Thomas Jefferson and George H.W. Bush

Thomas Jefferson was the third president of the United States. He was born in Albemarle County, Virginia in 1743. He was a better writer than he was a speaker, he was known as a “silent speaker” in Congress. When he was only thirty-three, he drafted the first copy of the United States Constitution. He also wrote a bill that established religious freedom that was enacted in 1786. Jefferson was president from 1801 to 1809. He died on July 4th 1826.
Foreign Policy:
“For Jefferson, as for subsequent American statesmen, the desire to change the world was at war with the desire not to be corrupted by the world... The combination of universalism and parochialism is the result of self-consciousness over role that forms a constant in the nation's history.”
http://www.foreignaffairs.org/19900301faessay6019/robert-w-tucker-david-c-hendrickson/thomas-jefferson-and-american-foreign-policy.html
As president, Thomas Jefferson tried to protect American ships by after fifty years ending the bribes going to the Barbary States, which resulted in a war with Tripoli. In this war he was forced to use the U.S. navy and decide whether or not he really wanted to shrink the size of the U.S. military. Jefferson used his ties to France and negotiating skills to buy a huge piece of land, known as the “Louisiana purchase” for fifteen million dollars from Napoleon, effectively doubling the size of the U.S. In his second term, he focused upon staying out of the Napoleonic wars and placed an embargo on American shipping. This did not work and was extremely unpopular among the people.
Economy:
“He slashed Army and Navy expenditures, cut the budget, eliminated the tax on whiskey so unpopular in the West, yet reduced the national debt by a third.” http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/tj3.html Also, as mentioned above he bought the Louisiana purchase for fifteen million dollars.

George Herbert Walker Bush was born in on June 12, 1924 in Milton, Massachusetts. He was a pilot in World War II and flew fifty eight combat missions. He ran for senate but lost, campaigned for the presidential nomination and lost, but became vice president to Ronald Reagan. In 1988, he ran for president with running mate Dan Quayle and defeated his Democratic opponent Michael Dukakis. He did not get reelected in1992 and Bill Clinton became president. He died in 1994.
Foreign Policy:
The Cold War ended after forty years, the empire the communists had built fell, and the Berlin wall finally fell. The Russian president Bush supported, Mikhail Gorbachev, retired. “President Bush sent American troops into Panama to overthrow the corrupt regime of General Manuel Noriega, who was threatening the security of the canal and the Americans living there. Noriega was brought to the United States for trial as a drug trafficker.” http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/gb41.html
Iraqi president Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait and threatened to do the same to Saudi Arabia. President Bush rallied the American people, the United Nations, and Congress to send 425,000 troops to the Middle East to free Kuwait. American allies sent an additional 118,000 troops. This became known as operation “Desert Storm.”

Economy:
“Bush's 1992 State of the Union address offered a plan for economic growth that called for a moratorium on new government regulations on business, a cut in the capital gains tax, and the elimination of numerous domestic programs he deemed undeserving of federal funding.” http://ap.grolier.com/article?assetid=0068080-00 He endorsed a tax credit for people buying their first home and a health-tax insurance for poverty-stricken families. Congress passed some of his proposals, but he vetoed the final bill because it proposed raising taxes for the wealthy. In 1992, the interest rates and inflation were some of the lowest in years, but employment was up to 7.8%. In September, the Census bureau announced that 14.2% of America lived in poverty.