There are no two snowflakes alike in this world, and such is true pertaining to human beings. Each individual derives from a unique background, in result forming them into the person they are with their own aspirations and goals. For some people, their vocation is politics. For Tommy Douglas and Ronald Reagan, their calling was such. While these politicians each held their own beliefs and values, they held one common goal as respected political figures; to improve their homelands to the best of their abilities.
Both men led very different lives. Saskatchewan Premier Tommy Douglas was born into the working class in Scotland and later emigrated to Canada with his family, settling in Winnipeg. He was a very religious man, eventually
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As a result of the period of time he lived in and his upbringing in a small town, he knew the severity of which money could affect one's quality of life. Assisting the less fortunate escape poverty was important to him. Under his leadership, spending for basic low-income assistance program rose 40%. Reagan also worked to have Congress pass a legislation which worked on helping recover the economy as a whole. He introduced the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981, which in result decreased an individual’s income tax rates and the cost of private property. Over the span of his reign, twenty million new jobs were created, inflation rates dropped by over half than what they were when he became President, unemployment rate decreased, the net worth of families income increased by over half of their previous earnings, and the tax cuts saved American families of close to ten thousand. Reagan’s belief of the government’s as protecting their citizens and his value on collectivism was reflected in his actions as he worked to improve the quality of life for the common good.
Tommy Douglas had his own view on government’s role in society. He lived through both World Wars, and his actions reflected the period of time he lived through. The World Wars contributed to his leadership beliefs; the Second World War convinced
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He was motivated by an incident in his childhood where he obtained an injury that left untreated would result in the amputation of the leg. Fortunately for him, a doctor stepped forward and offered to conduct the surgery free of charge on account that medical students could observe and his leg was saved. The idea of an individual being ill and not being able to afford medical attention was not acceptable to the Premier. He later stated, “I felt that no boy should have to depend either for his leg or his life upon the ability of his parents to raise enough money to bring a first-class surgeon to his bedside.” As result of Douglas’ initiating universal health care, citizens to this day continue to benefit, but this decision was initially triggered by one’s self interest in mind.
Apart from the introduction of health care, Douglas and his party played a role by being the first to advocate the idea of Canada-wide pension plans. Another event in his life that affected his political career was witnessing the Winnipeg General Strike, which was a strike demanding higher pay. In result, Douglas and his party also played a role in bargaining rights for civil servants. Tommy Douglas’ actions reflected his individualist beliefs. Both men made decisions that they they thought was best for their country or
The influences of Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev in the Cold War When Ronald Reagan took over the White House, the end of the Cold War not only along way off, it actually looked like the USSR was winning. Gorbachev and Reagan signed several treaties during Reagan 's second term and granted the production of nuclear arms in both countries. Relations with the Soviet Union improved, but Reagan still attacked Communists throughout the rest of the world. During his presidency, the United States also sent peacekeeping forces to Lebanon and bombed the terrorist-supporting country of Libya.
John A. MacDonald and Alexander Mackenzie were both Prime minister of Canada who sought to do the best for their country. Due to them being in opposite political parties, they both had different policies that they wanted to imply on Canada. McDonald 's policies were, the National Policy, the creation of the Canadian Pacific railway, slowing down the development of the Supreme court and the Royal military college. While Mackenzie 's policy was to increase free trade with the US, make Canada more independent, and cancels the building of the railway. Nevertheless, MacDonald was the one who I believe benefitted Canada 's future.. With MacDonald ordering the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway throughout all of Canada.
At the time, his tax cuts were the biggest ever in U.S. history. Reagan was also against workers' unions. He realized that these unions
This was especially true when he witnessed firsthand the horrors of the 1919 Winnipeg General Strike (Reb). Growing up, he went into politics where he gradually accumulated influence from voters in Saskatchewan’s provincial election to lead the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation [CCF] to form the first socialist government in North America (Bonikowsky). His leadership was often challenged by his political opponents that hailed him as a communist or even a fascist with their aggressive propaganda. However, Tommy responded strategically through radio telecasts that made use of his remarkable oratory skills to secure his seat as Saskatchewan’s premier for 17 years (Wong). Tommy’s humanitarian ideology made Saskatchewan a leader in progressive social policy that is still reflected through the NDP today.
