How would the Watergate scandal have affected your perception of government power?
The signing of the antiballistic missile treaty with Soviet Union was not a wise action for Nixon. This treaty was worse of than the unilateral disarmament, because it only restricted our ability of United States to defend itself, though the treaty was later ended by George bush. In fact, apart from this policy, the Americans believed that there were a number of other misleading policies that were put in records during the Nixon era (Niskanem, 1998).
Watergate scandal had many impacts on the American government and its people. There were a large number of convictions and much other causality that resulted from the Watergate scandal. For instance, there were alterations in campaign finance reform. The media too became more aggressive in their investigations and unraveling of scandals in the government (Davidson, 2006 p.23).
The 25th anniversary of the Watergate scandal was realized in 1997 and it was evident that many books were published about this scandal and films too were developed on the same. The influence of Watergate scandal was also felt during the 1998/99 impeachment of bill Clinton.
How do you think the influence of Watergate has contributed to reporters’ boldness?
The Watergate scandal is currently associated to the cynical attitude that many Americans have developed towards politicians and the government. The media was influenced by the aftermath of the Watergate scandal as it gained confidence and a more aggressive approach to investigating and unraveling of scandals in the government in an attempt to facilitate transparency in governance and becoming an effective watch dog of the government.
The scandal was unraveled by one of the media groups the Washington post reporters. This unveiling led to emergence of investigative reporter teams on news papers and television around the world. Due to the boldness of the two reporters of the Washington based newspaper; the country was able to unravel the hidden corruption scandal which could cost the nation a lot of tax payers money.
Due to unraveling of this scandal, the media reports became more aggressive and bold on corruption cases and bad governance (Niskanem, 1998). Their aggressiveness is necessary for the purpose of watching government officials and reporting crooked transactions to the public.
The removal of Nixon showed a series of accountability processes. Though the president was serving a fixed term in office, he was accountable to the House of Representatives (Niskanem, 1998). This house directly represents recent opinions of the public. The president can only be removed by the senate comprising of senators representing states of varied population and this would be abiding by the federal values of the founding fathers.
Reagan’s economics
Reaganomics were policies about the economy that were introduced and promoted by President Ronald Regan in 1980s. Reaganomics introduced policies such as policies to reduce government spending, reduce income marginal tax rates and reduce capital gains too. Reagan policies also aimed at inflation reduction, reduction on the government regulation on the economy and to regulate the supply of money.
Fiscal stimulus during recessions meant to boost economic growth and was attained through increased government spending or by cutting on taxes. These strategies produce a budget deficit which in turn stimulated the economy (Rothbard, 2004).
Conservatives advocate tax cuts on corporations and high income people to increase return on investment and profits. The Reagan cuts on tax were mainly in the latter category with large cuts in the top marginal rates and corporate taxes. However as Reagan continued with his policies even after the end of the recession period, the government deficit did not go away with the end of recession.
Regan had huge budget deficits through out his presidency which was against the conservative policies (Rothbard, 2004). Ultimately, Reaganomics produced big political dividends for the Republicans, and it may have contributed to economic stability.
References
Davidson, J. (2006). Nation of nations: A concise narrative of the American republic. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Niskanem, W. A. (1998) Reaganomics. Web.
Rothbard, M. N. (2004). The Myths of Reaganomics. Web.