 9/11, and we were fighting for over ten years, were trained and supplied by the United States.
      Sure, he kept the Soviets out of Afghanistan, but the whole idea that he brought the downfall of the Soviet Union and ended the Cold War is a myth. The Soviet Union collapsed under its own policies. Policies like perestroika and glasnost. These polices strengthened the individual Soviet states, allowing more independence and market-reform. These in turn brought more revolution amongst the states. Obviously Reagan had little to nothing to do with this.
      Many also question his foreign policy regarding Latin America. Reagan sunk billions of dollars into small wars in countries like Nicaragua. These were done without consulting Congress and were done merely to protect our nation's business interests, or show strength during the Cold War, by combating that horrible thing called Communism. Unfortunately some of the dictators America backed and put in place were worse than those we overthrew.
      All of these factors put together: the horrible recession and subsequent abandoning of his own policies, the ignorance of AIDS and our education system, and his shady foreign policy, prove how truly bad of a president he was. The glory given to him today is only advanced by myths and ignorance of facts. Reagan is not the great president he's made to be. Rather, he is probably the most overrated president in our history.