This article discusses the domestic policy of the Ronald Reaganadministration from 1981 to 1989. Reagan's policies stressed conservative economic values, starting with his implementation of supply-side economic policies, dubbed as "Reaganomics" by both supporters and detracters. His policies also included the largest tax cut in American history as well as increased defense spending as part of his Soviet strategy. However, he significantly raised (non-income) taxes four times due to economic conditions and reforms, but the tax reforms instituted during presidency brought top marginal rates to their lowest levels since 1931, such that by 1988, the top US marginal tax rate was 28%.[1][2]
By reducing or eliminating decades-long social programs, while at the same time lowering taxes and marginal tax rates, the President's approach to handling the economy marked a significant departure from that of many of his predecessor's Keynesian policies. Milton Friedman, the monetarist economist who was an intellectual architect of free-market policies, was a primary influence on Reagan.[4]
When Reagan took office, the country faced the highest rate of inflation since 1947 (average annual rate of 13.5% in 1980), and interest rates as high as 13% (the Fed funds rate in December 1980). These were considered the nation's principal economic problems and were all considered components of "stagflation". Reagan sought to stimulate the economy with large, across-the-board tax cuts.[5][6] The expansionary fiscal policies soon became known as "Reaganomics",[5] and were considered by some to be the most serious attempt to change the course of U.S. economic policy of any administration since the New Deal. His radical tax reforms, in combination with a curb on domestic social spending, harsh restraints applied by the Federal Reserve Board under Paul Volcker on the nation's money supply, and heavy government borrowing required to finance the budget and trade deficits, as well as military expenditures, produced significant economic expansion and reduced inflation. Inflation was reduced by more than ten percentage points, reaching a low of 1.9% annual average inflation in 1986.[7][8]
One of the Reagan administration's strategies to reduce government spending was privatization of government functions, paying contractors to do work that government agencies had formerly done.[9][10][11]
Economic record
Reagan addresses Congress and the nation on his economic program, 1981
President Reagan's tenure marked a time of expanded economic prosperity for many Americans. The misery index sank to 9.72 from a high of 19.33, the greatest improvement record for a President since Harry S. Truman left office.[12] In terms of American households, the percentage of total households making less than $10,000 a year (in real 2007 dollars) shrunk from 8.8% in 1980 to 8.3% in 1988 while the percentage of households making over $75,000 went from 20.2% to 25.7% during that period.[13] However, the number of Americans below the poverty level did not decline at all. The number of children, ages 18 years and younger, below the poverty level increased from 11.543 million in 1980, 18.3% of children, to 12.455, 19.5%, in 1988. Also, the situation of low income groups was affected by the reduction of social spending, and inequality increased. The share of total income received by the 5% highest-income households grew from 16.5% in 1980 to 18.3% in 1988 and the share of the highest fifth of income increased from 44.1% to 46.3% in same years. In contrast, the share of total income of the lowest fifth of households fell from 4.2% in 1980 to 3.8% in 1988 and the second poorest fifth from 10.2% to 9.6%.[14]
In August 1981, after negotiations with the Republican-controlled Senate and the Democratic-controlled House, Reagan signed the largest marginal tax cut in American history into law at his California ranch. However, the 1981 marginal cuts were partially offset by bracket creep and increased Social Security rates the following year.[15]
Unemployment hit a low of 5.3% in 1988 after peaking at over 10% in 1982.[6][16][17]Real GDP growth recovered throughout Reagan's term, averaging +3.5% per year, with a high of +7.3% in 1984.[18] The average annual GDP growth during Reagan's presidency was the fifth highest since the Great Depression and the highest of any Republican president.[18][19] Inflation decreased significantly, falling from 13.6% in 1980 to 4.1% by 1988, and 16 million new jobs were created.[20] The net effect of all Reagan-era tax bills resulted in a 1% decrease of government revenues (as a percentage of GDP), with the revenue-shrinking effects of the 1981 tax cut (-3% of GDP) and the revenue-gaining effects of the 1982 tax hike (~+1% of GDP), while subsequent bills were more revenue-neutral.[21] However, tax revenue itself nominally increased massively by 103.1% from 1981 through 1989, largely as a result of more loopholes abolished than tax rates lowered.[22]
