Ronald Reagan still admired by majority of Americans

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While history is often unkind to American presidents,  Ronald Reagan still retains the admiration of most Americans. 

In a poll taken in January 2009 by Rasmussen, sixty-one (61%) percent of male voters and fifty-one percent (51%)  of female voters favor a return to Reagan's views and values. It was also found that fifty-nine percent (59%) of Americans still agree with Reagan's statement that

Government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.

He also believed that tax cuts are good for the economy which is shared by fifty-seven (57%) percent of Americans. In Reagan's first term in office, he began to carry out the "Reaganomics" program which consisted of large budget reductions in domestic programs and substantial tax cuts for individuals and businesses. By the end of 1982, unemployment rose to a level of 10.6 percent but had declined to 5.5% late in 1988.  Inflation had peaked at 13.5 percent in the 1970's under the Carter administration but it gradually dropped to between 4 percent and 6  percent.

Reagon did not believe in what has been labeled national economic planning.  Instead, in talking about the Carter administration, he said

I'm sure they meant well--liberals usually do--but our economy was one of the great wonders of the world. It didn't need master planners.  It worked because it operated on principals of freedom, millions of free decisions how they weanted to work and live, how they wanted to spend their money, while reaping the rewards of their individual labor.

 There is no doubt that he made mistakes. Federal deficits piled up as a result of tax cutting and greater defense spending. For some perspective, it compares to the deficit of President Obama, which will reach a $1.845 trillion in 2009, the highest ever except for World War II. That would be  more than 4 times Reagan's largest deficit.

Reagan's economic theory was that authority usurped by the federal government and that taxes and regulation slowed the national machine. He believed that American's needed to return to its traditional values of

...faith, family, work and neighborhood

which was his mantra during the eight years, from 1981-1989, he occupied the White House.