And how is the bailout an example of Reaganomics? What bailout did Reagan initiate?
Sorry I didn't answer this sooner. I completely forgot about this thread.
To answer your second question first (and Pariah's post too) Reagan never had the opportunity to initiate any sort of bailout. However, after first opposing Jimmy Carter's bailout of Chrysler and the New York City loan program, he supported both.
And if we're going to talk about deficit spending, it was at its higher (relative to GDP) under Reagan that it had been in decades.
Back to my argument against calling this liberalism or socialism, though, when it comes to the economy, liberals tend to favor the poor over the rich--higher taxes rates for the rich than the poor, universal health care, etc (but of course, you don't need me to tell you that). Meanwhile, socialism is based on the idea that wealth and power should be redistributed to promote equality. It also promotes state ownership.
Neither is true here, though. Bush's bailout plan included no help for homeowners facing foreclosure, no financial stake in any of these firms, and no limits on pay for executives.
Instead, taxpayers will foot the bill, to the taxpayer's chagrin. Helping businesses and businessowners for the sake of economic stability and growth is Reagan all the way.