During the Reagan Administration, federal receipts grew at an average rate of 8.2% (2.5% attributed to higher Social Security receipts), and federal outlays grew at an annual rate of 7.1%.[23][24]
Reagan's administration is the only one not to have raised the minimum wage by its conclusion.[25]
These policies were labeled by some as "trickle-down economics",[26] though others argue that the combination of significant tax cuts and a massive increase in Cold War related defense spending resulted in large budget deficits,[27] an expansion in the U.S. trade deficit,[27] as well as the stock market crash of 1987, while also contributing to the Savings and Loan crisis.[28] The ultimate cost of the Savings and Loan crisis is estimated to have totaled around US$150 billion, about $125 billion of which was consequently and directly subsidized by the U.S. government. John Kenneth Galbraith called it "the largest and costliest venture in public misfeasance, malfeasance and larceny of all time".[29]
In order to cover new federal budget deficits, the United States borrowed heavily both domestically and abroad, raising the national debt from $997 billion to $2.85 trillion,[30] and the United States moved from being the world's largest international creditor to the world's largest debtor nation.[31] Reagan described the new debt as the "greatest disappointment" of his presidency.[32]
Reagan's support for an increased defense budget at the height of the Cold War was supported by Congressional Democrats and Republicans. However, Congress was reluctant to follow Reagan's proposed cuts in domestic programs. In accordance with Reagan's less-government intervention views, many domestic government programs were cut or experienced periods of reduced funding during his presidency.[33] These included Social Security, Medicaid, Food Stamps, and federal education programs.[34] Though Reagan protected entitlement programs, such as Social Security and Medicare,[35] in one of the most widely criticized[36] actions of the administration, the administration attempted to purge tens of thousands of allegedly disabled people from the Social Security disability roles, who the administration alleged were not truly disabled.[36] Funding for government organizations, including the Environmental Protection Agency, were also reduced.[37] He cut the EPA's budget by 22%, and his director of the EPA, Anne M. Burford, resigned over alleged mismanagement of funds.[38] Tax breaks and increased military spending created a larger budget deficit, which led Reagan to approve two tax increases, aiming to preserve funding for Social Security.[39] By 1988, it was reported that funding for the social safety net was down by 6 percent compared to two years prior.[40]
Speaking of Reagan himself, Donald Regan, the President's former Secretary of the Treasury, and later Chief of Staff, criticized him for his lack of understanding economics: "In the four years that I served as Secretary of the Treasury, I never saw President Reagan alone and never discussed economic philosophy or fiscal and monetary policy with him one-on-one.… The President never told me what he believed or what he wanted to accomplish in the field of economics."[41] However, Reagan's chief economic adviser Martin Feldstein, argued the opposite: "I briefed him on Third World debt; he didn't take notes, he asked very few questions.… The subject came up in a cabinet meeting and he summarized what he had heard perfectly. He had a remarkably good memory for oral presentation and could fit information into his own philosophy and make decisions on it."[42]
Oil policy
At the beginning of his presidency, Reagan ended the price controls on domestic oil which had been started by Richard Nixon; they had contributed to both the 1973 Oil Crisis and the 1979 Energy Crisis.[43][44] The price of oil subsequently dropped, and the 1980s did not see the gasoline lines and fuel shortages that the 1970s had.[44] Reagan also attempted to make good on his 1980 campaign promise to repeal the "Windfall Profit Tax" that Carter and Congress enacted in 1980 on domestic oil production; he was able to do so in 1988, when Congress agreed that it had increased dependence on foreign oil.[45] The tax was not a tax on profits, but an excise tax on the difference between a statutory "base price" and the market price.[46] Reagan also stopped aggressive pushing of new auto efficiency standards by the Carter administration, descended on alternative energy researches started by Carter administration.
