Centennial Honors College
Western Illinois University
Undergraduate Research Day 2012
Podium Presentation
Reaganomics; Let’s Go Back
Joseph Hahn
Faculty Mentor: Jonathan Day
Political Science
My paper deals with the economic policy of the president. With America’s economy
being in a downward spiral I compared Obama’s plan to Reaganomic. I did this because
Reagan was the last president to see a down economy like this and found it to be the
most relevant.
I start out by looking at basic facts about Reagan’s presidency looking at things like
unemployment, terms, and a general explanation of what Reaganomics is. I mention
how unemployment was at almost 11% when Reagan got into office and by the time he
left it was down 5%. So the next question is how he did it.
The next part of my paper looks at what I find to be the major indicators of how to judge
an economy. These are unemployment, inflation, national debt, and how much the
government needs to intervene in the private sector. I looked at each of these, talked
about what Obama is doing and what Reagan did.
The final part of my paper looks at current issues rather than looking at the past.
Obama’s economic plan is the complete opposite of Reaganomics and it doesn’t seem
to make sense to me. We have a plan that works and we are avoiding it. With
republican presidential nominees trying to mimic Reaganomics to the tee, why are we
not listening to their plan?