How Were The Clinton Policies Similar To The Reagan-Bush Policies

787 Words4 Pages

How were the Clinton policies similar to the Reagan-Bush policies?
The Reagan, Bush, and Clinton administrations stretched through the years 1981 to 2001 and with each inaugural address, the incoming president would announce to the United States that changes would be made to benefit the majority of Americans rather than the few. Despite what was said, their actions contradicted their campaign speeches. The change in political parties in power created an illusion of change among American citizens. However, the actions demonstrated that this belief was false. Although the Reagan and Bush administrations worked under the Republican party and the Clinton administration worked under the Democratic party, they each enacted similar polices. Their …show more content…

These presidents also followed policies of reducing regulations on corporations. President Reagan was inaugurated on January 20, 1981 and promised, during his campaign, to reduce taxes on American families. President George H. W. Bush was inaugurated on January 20, 1989; he followed similar policies of the Reagan Administration, in that he favored strong military, low taxes, and limited regulations on American corporations. Reagan specifically sought to give wealthy corporations more power over the economy by removing regulations and reducing the corporate income tax. He also provided the military with over a trillion dollars. The increase in military spending cut in taxes, Reagan said that he would balance the budget. He did this through cutting benefits for the poorer United States citizens. His administration cut one hundred forty billion dollars in social services while increasing the military budget by one hundred eighty one dollars. As a result, three hundred fifty thousand United States citizens lost social security disability benefits. During the Bush Administrations, the United States took an active military role in the Gulf War, resulting in greater military spending that would be better used helping the suffering American families that were struggling with the cut in social …show more content…

His administration was different in that he attempted to establish moderate policies to please members of both the Republican and Democratic parties. Through his attempt to be moderate, he enacted policies that were similar to the Reagan and Bush administrations. He worked in favor of corporate interests while creating policies to establish the illusion that he was working solely for the middle and lower class American citizens. For example, he sought to reduce the size of the federal government. The Republicans were in favor of restricting the strength and size of the federal government. President Clinton joined them in enacting laws to restrict the government; however, these restrictions were directed entirely at social programs, rather than the other, more corrupt, forms of a strong government. As a result, welfare and other social services for poor American families were limited. For example, families were cut off of welfare after two years and lifetime benefits were limited to five years. President Clinton did this while ignoring the other characteristics of a strong federal government, such as subsidies to large corporations and contracts to the defense industries, never calling for a reduction in military spending, only reductions in spending on necessary social programs for lower class families. The wealthy citizens flourished throughout these years while working class Americans struggled without the safety

Open Document