Legacy
Some economists seem to think that Reagan's tax policies invigorated America's economy, such as Nobel Prize winner Milton Friedman, who wrote that the Reagan tax cuts were "one of the most important factors in the boom of the 1990s". Similarly, fellow Nobel Prize–winning economist Robert A. Mundell wrote that the tax cuts made the U.S. economy the motor for the world economy in the 1990s, on which the great revolution in information technology was able to feed.[47]
Other economists argue that the deficits slowed economic growth during the following administration[48] and was the reason that Reagan's successor, George H. W. Bush, reneged on a campaign promise and raised taxes. Nobel Prize–winning economist Robert Solow stated, "As for Reagan being responsible [for the 1990s boom], that's far-fetched. What we got in the Reagan years was a deep recession and then half a dozen years of fine growth as we climbed out of the recession, but nothing beyond that.[49]
Another Reagan legacy was the expansion of the alternative minimum tax.[50] When Ronald Reagan signed the Tax Reform Act of 1986, the AMT was expanded to target middle class deductions related to having children, owning a home, or living in high tax states. In 2006, the IRS's National Taxpayer Advocate's report highlighted the AMT as the single most serious problem with the tax code. The advocate noted that the complexity of the AMT leads to most taxpayers who owe AMT not realizing it until preparing their returns or being notified by the IRS.[51]
Reagan dismissed proposals to halt acid rain finding them burdensome to industry.[52] The Environmental Protection Agency made a major budget commitment to reduce acid rain; Reagan rejected the proposal and deemed it as wasteful government spending.[53] He also questioned scientific evidence on the causes of acid rain.[53] It was later discovered that the administration was releasing Superfund grants for cleaning up local toxic waste sites to enhance the election prospects of local officials aligned with the Republican Party.[54] Reagan rarely thought about the environment in political terms, however, and did not fear that his popularity would be damaged by environmental issues.[53] In 1986, Reagan removed the solar panels that his predecessor Carter had installed on the roof of the White House's West Wing, citing a damaged roof.[55] In "Global Warming", the author Natalie Goldstein wrote, "Reagan's political philosophy viewed the free market as the best arbiter of what was good for the country. Corporate self-interest, he felt, would steer the country in the right direction."[56]
On November 7, 1986, Reagan vetoed a bill to strengthen the Clean Water Act.[57][58] Congress didn't take action on this because it was adjourned.[59]
Reagan also vetoed the Water Quality Act of 1987, but Congress overrided it.[60][61]
The HUD controversy involved administration staffers granting federal funding to constituents, and defrauding the U.S. government out of money intended for low income housing. It resulted in six convictions, including James G. Watt, Reagan's Secretary of the Interior. Watt was indicted on 24 felony counts and pleaded guilty to a single misdemeanor. He was sentenced to five years probation, and ordered to pay a $5000 fine.[62]
Unions and corporations
The Reagan Administration had some of the highest illegal union firings in recorded history.
In 1981, to protect domestic auto sales the Reagan administration signed an agreement with Japan that it would not import more than 1.67 million cars into the United States, which would be one in four cars sold in America.[63]
President Reagan speaks about the strike during a press conference in the White House Rose Garden. Reagan fired 11,345 strikers who did not return to work.
Reagan announced that the situation had become an emergency as described in the 1947 Taft Hartley Act, and held a press conference on August 3, 1981 in the White House Rose Garden regarding the strike. Reagan stated that if the air traffic controllers "do not report for work within 48 hours, they have forfeited their jobs and will be terminated."[64]
Two days later, on August 5, Reagan fired 11,359 striking air traffic controllers who had ignored his order to return to work, notwithstanding the fact that the strike was illegal under federal law. The breaking of the strike had a significant impact on labor-management relations in the private sector. Although private employers nominally had the right to permanently replace striking workers under the National Labor Relations Act, that option was rarely used prior to 1981, but much more frequently thereafter. Reagan's actions essentially broke the striking union.[65][66]
Military
Reagan sharply accelerated the massive military buildup started by the Carter administration in response to the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan.[67] This buildup, a 40% real increase in defense spending,[68] included the revival of the B-1 bomber program, which had been cancelled by the Carter administration;[69] the deployment of Pershing II missiles in West Germany; the increased enlistment of thousands of troops; and a more advanced intelligence system.[69]
By 1987, the military budget under Reagan's tenure was $456.5 billion, compared to $325.1 billion in 1980.[70]
Strategic Defense Initiative
Reagan salutes a military cadet
In 1983, Reagan introduced the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), a defense project. The intended goal was to make the US invulnerable to a Soviet missile attack by placing missiles in space and vaporizing those of the Soviets, upon a nuclear attack.[69] This would be done by a laser guidance system, which grew into a series of systems that turned into a layered ballistic missile defense.[69] Dubbed "Star Wars" by the news media, many wondered if the technological objective was attainable. Following air defense laser testing in 1973, work continued throughout the 1980s, and the first above earth laser intercept test was completed.[69]
