Faced with double digit inflation, rising unemployment, high taxes, a national security threat from the Soviet Union, and an economy in the dumps Ronald Reagan chose to govern the conservative way. By the time he left office in 1989 inflation was cut in half, millions of jobs were created, the Soviet threat was gone, and American's prospered like never before.

Now that Barack Obama is the 44th President of the United States perhaps he should study Reaganomics and learn from the past what really works. Below is a summary of the results from Reagan's conservative approach.

• The top tax rate for individuals was slashed from 70% to 50% in 1983 and cut again to 28% in 1986, resulting real income tax revenue growth of 16.3% from 1982-1989.
• Inflation plummeted from 13.5% to 4.1 during his presidency.
• The average GDP growth rate from 1981-1989, including the deep recession of the early 80's, was 3.2%. That's more than the pre-Reagan years, 2.8%, and the post-Reagan years, 2.1%.
• The Real median household income rose by $4,000 during Reagan's Presidency.
• Unemployment peaked at 9.7% and fell to 5.5% by the time Reagan left office.
• As unemployment fell 17 million new jobs were created.

Barack Obama does not believe conservative principals work despite their track record. He believes that government is the solution to the problem. Mr. Obama, big government helped put us in this situation. In his inauguration address in 1981 Reagan said that "Government is the problem," and when government got out of the way the people proved him right.

The proposed stimulus package the House of Representatives introduced last week is nothing more than excess government spending, the same kind that's been going on for years. Of the $825 billion package, $550 Billion goes to government spending, and only $275 billion goes to help you and me...somewhat.

Letting congress go on a spending spree won't solve a thing. Building highways and railways won't get us out of financial trouble. Bailing out state and local governments won't solve the core issues behind the deficits. Giving money to build hotels and mob museums will only drive us deeper into debt and worsen the economy. (The mob has more money than the government, let them build their own museum.)

The first $350 billion of the TARP fund hasn't helped at all. In fact we don't know where the money went. All I know is that as a taxpayer I now own stock in some of these troubled banks that refuse to lend money. Seasond Wall Street investors are trying to sell stock in these banks, and fast. Washington, on the other hand, thinks we should own them.

I don't know about you, but I'm sick and tired of my hard earned tax dollars going to spending projects that drive us deeper into debt and jepordize our economy.  If the poloticians who care so much about us on the campaign trail would follow Reagan's lead, we would prosper for a long time to come.

In a recent appearence on the "Hannity" show on Fox News Channell, Pat Buchanan said of Reagan, "He bet everything on the private sector." The recession we're in now is not as bad as the early 80's, but if we follow Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid it will be. If we follow Reagan's lead we'll prosper like never before.

Our elected leaders must now make decisions that will impact our lives for years to come. The decisions they make today won't be eaisly undone in the future. Our nation and economy is sick. If we allow government to continue to ruin our lives we may never recover. We'll become socialist run, socalist controled, and the people will have little say in how they're governed.

However, if we the people, together, demand that this government of the people, by the people, and for the people, be returned to the people then the people will prosper. (keyword, people.) It has been said that small business is the backbone of our economy.

We must demand that government cut taxes so that new business will have cash to start, and current business can stay open.

Also, we must be conservative in our personal finances. We must get out of debt and stay that way, thus reducing our dependence on government. We must invest wisely for our own retirements and not count on government to be there when we need it. (There's a good chance it won't be.)

Now, I've found in my personal experience over the last few years that living fiscally conservative is the way to prosperity. No, I'm not rich, but I do handle money differently. I live on a budget, I don't use credit cards, and I don't miss the junk I used to need. Conservative economis has helped me tremendously.

Everytime conservative economic principals has been applied it was followed by a period of prosperity. In the early 60's John F. Kennedy cut tax rates and several years of GDP growth of 5% followed. Reagan did the same and we prospered for years afterward. Conservative economics is the cure we need.

"Our failure to get control of financial matters in our personal lives will have to be rectified before we can demand accountability from elected officials. Our spoiled congress is only a reflection of our spoiled selves. The good of our country is overlooked so our pet special-interest groups can be served..."
     Dave Ramsey, New York Times Best Selling Author and syndicated radio talk show host, "Financial Peace Revisited"

When I first read these words I thought, "My goodness, he's right." How can we possibly expect out elected officials to be fiscally responsible when "We The People" can't balance our own checkbooks? If you don't believe me just look at bankruptcy rates rising into the stratosphere, maxed out credit cards with high interest rates, and auto loans worth more than the vehicle financed. No wonder we're all stressed out!

Our wasteful spending habits and personal budget deficits are catching up with us. In a lot of cases, it already has. As Americans we buy cars we can't live without and finance them with payments we can't live with. We purchase attics full of junk on high interest credit cards to impress people who could care less. We go about pretending to be happy and well off when deep down inside we are miserable and a layoff away from bankruptcy.

Every election we put people in office who promise to clean up our national financial mess and be more responsible. They never are. They are just like us. Then they have the audacity to tell us that Uncle Sam is the solution to our economic woes. Big government will take care of all the little people who can't take care of themselves.

I don't think so.

I have to admit I have made some financial mistakes. I've been stupid at times in money management, buying crap I didn't need and couldn't afford. Then it bit me in the butt. I came to the logical conclusion that I didn't have a clue how to handle money and that I needed help. So, I read a book called "The Total Money Makeover" bu Dave Ramsey and later enrolled in his "Financial Peace University" class. Now I'm paying off my debt and improving my personal economy every month.


The moral to the story is that i tool responsibility for the mess that I made and devised a plan to clean it up. I'm not waiting for Barack Obama to bail me out; I'm working hard to take care of myself before government takes care of me. If we want to see a balanced budget in Washington we need to see a balanced budget at home. If we want to eliminate deficit spending on Capitol Hill, we need to eliminate deficit spending at home. These are things "We The People" can do to turn our economy around.

However, our congress is trying to take control of ou and make more decisions for us. The one thing I liked about Obama's stimulus plan was the the $3,000 tax credit for every new job created by private companies. Today the house democrats proposed a stimulis bill without this provision. Liberals want to stimulate the economy by funding state governments' deficit spending, building roads, bridges, and mass transit rails, and subsidizing out of work wage earners who can't pay insurance premiums. In other words they want to increase the economy by spending super large amounts of money, your money.

Now, you might be asking yourself, "Lovette, what does this paragraph have to do with fiscal responsibility starts at home?" Not only do we need to get our personal finances in order we need to pressure our elected officials  to do the same with OUR TAX MONEY. If we had more money in our paychecks to manage wisely, and if congress managed tax revenues wisely, the recession would end sooner rather than later. As debt was paid off people would have more money to spend, companies revenue would increase, and government would collect more taxes as a result, especially if the fair tax was adopted.

Instead of spending taxes on projects that will weaken our economy congress needs to pass legislation that will cut taxes for individuals and businesses. The proposed "Tax Holiday" where no social security or medicare taxes would be withheld from paychecks will do more to jump start the economy than a new bridge ever would. But all the tax cuts in the world won't work for long if we don't ditch our bad financial habits.

"We the people" must band together and lavish our elected officials with demands foe lower taxes and less government. We must demand fiscal responsibility from Washigton and not be silent until it is achieved. I'm proud to be a part of Herman Cain's "Intelligent Thinkers movement". At critical stages in the political process and on critical issues Mr. Cain issues an alert to email your representative and senators to express your feelings. With thousands of people pouring the heat on congress at the same time our voices will be heard. To learn more more and to join go to his website.

If we are to succeed we must first be fiscally responsible at home.