Perhaps the most fascinating legacies of the more recent presidents is that of Jimmy Carter. I say this because it is in the best interests of BOTH democrats and republicans to lie about his legacy and what he did. History is written with a political slant, so not even the history books will get him right either.
Unless you actually look for yourself at specifically what Jimmy Carter did during his 4 years...
Jimmy Carter was arguably the most pro-business, pro-free enterprise president we've had since before FDR. This guy didn't just cut government regulations. He slashed and burned them to fix the economy. If you care to look, there is a laundry list of MAJOR pro-business reforms Carter rammed through to destroy government regulations.
Jimmy Carter signed the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airline_Deregulation_Act
Carter went to war against labor unions on this piece of legislation. The airlines were a mess. There was massive bureaucratic red tape preventing airlines from changing routes or fares efficiently, designed not to help customers but to protect unions. Carter declared the problem was too much government. The Act cut regulations and increased competition. It worked. Between 1976 and 1990, airfares fell 30 percent and service dramatically improved.
Jimmy Carter signed the Motor Carrier Act of 1980
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motor_Carrier_Act_of_1980
Just as he did with the airline industry, Jimmy Carter attacked unions in the trucking industry. Upon signing it, Carter said:
"This is historic legislation. It will remove 45 years of excessive and inflationary Government restrictions and redtape. It will have a powerful anti-inflationary effect, reducing consumer costs by as much as $8 billion each year. And by ending wasteful practices, it will conserve annually hundreds of millions of gallons of precious fuel. All the citizens of our Nation will benefit from this legislation. Consumers will benefit, because almost every product we purchase has been shipped by truck, and outmoded regulations have inflated the prices that each one of us must pay. The shippers who use trucking will benefit as new service and price options appear. Labor will benefit from increased job opportunities. And the trucking industry itself will benefit from greater flexibility and new opportunities for innovation."
Before Carter signed the Motor Carrier Act of 1980 into law, price-fixing and regulated routes was as much as 75% higher than unregulated freight.
Jimmy Carter signed the Railroad Revitalization and Regulatory Reform Act of 1976
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Railroa...ory_Reform_Act
Jimmy Carter signed the Staggers Rail Act of 1980
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Staggers_Rail_Act
These acts did the same for the railroad industry as the previous Acts did for Airlines and Trucking. They attacked the Railroad unions in favor of better pricing for customers and lower barriers to entry. To accomplish this goal, it undid major parts of the 1887 Interstate Commerce Act.
Jimmy Carter Signed the Depository Institutions Deregulation and Monetary Control Act of 1980
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deposit...ry_Control_Act
This cut a ton of red tape about banking.
1. It allowed banks to merge
2. It undid a key part of Glass Steagall by removing the government's power to set maximum interest rates.
3. It gave credit unions and Savings and Loans more powers.
4. It allowed banks to charge any interest rates they choose.
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All of these deregulation moves helped spur the giant economic boom America experienced in the 1980s and 1990s. Massive deregulation generates massive sustained growth. This is proven. But neither democrats nor republicans have any vested interest in actually giving Jimmy Carter credit for it.
Republicans don't want to give Carter credit because they want to be known as the pro-business party. They want to hold up Reagan as the hero, and Carter as the failure he vanquished. This is the history they want to tell. So they spin the facts. They never talk about how, in many ways, Carter was to the right of Reagan. Reagan never rammed thru radical pro-business reforms the size and scope that Carter did. So they just ignore it and tell us about the pro-business policies Reagan adopted.
Democrats have absolutely NO interest in telling the truth about Carter, either. The democrat base is anti-business, pro-government, and definitely pro-regulation and pro-union. Carter's economic fixes, fixes that actually WORKED, are exactly opposite of what Obama is trying to do. Obama is trying to increase government control, increase government regulations. So they have to lie about Carter, too. So as it turns out, democrats are probably happy to just avoid talking about the Carter presidency altogether, because his presidency proves that pretty much the entire Obama economic plan is not just garbage but dangerously hurtful to the US economy.
Carter himself has to privately think Obama is a complete idiot, given how Carter governed. But he cannot say that publicly. He has to show party unity. I'm sure Carter would love to pull Obama aside and tell him he needs to cut regulation deeply to get this economy moving again, or else we'll never see the end of this anemic growth, we'll probably fall into an even deeper recession instead and generation Y will be a lost generation. But there's no way he can do that.
Politics is crazy.