The arts
Though Ronald and Nancy Reagan were both former actors and he had served as president of the Screen Actor's Guild, his administration had a curiously mixed record on support for the arts. Via a 1982 Executive Order, President Reagan established the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities. In each year of his presidency (except for the fiscal years of 1982 and 1986), Congress staved off the Administration's efforts to cut federal expenditures for arts programs such as the National Endowment for the Arts.[71] In a 1983 speech he declared, "We support the National Endowment for the Arts to stimulate excellence and make art more available to more of our people",[72] yet throughout his administration, beginning with an early threat to cut the Carter-era arts budget in half,[73] Reagan's economic and social agendas put him at odds, often contentiously, with artists and arts communities nationwide.[74]
Reagan's philosophy of minimal government intervention in personal and family affairs was reflected in his view of the Federal Department of Education. During the 1980 presidential campaign, Gov. Reagan called for the total elimination of the U.S. Department of Education, severe curtailment of bilingual education, and massive cutbacks in the federal role in education.[citation needed] When Reagan was elected in 1980, the federal share of total education spending was 12 percent. When he left office in 1988 it stood at just 6 percent.[citation needed]
Reagan established the National Commission on Excellence in Education, whose inaugural meeting occurred in October 1981. The Final Report of the Commission, which was returned on April 26, 1983,[75] noted the almost uninterrupted decline in student achievement in standardized test scores during the previous two decades, decades in which the Federal presence in education grew. High school graduates in the early 1980s scored almost 40 points below their 1963 counterparts on standard mathematical tests and 50 points lower on verbal tests. About 13 percent of 17-year-olds were considered functionally illiterate, and for minority youth, the figure was estimated to be as high as 40 percent. Remedial math courses then comprised one-fourth of all the math courses that are taught in public 4-year colleges. Reagan felt that Americans could not afford to pass students who fail to learn from one grade to the next simply because they've come to the end of the year, and that they could not afford to waste the valuable resources of higher education to remedy problems that were ignored in elementary and high schools. Four-fifths of American 17-year-olds could not write a persuasive essay. Two-thirds could not solve mathematical problems involving more than one step, and nearly 40 percent could not draw inferences from reading.[76]
An intermittent series of Radio Address to the Nation on Education were a signature of President Reagan.[77] In September 1988, he reported on his administration's success that "Test scores are up, reversing a calamitous drop in scores over the years between 1963 and 1980. Attendance is up, and the number of kids who drop out of high school is down", and stressed that the bounty of Western civilization was owed to American children. He suggested that the report entitled James Madison Elementary School,[78] produced by Education Secretary Bill Bennett, be used to influence curricula at schools across the nation.
Not long after being sworn into office, Reagan declared more militant policies in the "War on Drugs".[79][80] He promised a "planned, concerted campaign" against all drugs,[81] eventually leading to decreases in adolescent drug use in America.[82][83]
President Reagan signed the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986 which granted $1.7 billion to fight drugs, and ensured a mandatory minimum penalty for drug offenses.[84] The bill was criticized for promoting significant racial disparities in the prison population, however, because of the differences in sentencing for crack versus powder cocaine.[84]
Critics also charged that the administration's policies did little to actually reduce the availability of drugs or crime on the street, while resulting in a great financial and human cost for American society.[85] Supporters argued that the numbers for adolescent drug users declined during Reagan's years in office.[83]
As a part of the administration's effort, Reagan's First Lady, Nancy, made the War on Drugs her main cause as First Lady, by founding the "Just Say No" drug awareness campaign. As of 2007, there were still hundreds of "Just Say No" clinics and school clubs in operation around the country aimed at helping and rehabilitating children and teenagers with drug problems.[84] The program demonstrated to children various ways of refusing drugs and alcohol.
The Judiciary
Reagan nominated Sandra Day O'Connor to fill the Supreme Court Justice vacancy left by the retirement of Justice Potter Stewart, as he had promised during his 1980 presidential campaign. Sandra Day O'Connor was a conservative Republican and strict constructionist. Though the far-right of the Republican Party was dissatisfied by O'Connor, who refused to condemn the Roe v. Wade decision and had supported the federal Equal Rights Amendment, Senate Republicans and the vast majority of Americans approved of the pick, the Senate confirming her unanimously. O'Connor would later take more moderate positions.[86]
In 1986, during his second term, the president elevated Justice William Rehnquist to succeed outgoing Chief Justice Warren Burger and named Antonin Scalia to occupy the seat left by Rehnquist.
