Reagan fundamentally changed the American economy for the worse IMO. He came in office and immediately cut taxes disproportionately for rich Americans. We can argue all day that a 70% tax rate is too high but it was working. The rich were still doing well and the middle class could still see and believe that climbing into the upper class was possible. That changed when Reagan cut the tax rate from 70% to 28% in less than 8 years. The average worker pay has increased by less than 6% since then and we've seen CEO's pay increase by nearly 800%. Companies decided to ship jobs overseas and hire more low paying workers here to increase their bottom line at the expense of the worker. In fact most of the jobs he created were the low paying kind. The other effect of cutting taxes by 42% for the rich is it created a massive budget deficit. Our national debt went from a very manageable $900B to a bloated $2.7T. All of it was done to bleed government. Problem is when the average worker has seen their pay increase by less than 6% in 30 years they end up needing more government. If not for W Bush he would be by far the worst president in my lifetime and Clinton wouldn't be far behind. Even Nixon considered helping the workers with his employer mandated health care proposal.

I try to stay out of these conversations, because there is no point discussing politics on this board, but the bolded statement is one of the dumbest political thoughts ever posted here. It was not working at all. The US economy had completely tanked and unemployment was through the roof.

That said, I pretty much disagree with your entire assessment of what went on in the 80's, but again, there is no point attempting to provide points of why that was.

Then wasted trillions in pointless government actions scapegoating & harming those who couldn't fight back. But his buddies got really, really well.

Yes it is.

When this is all over, which is not going to be for a while, Trump will be re-elected President.

Sounds like the last 13 years of the presidency.

Reagan fundamentally changed the American economy for the worse IMO. He came in office and immediately cut taxes disproportionately for rich Americans. We can argue all day that a 70% tax rate is too high but it was working. The rich were still doing well and the middle class could still see and believe that climbing into the upper class was possible. That changed when Reagan cut the tax rate from 70% to 28% in less than 8 years. The average worker pay has increased by less than 6% since then and we've seen CEO's pay increase by nearly 800%. Companies decided to ship jobs overseas and hire more low paying workers here to increase their bottom line at the expense of the worker. In fact most of the jobs he created were the low paying kind. The other effect of cutting taxes by 42% for the rich is it created a massive budget deficit. Our national debt went from a very manageable $900B to a bloated $2.7T. All of it was done to bleed government. Problem is when the average worker has seen their pay increase by less than 6% in 30 years they end up needing more government. If not for W Bush he would be by far the worst president in my lifetime and Clinton wouldn't be far behind. Even Nixon considered helping the workers with his employer mandated health care proposal.

The victims are the American People and the Republic itself.

I remember high unemployment and relatives paying 19% for home mortgage interest when Carter was president. And the shipping of jobs overseas really exploded after Clinton was elected.