Reagans and Obamas Presidency

The United States of America has three core branches of government, that is, legislative, executive and the judicially. Among the arms of government, the presidency, ethics, powers, responsibilities, and duties are well stipulated in the constitution under the executive section. A total of forty-five presidents have sat on the throne, each having unique contribution, fame, shortcomings, and legacy. This paper seeks to analyze, compare and contrast the 40th and 44th president of the US, Ronald Reagan, and Barack Obama respectively. The Era of Reagan and Obama Ronald Reagan was the US president whose era ran from 1981-1989. The two leaders implemented and facilitated domestic policies, which according to them, were the best. They had to exclusively handle businesses, education, energy, healthcare, taxes, social welfare, law enforcement, rights and freedoms of the US citizens.

Ideologies Obama and Reagan are leaders who shared common interests. In fact, they had similar tone on development agendas. As much as the two had this common aspect, they belonged to two distinct ideological blocks. Much can be said that the remarkable difference in handling employment in the first term made Reagan more popular than Obama. According to Cillizza (2012), the fall in unemployment during Reagan’s reign was a result of his notion of job creation while under Obama’s authority, the driving factor was attrition and experimentation. Health care Policies Health care is fundamentally one of the most basic necessities of a nation. Every president would wish to be remembered for enhancing substantial health care reforms. Reagan’s and Obama’s reign were characterized by the dispensation of enhanced care services.

The two leaders had issues with their Congress. According to (Cillizza, 2012), President Obama went against the Congress to effectuate elements of his agenda. The opinion headlines suggested that he was using an executive order to implement his agenda. For instance, his decision to order a wage increase of the federal contractors’ employees, irked citizens who viewed his actions as a violation of the constitution and a contempt of oath of presidency. Similar to that, Reagan experienced a harsh Congress which at times wound not cooperate with his agendas. 5 percent of the GDP, similarly, Obama clinched power when the revenues in 2010 stood at 14. 9 percent of the Gross Domestic Product. The nation had fallen into financial crises where public spending was too high for the taxation to keep it at ease and the national debt too high to settle.

Tax Reforms To offset the margin and recover the economy, Reagan introduced means to curb the rising threat to the future of America, and so did Obama. Reagan reduced the size of government in an attempt to minimize national spending. His driving momentum was “yes we can”. He was a leader who liked talking and addressing the nation, all with an aim to show how hardworking he was, this was as per his critics reasoning. His speech prowess saw him flood media centers, sites and any means that would help convey his message to the public. Out of such appearances, he would sell his domestic policies. Like Obama, Reagan was an excellent speech maker and campaigner but his appearances on media were not that frequent.

Obama is known for his anti-gun policies which aimed at reducing terror in the nation, however, his policies gave the mandate to more gun ownership. His reign was characterized by failure to tame gun sale. On the other hand, Reagan was a victim of a gunshot hence seconded a ban on assault weapons. In fact, he raised a ban on carrying of guns in street, mostly the licensed weapons. Substance abuse management policies Drugs have continued to be a great menace to the Americans. Regarding food distribution, Reagan had fewer programs to feed his then population as compared to Obama’s tenure. The population under food stamps rose during Obama’s time, a contrast to Reagan’s season where the population was not too high to tame.