In 1987, when Associate Justice Louis Powell retired, Reagan nominated conservative jurist Robert Bork to the high court. Within 45 minutes of Bork's nomination to the Court, Ted Kennedy (D-MA) took to the Senate floor with a strong condemnation of Bork in a nationally televised speech, declaring,
Robert Bork's America is a land in which women would be forced into back-alley abortions, blacks would sit at segregated lunch counters, rogue police could break down citizens' doors in midnight raids, schoolchildren could not be taught about evolution, writers and artists could be censored at the whim of the Government, and the doors of the Federal courts would be shut on the fingers of millions of citizens.[87]
Reagan in the White House private quarters with Robert Bork
The rapid response of Kennedy's "Robert Bork's America" speech stunned the Reagan White House; though conservatives considered Kennedy's accusations slanderous ideological smears on a well qualified candidate for the bench,[88] the attacks went unanswered for two and a half months.[89] Bork refused to withdraw himself and his nomination was rejected 58–42.[90]Anthony Kennedy was eventually confirmed in his place.[91]
Reagan also nominated a large number of judges to the United States district court and United States court of appeals benches; most of these nominations were not controversial, although a handful of candidates were singled out for criticism by civil rights advocates and other liberal critics, resulting in occasional confirmation fights. Both his Supreme Court nominations and his lower court appointments were in line with Reagan's express philosophy that judges should interpret law as enacted and not "legislate from the bench". By the end of the 1980s, a conservative majority on the Supreme Court had put an end to the perceived "activist" trend begun under the leadership of Chief Justice Earl Warren.[citation needed] General adherence to the principle of stare decisis, along with minority support, left most of the major landmark case decisions (such as Brown, Miranda, and Roe v. Wade) of the previous three decades still standing as binding precedent.
Perhaps the greatest criticism surrounds Reagan's silence about the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s.[92] Although AIDS was first identified in 1981, Reagan did not mention it publicly for several more years, notably during a press conference in 1985 and several speeches in 1987. During the press conference in 1985, Reagan expressed skepticism in allowing children with AIDS to continue in school although he supported their right to do so, stating:
I can well understand the plight of the parents and how they feel about it. I also have compassion, as I think we all do, for the child that has this and doesn't know and can't have it explained to him why somehow he is now an outcast and can no longer associate with his playmates and schoolmates. On the other hand, I can understand the problem with the parents. It is true that some medical sources had said that this cannot be communicated in any way other than the ones we already know and which would not involve a child being in the school. And yet medicine has not come forth unequivocally and said, This we know for a fact, that it is safe. And until they do, I think we just have to do the best we can with this problem. I can understand both sides of it.[93]
The CDC had previously issued a report stating that "casual person-to-person contact as would occur among school children appears to pose no risk."[94]
Then-Vice President Bush, right, meets with President Reagan, left, in 1984.
Even with the death from AIDS of his friend Rock Hudson, Reagan was widely criticized for not supporting more active measures to contain the spread of AIDS. Until celebrities, first Joan Rivers and soon afterwards Elizabeth Taylor, spoke out publicly about the increasing number of people quickly dying from this new disease, most public officials and celebrities were too afraid of dealing with this subject.
Reagan prevented his Surgeon General, C. Everett Koop, from speaking out about the AIDS epidemic.[97] When in 1986 Reagan was highly encouraged by many other public officials to authorize Koop to issue a report on the epidemic, he expected it to be in line with conservative policies; instead, Koop's Surgeon General's Report on Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome greatly emphasized the importance of a comprehensive AIDS education strategy, including widespread distribution of condoms, and rejected mandatory testing. This approach brought Koop into conflict with other administration officials such as Education Secretary William Bennett. In 1988, Koop took the unprecedented action of mailing AIDS information to every U.S. household. This information included the use of condoms as the decisive defense against contracting the disease.
Social action groups such as ACT UP worked to raise awareness of the AIDS problem. Because of ACT UP, in 1987, Reagan responded by appointing the Watkins Commission on AIDS, which was succeeded by a permanent advisory council.[citation needed]
Supporters of Reagan past and present have pointed out the fact that he declared in the aforementioned September 1985 press conference that he wanted from Congress massive government research effort against AIDS similar to one President Nixon had overseen against cancer. Reagan said, "It's been one of the top priorities with us, and over the last 4 years, and including what we have in the budget for '86, it will amount to over a half a billion dollars that we have provided for research on AIDS in addition to what I'm sure other medical groups are doing." He also remarked, "Yes, there's no question about the seriousness of this and the need to find an answer." Annual AIDS related funding was $44 million in 1983, 2 years after he took office, and was $1.6 billion in 1988, an increase of over 3,600 percent.[98][99]
Gay rights
No civil rights legislation for lesbian or gay individuals passed during Reagan's tenure. On the 1980 campaign trail, he spoke of the gay civil rights movement: "My criticism is that the gay movement isn't just asking for civil rights; it's asking for recognition and acceptance of an alternative lifestyle which I do not believe society can condone, nor can I."[100]
Reagan gave a states' rights speech at the Neshoba County Fair in Philadelphia, Mississippi, the town where the murders of Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner occurred in 1964, when running for president in 1980 (many politicians had spoken at that annual fair, however). Reagan was offended that some accused him of racism. In 1980 Reagan said the Voting Rights Act was "humiliating to the South", although he later supported extending the act. He opposed Fair Housing legislation in California (the Rumford Fair Housing Act), but in 1988 signed a law expanding the Fair Housing Act of 1968. Reagan was unsuccessful in trying to veto another civil rights bill in March of the same year. At first Reagan opposed the Martin Luther King holiday, and signed it only after an overwhelming veto-proof majority (338 to 90 in the House of Representatives and 78 to 22 in the Senate) voted in favor of it. Congress overrode Reagan's veto of the Civil Rights Restoration Act of 1988. Reagan said the Restoration Act would impose too many regulations on churches, the private sector and state and local governments.
