Reagan cut across the board taxes in the 80s and the economy caught fire - Why couldn't Obama do that?

First and foremost, Obama (swt) does NOT want the economy to catch fire, he wants to extinguish it.

You forgot two very little things about Reagan... 1) 1986 Full amnesty for all illegal immigrants, new tax revenue for the government. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128303672 2) "Two bills passed in 1982 and 1984 together "constituted the biggest tax increase ever enacted during peacetime," ..."The bills didn't raise more revenue by hiking individual income tax rates though. Instead they did it largely through making it tougher to evade taxes, and through "base broadening" -- that is, reducing various federal tax breaks and closing tax loopholes." In other words Reagan increased taxes 11 times during his Presidency. http://money.cnn.com/2010/09/08/news/economy/reagan_years_taxes/index.htm

OBAMA IS A LIBERAL AND LIBERALS LOVE HIGH TAXES AND MASSIVE GOVERNMENT SPENDING PROGRAMS

This is revisionist history. The economy did not improve in the 80's because of tax cuts, and you have done nothing to draw that causal connection. In fact, taxes were effectively raised under Reagan (though only slightly). The 60's and 70's recession began well before Carter took office. The Iran issue has nothing to do with it. And we are now all paying the price for Reagan, Bush, and Clinton (and Congress) failing to raise taxes enough during the boom to lower the debt. There is a whole lot that goes into making the national economy weak or strong other than the rate of taxation. Update: I don't think you've understood a word I wrote. Update 2: It doesn't matter if you close a loophole, or raise a rate. If you take a larger percentage of income in taxes, you've raised taxes. And you still have not offered a single piece of evidence that tax cuts (to the extent they even existed) were a *cause* of economic growth. The 80's and 90's had a strong economy for a variety of reasons including a global upswing in production and the emergence of the U.S. from a decade-and-half-long recession period which caused stocks to be undervalued. We also now know that much of the supposed growth was actually fake growth due to the Fed keeping interest rates artificially low, and accounting tricks that were permitted because of deregulation. We learned that to our pain first during the savings and loan scandals, then Enron, then the dot com bubble, then the big housing bubble. The upshot is that you CAN give a shot to the economy by injecting money into it, either by lowering taxes or increasing government spending or both. But both also grow the debt, which has its own problems.

Actually if you're going to give credit where it's due.. Carter is the one that brought the economy back. He was just ousted because of the Iranian hostage thing which sure became convivient for Reagan once he became president. The only thing that Reagan is responsible for is gutting manufacturing jobs, gutting financial reform and basically starting the turn to where the country works for only the rich but hey, that's what you get when you put an actor in the White House. If you were truly there like you say you were then all you're doing now is spreading lies which is shameful and extremely unclassy.

And he and DADDY created, and left behind a recession as well.

Agreed Jimbo, . Here is more information: . Why can't Obama learn from history and follow a truly great Democrat: JFK? 91% used to be the tax rate for the wealthy. In 1963, President John Kennedy [Democrat] reduced the wealthy's tax rate from 91. After the cut. economic growth averaged more than 5 percent a year for three years, with very low inflation. It worked. President Kennedy understood that tax cuts actually increase revenue, spark growth, create jobs and can lower the deficit. Why doesn't Obama? "An economy hampered by restrictive tax rates will never produce enough revenue to balance our budget". JFK understood this why doesn't Obama? "In short, it is a paradoxical truth that tax rates are too high today and tax revenues are too low and the soundest way to raise the revenue in the long run is to cut the rates now". He did and it worked. JFK understood this why doesn't Obama? A vibrant economy is what increases revenue. Not taxes. Are you listening Mr. President? Cut taxes. . . @realistic girl ... and you forgot another thing about Reagan .. when the Air Traffic Controllers Union struck and stopped all air travel - Reagan fired all of them. Yes all of them and hired new ones. He didn't put up with Unions.

You (and a lot of other people) give to much credit to politicians. Reagan had Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. Both started their companies before Reagan took office and both couldn't have cared less about taxes. When Reagan took office there were 300,000 PCs in the US. When he left office there were 60 million. The 80's saw the largest increase in productivity in history. All of it without the help of any elected official.

You can't cut taxes without cutting spending also and neither party has the spine to make any significant spending cuts.