Like Nixon and Goldwater, Reagan promised to reverse the growth of government as well as committed to free enterprise and individual freedom 13. For his first executive order, Reagan abolished price controls, reduced taxes, and worked with the Federal Reserve Board to slow federal spending 14. It was very important to Reagan and conservatives everywhere that spending on nonessentials was cut. This was a characteristic of both modern and traditional conservatism. Reagan was heavy on military spending; he poured money into defense for the sake of combating communism and protecting those oppressed by the Soviet Union 15.
He recovered and returned with good spirits, which made him even more popular. In 1986, Reagan eliminated deductions and exempted million of lower income families. The country had its longest recorded time period of peace and prosperity, avoiding depression and recession.
Although some questioned his skills, none questioned his tenacity. During Reagan’s first four months in office, he went on to meet with Congress over seventy times to discuss his military buildup plans and tax and budget cuts (page 110, ibook). On July 29, 1981, Congress passed a series of tax cuts that reduced the federal budget by 25% over three years. Although this seemed like a great start, Reagan did this so he would be able to boost his military spending and that’s exactly what he did. He once said “defense is not a budget item, you spend what you need” (p. 182 ibook).
When Reagan took office in 1981 the GDP was at 6.59 trillion dollars. When he left office in 1989 the GDP had risen to 8.85 trillion dollars. With a thirty-four percent increase over the course of his administration. This is an astonishing amount and probably well exceeded any increase Reagan could have possibly hoped for. Reagan was able to do this thanks to his two tax cuts.
This particularly was just a start of the Medicare program Douglas for the most part wanted to basically introduce in a very big way. He then in 1947 created Canada’s first universal and compulsory sort of hospital insurance program, or so they particularly thought. This legislation kind of had offered “expanded actually hospital facilities, x-rays and lab services, common drugs, and particularly other generally hospital services” (“Achievements”), which actually is fairly significant. Finally, in 1959, Douglas literally was finally able to make his Medicare plan generally public in a for all intents and purposes big way. Furthermore, his plan covered every person in Saskatchewan with “pre-paid, publicly administered health care” (“Tommy Douglas”) in a fairly major way.
The recession of 1982 when his first term began was a time when a large portion of Americans were unemployed, creating the need for Reagan to do something. Although high taxes and a great deal of government intervention from FDR was a solid way to get the United States out of the Great Depression, Reagan wanted to try the exact opposite. Reagan’s philosophy was simple: cut taxes to allow small businesses in particular to create more jobs, decrease the unemployment rate, and allow citizens to improve the economy by spending money (history.com). Fortunately for the United States, the unemployment rate slowly decreased, and was nearly cut in half before Reagan left office (bls.gov). Despite the recession during 1981, the economy turned around within a couple of years.
During his service the economy improved and ended the cold war. This is a such great thing that he did, in ending the cold war. I think that he did improve the economy by everything he was changing and fixing. Reagan’s main importance was for us to win the cold war because he thought all people deserved to be free. I think that he worked really hard to win the cold war, because he cared about everyone.
Unemployment rates began to increase. Over time, Reagan had increased taxes 11 times, mainly on the middle class. When Reagan had left office, he had tripled the national debt of United States. This had affected the United States and led to several issues later on. This is the reason Reaganomics had both aided some and destroyed others.
J. Estrella Professor Robinson AMH-2020 27 November 2017 Thematic Review #2 Reaganomics Ronald Regan was born on February 6th 1911, he was an American Politician who became the 40th president of the united states in 1981. Ronald Reagan was a big influence on economic activity during the 80’s and 90’s of the 20th century his economic policy would create a prospering economy in the 90s. One of his most famous acts as president was signing the 1981 tax bill or known as the Economic Recovery Tax Act (ERTA). This act allowed a twenty-five percent cut in marginal taxes for people, which in theory would help the economy grow quicker through businesses and the people.
Americans enjoyed many fundamental changes and embraced a new conservatism in social, political and economic life during the 1980s. The fashion, sports, and technological industries all expanded with the rise of the economy where new products, styles, and leagues were introduced. Furthermore, many historical U.S. and World issues occurred. Led by President Jimmy Carter, then Ronald Reagan and later President George H.W. Bush, the U.S. faced several impactful situations.
Government expenditure increased due to personal tax credits and more leniency towards applicants for unemployment compensation. Tax changes in the mid 1970’s benefitted the middle to lower income bracket by increasing their disposable income (A Tale of Two Tax Cuts, 2001). In the late 60’s and early 70’s, the US was in an inflationary gap. The Oil Crisis caused a shift to the left in the short-run aggregate supply. It then resulted in a recession.