However, President Reagan established the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities to increase African-American participation in federal education programs and on June 29, 1982, he signed a 25-year extension of 1965 Voting Rights Act.[103]
Related Research Articles
George Herbert Walker Bush was an American politician, diplomat, and businessman who served as the 41st president of the United States from 1989 to 1993. A member of the Republican Party, he also served as the 43rd vice president from 1981 to 1989 under Ronald Reagan, and in various other federal positions prior to that.
Ronald Wilson Reagan was an American politician and actor who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. A member of the Republican Party, his presidency constituted the Reagan era, and he is considered one of the most prominent conservative figures in American history.
Reaganomics, or Reaganism, were the neoliberal economic policies promoted by U.S. President Ronald Reagan during the 1980s. These policies are characterized as supply-side economics, trickle-down economics, or "voodoo economics" by opponents, while Reagan and his advocates preferred to call it free-market economics.
The Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981 (ERTA), or Kemp–Roth Tax Cut, was an Act that introduced a major tax cut, which was designed to encourage economic growth. The Act was enacted by the 97th US Congress and signed into law by US President Ronald Reagan. The Accelerated Cost Recovery System (ACRS) was a major component of the Act and was amended in 1986 to become the Modified Accelerated Cost Recovery System (MACRS).
Supply-side economics is a macroeconomic theory postulating that economic growth can be most effectively fostered by lowering taxes, decreasing regulation, and allowing free trade. According to supply-side economics theory, consumers will benefit from greater supply of goods and services at lower prices, and employment will increase. Supply-side fiscal policies are designed to increase aggregate supply, as opposed to aggregate demand, thereby expanding output and employment while lowering prices. Such policies are of several general varieties:
Investments in human capital, such as education, healthcare, and encouraging the transfer of technologies and business processes, to improve productivity. Encouraging globalized free trade via containerization is a major recent example.
Tax reduction, to provide incentives to work, invest and take risks. Lowering income tax rates and eliminating or lowering tariffs are examples of such policies.
Investments in new capital equipment and research and development (R&D), to further improve productivity. Allowing businesses to depreciate capital equipment more rapidly gives them an immediate financial incentive to invest in such equipment.
Reduction in government regulations, to encourage business formation and expansion.
The history of the United States from 1980 until 1991 includes the last year of the Jimmy Carter presidency, eight years of the Ronald Reagan administration, and the first three years of the George H. W. Bush presidency, up to the collapse of the Soviet Union. Plagued by the Iran hostage crisis, runaway inflation, and mounting domestic opposition, Carter lost the 1980 United States presidential election to Republican Reagan.
David Alan Stockman is an American politician and former businessman who was a Republican U.S. Representative from the state of Michigan (1977–1981) and the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (1981–1985) under President Ronald Reagan.
Ronald Reagan's tenure as the 40th president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 1981, and ended on January 20, 1989. Reagan, a Republican from California, took office following his landslide victory over Democrat incumbent president Jimmy Carter and independent congressman John B. Anderson in the 1980 presidential election. Four years later, in the 1984 presidential election, he defeated former Democratic vice president Walter Mondale, to win re-election in a larger landslide. Due to U.S. Constitutional law, Reagan was limited to two terms and was succeeded by his vice president, George H. W. Bush, who won the 1988 presidential election. Reagan's 1980 landslide election resulted from a dramatic conservative shift to the right in American politics, including a loss of confidence in liberal, New Deal, and Great Society programs and priorities that had dominated the national agenda since the 1930s.
The economic policies of the Bill Clinton administration, referred to by some as Clintonomics, encapsulates the economic policies of president of the United States Bill Clinton that were implemented during his presidency, which lasted from January 1993 to January 2001.
In American political theory, fiscal conservatism or economic conservatism is a political and economic philosophy regarding fiscal policy and fiscal responsibility with an ideological basis in capitalism, individualism, limited government, and laissez-faire economics. Fiscal conservatives advocate tax cuts, reduced government spending, free markets, deregulation, privatization, free trade, and minimal government debt. Fiscal conservatism follows the same philosophical outlook as classical liberalism. This concept is derived from economic liberalism.
