American History: Presidents Starting From Roosevelt Essay

Franklin D. Roosevelt introduced the Social security system to the United States. When the Great Depression the economy was going on the economy was spiraling downward and there was high unemployment. To help the economy recover he created the New Deal and initiated several programs. The FDIC and SEC were all initiated in Roosevelt’s time and still continue to affect our nation.

Harry S. Truman was the 33^rd president of the United States. Communism is the worst threat to democracy is a popular belief and Truman was a true believer of the statement. The Truman Doctrine’s purpose was to help the nations like Greece and Turkey to be unaffected by communism. This was all ongoing during the Cold War against the Soviet Union and a part of the strategy was to create the National Security Act of 1947 and this Act gave birth to the CIA which to this day tries to maintain order n the United States.

Dwight D. Eisenhower started the Federal Highway Act of 1956. This was developed during the Cold War as a measure of security. He believed that the United States would probably be attacked and that the main spots attacked are always big cities which would require immediate evacuation of the people residing in the spots. Highways were constructed to help the people evacuate the cities and let the military help come in. The construction of highways continues to have a huge affect on the U.S. economy to this day. A recent example was during Hurricane Katrina when millions of people fled to the highways to get away from an attack from nature.

John F. Kennedy was the 35^th president of the United States and the Cuban Missile Crisis during his time led America to another close encounter with nuclear weapons and a possible nuclear war. Later in his term he created the Partial Test Ban Treaty to stop any sort of atomic testing. This lead to safe future for the United States and prevented them from the incidents that are still affecting Russia.

Lyndon B. Johnson helped pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964 in order to end most forms of racial segregation. This led to the Voting Rights Act which put an end to racial discrimination during voting.

Richard Nixon created the Comprehensive Health Insurance Act which required employers to buy health insurance for all their employees. He also introduced America to Medicaid.

Gerald Ford signed the Tax Reduction Act of 1974 as a means of reducing inflation. His idea that the economy would improve through tax rebates failed tremendously and the inflation rates did not decrease.

Jimmy Carter vetoed a lot of bills and act because he thought that they were inflationary and unnecessary. Along with helping the Social security act which helped employ thousands of Americans he focused on the environment too. He created the “Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act” and formed a huge national park in Alaska.

Ronald Reagan created the “Immigration Reform and Control Act” required employers to check the status of the employees they were going to hire to see if they were legal residents of the United States. All illegal immigrants were denied a job which he believed would force them to seek a legal status through the proper means and improve their lifestyles.

George Bush negotiated with NAFTA to minimize or end tariffs on items traded between the three countries in North America. The purpose of this was to promote trade between the three countries.

Bill Clinton signed the “Minimum Wage Increase Act” in 1996. This was done to ethically pay the workers a minimum amount of compensation according to the rising costs.

George W. Bush “No Child Left Behind” Act was a measure to increase he education rate in the United States and not to deny education on the basis of a high or low income.

Democracy is a means to freedom and the way for every individual to have a voice. Communism strips an individual of what he deserves and is unjust. America felt the communism had to be defeated no matter what the cost because communism is the worst threat to democracy.

Ten steps to stop communism

1. The containment policy was created by the United States to stop communism from spreading. They wanted to help other countries to not fall into the mousetrap of communism.
2. The Truman Doctrine was created by President Truman to help countries like Turkey and Greece to be unaffected by communism.
3. The Highway Act was started by President Eisenhower as a safety measure for people to evacuate cities if they were a targeted to be attacked by the communist USSR. The highways would also help the U.S. military go into the cities as a means of defense and attack.
4. Marshall Plan was to provide all the non communist countries to work together and help stop communism after the Second World War
5. Cold War was a fight against the communist USSR.
6. The Berlin Airlift was used to provide to West Berlin during the Truman administration.
7. The Vietnam War was a way to carry out the containment measures according to the Truman Doctrine in a more hands on way. America wanted to help Vietnam move forward and become non-communist.
8. The Korean War was a due to conflict between communist North Korea and U.S. supported South Korea. The war was to stop communism and offer North Korea a democratic helping hand.
9. The Gulf War was the application of the containment policy in Iraq. During G. Bush’s term the containment of communism was converted into a military operation to spread democracy as a more hands on way of battling communism.
10. The war in Afghanistan and Iraq after 9 11 was a means to stop communism there and spread democracy.

Both Roosevelt and Johnson wanted to rid society of poverty. Roosevelt carried our projects such as the Tennessee Valley Authority to take action against poverty. The TVA modernized the way agriculture was carried out in the below poverty line Tennessee Valley. Dams and power stations were built and it helped the Valley Prosper. Johnson on the other hand believed that education was the solution to poverty. He carried out many acts and programs to help educate poor children and a lot of the federal budget was used for this cause. Unfortunately, the plan did not help decrease poverty at all; instead researchers said that poverty was mainly due to the neighborhood conditions and family backgrounds.

Reagan wanted to lower taxes and cut down domestic spending. When he became president inflation was high and millions of people were unemployed. Instead of doing what his predecessors did he came up with new ways to battle inflation and unemployment. He reduced income tax rates and raised deficit funds. With his Tax Reform Act he sought to neutralize the tax amounts depending on income. The direct effects of these policies was tremendous although it’s still debatable whether all of it should be credited to Reagan alone or even if it was good or bad for the country. By the end of his term the gross domestic product had increased, unemployment decreased and inflation decreased as well.

According to Karl Marx, socialism is one of the stages a capitalist society will go through before becoming communist. In socialism the entire community governs the industries and means of production collectively.

Capitalism is a system where individuals and companies privately own the means of production and the exchange of wealth. This system is different because the money obtained here is used to reinvest in the free market, there is no state controlled intervention.

A pure form of any type of government or system can never work. Just like a human being cannot be perfect all the time, a system controlled and operated by human beings or their influence cannot be perfect either. In the short run a pure form can be maintained but to accommodate for everyone’s individual needs is impossible in the long run.

According the Federal Reserve they “set the nation’s monetary policy to promote the objectives of maximum employment, stable prices, and moderate long-term interest rates. The challenge for policy makers is that tensions among the goals can arise in the short run and that information about the economy becomes available only with a lag and may be imperfect.” They help the economy in times of panic when everyone starts to run to the banks to get their money out which in the past has caused major recessions and inflated the currency highly. It also acts a balancer between private banks and the government. It protects consumers, is in charge of the monetary policy and tries to keep everything stabilized.