Ronald Reagan 's Economic Policies

Ronald Reagan, President of the United States from 1981 through 1989, created economic policies throughout his presidency that aimed to pull the United States out of a recession. His policies, called Reaganomics, reduced government spending and reduced tax rates in order to foster economic growth. Reagan also appointed many conservative judges to the Supreme Court and federal courts in order to shift ideologies to the right. Because of this, Reagan was both underrated and overrated as a president.

In addition, Reagan’s 1981 Program for Economic Recovery had four major policies, which are: to reduce the growth of government spending, reduce the marginal tax rates on income from labor and capital, reduce regulation, and to reduce inflation by controlling the growth of the money supply (Niskanen). Reagan’s Economic Recovery Program, also known as Reaganomics, was the most serious recession of the U.S. economic policy since Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal (Niskanen). However, according to historian, Eric Foner, there have been many issues with Reaganomics since the new policies, rising stock prices, and deindustrialization inevitably resulted into the rise of economic inequality, also known as the second gilded age (Foner 832).

One major reason Ronald Reagan was able to defeat Carter in the election of 1980 was because Carter failed to rescue the hostages from the American embassy, prior to the election. He had already run for president in 1968 and in 1976, but didn’t win until 1980 as a Republican nominee because he established himself as the conservative candidate with the support of like-minded organizations such as the American Conservative Union. Reagan had several policies to try to recover the economy, one of them being deregulation, in which he advocated limiting government involvement in business. Following this policy, he deregulated several industries from government control. Another policy was to reduce inflation by controlling the growth of the money

Politics in the U.S. during the 1980’s were exciting. Much like everything else during this decade, politics were changing and making a new way for economic development and social construct. Policy in the 1980’s were both huge on foreign policy, and domestic development. The cold war, being the main concern with foreign policy, consisted of Communism versus Democracy, or Socialism versus Capitalism. President Reagan being the face of America and our Commander and Chief, created “Reaganomics,” which fought for small Government, and utilized Government spending in a way that would effectively establish National Security as well as make a name for himself as being known as one of the most popular presidents in United State’s history. Though these issues took place some thirty years ago, it is safe to say that the tribulations we faced as a nation in the eighties have directly affected society in 2015.

Reagan became president in 1981, which means that he was president of the U.S. during a time in which the Cold War began to draw to a close. (Fischer, 1997, p.477). Whereas his predecessors used détente, a more relaxed approach in order to reduce tension between the U.S. and USSR, Reagan and his advisers rejected this strategy (Authors, People and a Nation, p.833). This led to a turning point in the Cold War. Even though the Cold War ended in 1991, two years after Reagan’s presidency, Reagan is still known to have made a huge influence on ending the Cold War. This essay will investigate his actions and how they might have influenced the ending of the Cold War, by looking at how Reagan expressed his distrust toward the Soviet Union and communism, the ways in which Reagan expanded the arms race in order to bankrupt the USSR and other ways in which he tried to sabotage the Soviet economy, but also

President Reagan’s radical tax cuts lead to a decrease in unemployment and an increase in incomes for Americans of all statuses. Despite the fact that, “in the late 1970s, the US economy was experiencing what was then the greatest economic crisis since the great depression… almost every economic measure substantially improved after Reagan’s reforms took effect” (Hannaford). Editors Pat Hannaford and Darcy Allen observe that, “by reducing America’s tax burden, Reagan’s

One of Reagan’s main concerns was the Soviet Union. Reagan stated, “The march of freedom and democracy...will leave Marxism-Leninism on the ash heap of history ...”12 All through his term he worked to collapse the Union, to end the Cold War, and to tear down the Berlin Wall. Margaret Thatcher commented that “Ronald Reagan won the Cold War without firing a shot”.10 Reagan set up the collapse of the Soviet Union in a couple of ways. First, he put more funds into the U.S. military, forcing the Soviets to do the same.11 second, he was confident that the U.S.S.R was crumbling and failing even when those around him believed that Communism was strong. Third, he was not intimidated by the Soviets and, while he respectfully met and listened to Gorbachev, he was not wavering and was determined. Even though many factors contributed to the fall of Communism, Reagan sped the process up and the Union officially fell apart in

President Ronald Reagan, the man who is accredited with ended the forty six year cold war was elected on Nov. 4, 1980. Reagan won his election with fifty percent of the popular vote over former President Jimmy Carter who had forty one percent. While Reagan as a president is praised for such successes as strengthening the national defense, stimulating growth in the U.S. economically, and as mentioned before he is considered the President who ended the Cold War. President Reagan had achieved many things by the end of his administration, but just as he had many successes his presidency was plagued with shortcomings and a handful of what could be considered flat out failures. The purpose of this writing is to establish and identify the ‘cons’ or failures of the Reagan administration, and provide a brief description of each different aspect of the administration.

