Ronald Reagan

The theme behind Polonius’s quote has also been seen in politics. Ronald Reagan is regarded today as one of the greatest presidents in American history. According to a 2001 CBS news report, Reagan received the most votes in a poll asking “Who do you regard as the greatest United States president?” (Lester) Reagan had some of the most unconventional ideas in presidential history. His plans were completely different from those of his predecessors. The policies of the presidents before him consisted mostly of raising taxes and increasing government spending to fix the country’s problems. Reagan’s policies, known as “Reaganomics,” were seen as unorthodox to the eyes of the public. He wanted to run the government his own way. He chose to follow is own route rather than imitating former presidents’ polices, saying “Only by reducing the growth of government can we increase the growth of the economy" (Niskanen).
Reagan’s presidential ideas were based off of minimizing the influence of the government, rather than the previous ideas of increasing its power. He wanted to cut government spending, decrease taxes, and reduce regulation (Niskanen). These were huge changes in the American government and were a huge risk. But Reagan was confident in himself and knew the potential of his plans. In the eyes of many Americans, Reagan’s original ideas helped America to get through some difficult economical problems (Lester).