The history of the United States public debt began with federal government debt incurred during the American Revolutionary War by the first U.S treasurer, Michael Hillegas, after the country's formation in 1776. The United States has continuously experienced fluctuating public debt, except for about a year during 1835–1836. To facilitate comparisons over time, public debt is often expressed as a ratio to gross domestic product (GDP). Historically, the United States public debt as a share of GDP has increased during wars and recessions, and subsequently declined.
George H. W. Bush's tenure as the 41st president of the United States began with his inauguration on January 20, 1989, and ended on January 20, 1993. Bush, a Republican from Texas and the incumbent vice president for two terms under President Ronald Reagan, took office following his victory over Democratic nominee Michael Dukakis in the 1988 presidential election. His presidency ended following his defeat in the 1992 presidential election to Democrat Bill Clinton, after one term in office. Bush was the father of the 43rd president, George W. Bush.
Jimmy Carter's tenure as the 39th president of the United States began with his inauguration on January 20, 1977, and ended on January 20, 1981. Carter, a Democrat from Georgia, took office following his narrow victory over Republican incumbent president Gerald Ford in the 1976 presidential election. His presidency ended following his landslide defeat in the 1980 presidential election to Republican Ronald Reagan, after one term in office. Aged 99, he is the oldest living, longest-lived and longest-married president, and has the longest post-presidency. He is the fourth-oldest living former state leader.
Ronald Reagan was the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. Previously, he was the 33rd governor of California from 1967 to 1975 and acted in Hollywood films from 1937 to 1964, the same year he energized the American conservative movement. Reagan's basic foreign policy was to equal and surpass the Soviet Union in military strength, and put it on the road to what he called "the ash heap of history". By 1985, he began to cooperate closely with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, whom he became friends and negotiated large-scale disarmament projects with. The Cold War was fading away and suddenly ended as the Soviets lost control of Eastern Europe almost overnight in October 1989, nine months after Reagan was replaced in the White House by his vice president, George H. W. Bush, who was following Reagan's policies. The dissolution of the Soviet Union took place in December 1991. In terms of the Reagan Doctrine, he promoted military, financial, and diplomatic support for anti-communist insurgencies in Afghanistan, Nicaragua, and numerous other countries. For the most part, local communist power collapsed when the Soviet Union collapsed.
The Reagan era or the Age of Reagan is a periodization of recent American history used by historians and political observers to emphasize that the conservative "Reagan Revolution" led by President Ronald Reagan in domestic and foreign policy had a lasting impact. It overlaps with what political scientists call the Sixth Party System. Definitions of the Reagan era universally include the 1980s, while more extensive definitions may also include the late 1970s, the 1990s, and even the 2000s. In his 2008 book, The Age of Reagan: A History, 1974–2008, historian and journalist Sean Wilentz argues that Reagan dominated this stretch of American history in the same way that Franklin D. Roosevelt and his New Deal legacy dominated the four decades that preceded it.
The Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988 is a major law of the War on Drugs passed by the U.S. Congress which did several significant things:
Created the policy goal of a drug-free America;
Established the Office of National Drug Control Policy; and
Restored the use of the death penalty by the federal government.
Gerald Ford was the 38th president of the United States, serving from 1974 to 1977. After his tenure's end, Ford was active in the public sphere, traveling, writing a memoir, and voicing his opinion about contemporary issues within the United States and abroad.
The cannabis policy of the Reagan administration involved affirmation of the War on Drugs, government funded anti-cannabis media campaigns, expanded funding for law enforcement, involvement of the U.S. military in interdiction and eradication, reduction in emphasis in drug treatment, and creation of new Federal powers to test employees and seize cannabis-related assets.
The presidential transition of Ronald Reagan began when he won the 1980 United States presidential election, becoming the president-elect, and ended when Reagan was inaugurated on January 20, 1981.
The Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1981 is the federal budget enacted by the 97th United States Congress and signed into law by U.S. President Ronald Reagan. The bill established federal expenditures for fiscal year 1982, which ran from 1 October 1981 through 30 September 1982. The budget bill was the spending counterpart to the revenue bill, the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981. The two bills progressed through Congress and were signed by the President together.
↑ "Mises Daily". Mises Institute. June 9, 2004. Retrieved January 12, 2015.
↑ Lipset, Seymour Martin; William, Schneider (Spring 1987). "The Confidence Gap during the Reagan Years, 1981-1987". Political Science Quarterly. 102 (1): 1–23. doi:10.2307/2151482. JSTOR2151482.