Reagan implemented policies based on supply-side economics and advocated a classical liberal and laissez-faire philosophy, seeking to stimulate the economy with large, across-the-board tax cuts. Reagan’s outlook on economics was what he and the public called “Reaganomics”. “The blueprint for “Reaganomics,” was a sketched out supply-side approach to the economic, including massive cuts in income taxes, capital gains taxes, and corporate taxes,”(340). His platform advocated reducing tax rates to spur economic growth, controlling the money supply to reduce inflation, deregulation of the economy, and reducing government spending. Reagan's policies proposed that economic growth would occur when marginal tax rates were low enough to spur investment, which would then lead to increased economic growth, higher employment, and wages. Reagan’s beliefs on cutting taxes were supported by ideas of William Sumner who believed that the best equipped to win the struggle for existence was the American businessman, and concluded that taxes and regulations serve as dangers to his survival. Reagan believed strong nations were composed of people who were successful at expanding their empires and these strong nations would survive in the struggle for dominance.

Even though Reagan was very confident about his economic plan many others were weary of his ideas. George W. Bush Sr. proclaimed Reagan’s economic ideas as ‘Voodoo’ economics believing Reagan’s policy would not live up to its predicted outcome; ironically enough Bush and his son both adopted these policies during their presidencies. Many important congressmen had many fears in Reagan’s policies, they believed that imposing such tax cuts would raise inflation and cause higher interest rates. The public on the other hand, praised these

United States had secretly sold arms to Iran. He stated that the goal was to

Ronald Reagan’s had many accomplishments in domestic policy and the most important one has to be Reaganomics. It was a mixture of across-the-board tax cuts, deregulation, and domestic spending restraint. This theory also states that if the richest Americans are afforded the most tax cuts, the money will be used in commerce and in effect will “trickle down” to the rest of American citizens. It was still debated whether this method actually helps out the less privileged citizens. He persuaded Congress to pass an economic recovery program and it sparked a period of peacetime prosperity. There were criticism about his presidency, and some even labeled it as a failure, because of

Reagan’s conservative views influenced his economic decision to cut taxes on the wealthy in an effort to save the falling economy at the time and return the economy back to the prosperous lively American economy admired in the past. “Cutting taxes, Reagan insisted, would stimulate economic growth much more effectively than the traditional liberal approach of increasing government spending.” Although it did take time for Reagan’s tax plan to begin to take effect, it did in fact impact stimulate the economy. Once the wealthy were able to hold onto their money they began to invest more into the economy. The influx in jobs allowed for the nations economy to start to move back to normalcy and become prosperous again. The “Trickle Down Effect” was the main reason for the rapid turnaround in the economy. “In a successful attempt to lower the unemployment rate Reagan loosened grips on the business in the county in order to stimulate growth. It worked and led to a significant decrease in the unemployment rate of the country.” (S Robert Teitelman) Reagan’s move to loosen grips on the large businesses was part of the “Trickle Down Scheme” in hope to ease the panicked citizens who feared that the diminishing economy meant doom for the nation. Through cutting taxes on the powerful corporations the money they were saving would be put right back into the economy allowing the flow of wealth to “trickle down” to the average citizen not just the extremely rich. Once the plan was implemented and the economy took a turn for the good the nation was relieved and the country took another step towards normalcy. Reagan also attempted to help the nations failing economy by cutting spending on internal government run programs. The

As President, Ronald Reagan encountered many significant events; from surviving an assassination attempt, to the space shuttle Challenger disaster. Perhaps the most significant event was the economic downturn. He came to office (much like President Obama) in the midst of an economic crisis; however, President Reagan was able to turn the economy around. How did he do this? In order to answer this question, you must first ask what the economy was like when he was sworn into office, how his policy changed from the prior administration’s policy, and how it contrasts our present economic policy.

Reaganomics refers to economic policies implemented during President Reagan’s administration from 1981-1989. The main ideology of Reaganomics was conservation which promoted that “government is the problem, not solution”. That means, society and market would function better with limited government power and regulations. Accordingly, Social wealth was distributed by unrestricted market, and profits that capitalists earned would trickle down to the bottom of society. In this way, people were in charge of improving their lives instead of relying on the aid of government. In order to recover from the economic crisis occurred between 1981and1982, the major Reaganomics objectives was to reduce government intervention in business and social aids. The policies were specified as marginal tax cut, tightening money supply, reducing social welfare programs and regulations. Generally, Reaganomics that impact citizens the most would be tax cut, reducing welfares and regulations.