↑ Danziger, S.H.; Weinburg, D.H. (1994). "The Historical Record: Trends in Family Income, Inequality, and Poverty" in Confronting Poverty: Prescriptions for Change.
↑ Bartels, Larry M (1991). "Constituency Opinion and Congressional Policy Making: The Reagan Defense Build Up". The American Political Science Review. 85 (2): 457–474. doi:10.2307/1963169. JSTOR1963169. S2CID28751110.
↑ A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform -- A Report to the Nation and the Secretary of Education, United States Department of Education, by the National Commission on Excellence in Education, April 1983 (Government Printing Office, 65 pages)
↑ Randall, Vernellia R (April 18, 2006). "The Drug War as Race War". The University of Dayton School of Law. Archived from the original on April 4, 2007. Retrieved April 11, 2007.
↑ "Interview: Dr. Herbert Kleber". PBS. Retrieved June 12, 2007. The politics of the Reagan years and the Bush years probably made it somewhat harder to get treatment expanded, but at the same time, it probably had a good effect in terms of decreasing initiation and use. For example, marijuana went from thirty-three percent of high-school seniors in 1980 to twelve percent in 1991.
↑ Rosett, ed. by Raymond A. Smith. Forewords by James W. Curran, Photo ed. Jane (1998). Encyclopedia of AIDS: A Social, Political, Cultural, and Scientific Record of the HIV Epidemic. Chicago [u.a.]: Fitzroy-Dearborn-Publ. p.598. ISBN1-57958-007-6.{{cite book}}: |first= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
Shilts, Randy (2005). Conduct Unbecoming: Gays and Lesbians in the U.S. Military. St. Martin's Griffin. ISBN0-312-34264-0.
Wojciech, Bienkowski; Brada, Josef C.; Radlo, Mariusz-Jan, eds. (2006). Reaganomics Goes Global: What Can the EU, Russia and Transition Countries Learn from the USA?. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN978-1-4039-9941-2.
Further reading
Brands, H.W. (2015). Reagan: The Life. New York: Doubleday.
Flowers, Prudence. "‘A Prolife Disaster’: The Reagan Administration and the Nomination of Sandra Day O’Connor." Journal of Contemporary History 53.2 (2018): 391-414.
Hayward, Steven F. The Age of Reagan: The Conservative Counterrevolution, 1980–1989 (2010), highly favorable
Hertsgaard, Mark. (1988) On Bended Knee: The Press and the Reagan Presidency. New York, New York: Farrar Straus and Giroux.
Hill, Dilys M. and Raymond A. Moore, eds. The Reagan Presidency (Palgrave Macmillan, 1990) essays by scholars; 252pp.
Jeffries, Charlie. "Adolescent women and antiabortion politics in the Reagan administration." Journal of American studies 52.1 (2018): 193-213. online
Jones, John M., and Robert C. Rowland. "Redefining the proper role of government: Ultimate definition in Reagan’s first inaugural." Rhetoric and Public Affairs 18.4 (2015): 691-718. online
Levy, Peter, ed. Encyclopedia of the Reagan-Bush years (1996) online
Medhurst, Martin J. "LBJ, Reagan, and the American Dream: Competing visions of liberty." Presidential Studies Quarterly 46.1 (2016): 98-124.
Baumgardner, Paul. "The Law: 'Something He and His People Naturally Would Be Drawn To': The Reagan Administration and the Law‐and‐Economics Movement." Presidential Studies Quarterly 49.4 (2019): 959-975.
Ehrman, John. "The Age of Reagan? Three Questions for Future Research." Journal of the Historical Society (2011) 11#1 pp 111-131. DOI: 10.1111/j.1540-5923.2010.00324.x.
Johns, Andrew L., ed. A Companion to Ronald Reagan (Wiley-Blackwell, 2015). xiv, 682 pp.; topical essays by scholars emphasizing historiography; contents free at many libraries
Kengor, Paul. "Reagan Among the Professors: His Surprising Reputation". Policy Review 98 (1999): 15+. Reports that "many articles in the top journals have been fair, as have a number of influential books...from respected historians, presidential scholars, and political scientists – people who were not Reagan supporters and are certainly not right-wingers."
Kunde, Meg. "Making the Free Market Moral: Ronald Reagan’s Covenantal Economy." Rhetoric and Public Affairs 22.2 (2019): 217-252.
Milkman, Ruth, and Joseph A. McCartin. "The legacy and lessons of the PATCO strike after 30 years: A dialogue." Labor History 54.2 (2013): 123-137.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
