Reagan Administration Case Study

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.

Conte & Karr (2001) report the economic growth of the 1980’s in the United States sees President Regan cutting taxes and slashing social programs. President Reagan also

I will be going over the discrimination of African Americans by the Ronald Reagan administration during the cold war. The effects his policies had on African Americans, what he gained from it, and the reasoning for his actions. How he used the C.I.A to target low income African American communities. Plus, the overall effects this has on the U.S. to this day.

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.

ronald reagan created the war on drugs and the war on crime which made drug reladed crime rise and he had claimed that people who commit violent crimes "are not desperate people seeking bread for their families; crime is the way they've chosen to live." this shows how he has almost no knolage of the lower class and poverty and why some people do what they do.(Bureau of Justice Statistics, "Drugs and Crime Facts," bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov (accessed Oct. 14, 2010) He also slashed federal aid to schools by more than $1 billion, and he cut the Department of Education budget by 19%(Veronique de Rugy, "President Reagan, Champion Budget-Cutter," American Institute for Public Policy Research website, June 9, 2004)his ignorence in health also showed because Reagan almost completely ignored the growing AIDS epidemic. Although the first case of AIDS was discovered in the 1980s, Reagan never addressed the epidemic until May 31, 1987 when he spoke at an AIDS conference in Washington, DC. By that time, 36,058 Americans had been diagnosed with the disease and 20,849 had died this all shows how poorly he understood poverty and what it was like being in poverty and what it made some people do and how some people needed help with drugs not to be sent to prison for the rest of there lives he also initiated the huge gap in eduication we now have today with other big countys such as china and india because of him cutting taxes for

Serving as the 40th president, Ronald Reagan made a lasting impact on the United States of America. Reagan ran for president in 1968 and 1976 and did not win the elections, it was not until 1980 when he ran again for the third time and became the president. He entered his presidency with some background as he was the governor of California for 8 years. When he went in to presidency the economy was weak, inflation was high, and there were foreign difficulties. The Cold War and a recession was also happening during this time period. Reagan had a plan that is now known as the “Reagan Revolution.” During his presidency Reagan’s goal was to cut taxes to increase employment and the economy, increase defense spending, and bring a quick end to the Cold War.

As Ronald Reagan Ascended in the 1980’s he reinvented Republican policies that favored deregulation and the growth of business in America. These Ideas markedly opposed the views of the governmental interventionist policies of the 1960’s and 70’s with these ideas Reagan hoped to decrease government Involvement and heavy taxes. With these tax cuts Reagan’s thinking was that many new businesses would spawn and that it would have a trickledown effect by not only empowering businesses to grow and hire more people which in the end would benefit all from those on top in the corporate world all the way down to the lowest person in the company in which

Jimmy Carter was the thirty-ninth president of the United States covering the years of 1977 to 1980. He “maintained a military that took away all of the national wealth which protected corporate wealth and power”(Zinn, Ch. 21). As Zinn states, the Panama Canal during the Panama Canal treaty saved American companies $1.5 billion a year in delivery costs, and the United States collected $150 million a year in tolls, out of which it paid the Panama government $2.3 million dollars, while maintaining fourteen military bases in the area. This shows just how much of the people’s money went straight to the military, whether the people wanted their money to be used that way or not, the government could do what they wanted with their money as they

Although many people have a very positive outlook and perspective on Ronald Reagan’s bold motives, he was a risk-taker and many people disagreed with his plan of actions. Despite lowering the poverty rates, the Reagan Administration set records for budget deficits. After scrutinizing President Carter for acquiring a $50 billion deficit, Reagan’s personal deficits exceeded $200 billion. He quadrupled the national debt in only a matter of eight years. Even though many Republicans blamed Congress for the deficits, all eight of the budgets Congress passed had less spending and smaller deficits than the budgets proposed by Reagan. James Tobin had this to say about Reagan’s leadership: “The awful truth is that Reaganomics was a fraud from the beginning. The moral of it’s failures and of it’s legacies is that a nation pays a heavy price when it entrusts its government and economy to simplistic ideologues—however smooth their performances on television. (James Tobin, 1988, pg. 103) Despite bringing poverty rates down, Reagan managed to increase the nation’s deficit by an all-time. Opposed to his bold decision-making, his standards of taking risks counteracted his main objective of decreasing the nation’s poverty.

“Reaganomics did many things, it lowered the federal income tax rate significantly with the signing of the bipartisan Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981. It also escalated the War on Drugs campaign and specified a mandatory minimum penalty for drug offenses, increased spending on national defense and diplomacy and ushered in a close to the Cold War, and reauthorized the Voting Rights Act of 1965 for another 25 years. This idea of Reaganomics did a lot of different things that helped the U.S. It signed the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, which compensated victims of the Japanese-American internment during World War II. Reaganomics also fired 11,345 striking air traffic controllers who illegally went on strike in 1981 (Graphiq Inc.

As the infected number and death toll continued to rise, Reagan made the fight against AIDS a priority and over the course of the 80’s spent $2.3 billion on it to search for a cure. Although the national debt severely increased under Reagan, he struggled to fix the failing American economy and there was economic growth during his presidency. Reagan inherited a poor economy from past presidents, but he did his best to fix it. Reagan’s economic policy was dubbed Reaganomics, or supply side economics, and it had the goal of lowering the taxes of wealthy individuals and businesses in hopes that they would stimulate the rest of the economy. Under Reagan, the Economic Recovery Tax Act lowered many different types of taxes, and he believed that under a free market and a more laissez faire approach, the economy would fix itself over time. Reagan also deregulated industries, especially transportation and oil industries. Although manufacturing declined, the service industries actually grew under Reagan. Reagan also had the vision of shrinking the size of the federal government. He spent less on social programs, but kept previous programs such as Medicare and Medicaid. While in office, Reagan appointed many new positions in government. He is remembered for appointing the first woman to the Supreme Court, Sandra Day O’Connor. She was more liberal than Reagan expected her to be, and he continued to appoint more conservatives to the Supreme Court.

Although Carter was a likable man, the role of president was not the job for him. His big government spending and policies were responsible for leading our fragile country into one of the worst economic recessions ever. However, this all changes in January of 1981 when President Ronald Reagan was sworn into office and came to our country’s rescue. Reagan stepped in ready to mend the deep scars left behind by setting forth an economic plan, Reaganomics, in hopes to bail out our sinking country. Though many may say Reagan’s conservative ways had this plan favoring the upper class, this was not the case.

Ronald Reagan’s message and vision for the future of America was clear. Cut taxes and make Americas economy great again. Increases in unemployment, taxes, and inflation during Jimmy Carters presidency, would require immediate action. President Reagans stance on the economy attributed to him winning the election. Enthusiastically, Reagan immediately began working on the economy by reducing government spending, controlling money to curb inflation, and economic deregulation (Fox, 2008). Through Reagans policies, the United States began to emerge from the stronghold of the 1970’s. Taking the direction towards economic freedom. Reagan fought and won the battle to the White House. Energetic, humorous, witty, but above all intellectual. It was his intellect that appealed to the American electorates. Reagan spoke to them about his vision for the United States, how he would accomplish tasks before him. He believed

Stagflation caused businessmen and everyday Americans to demand lower taxes and limited government intervention. Because of the outcome of the Vietnam War Americans questioned government authority and purpose. The Watergate scandal convinced Americans that limited government power was the only way to protect individual freedoms. Coming out of the 70s, Americans were looking for a leader in a time of crisis. They found it in Ronald Reagan. With his speech he change the perception of the Conservative platform. No longer were Republicans a radical party but progressive in trying to make “American great again”. Reagan advocated a smaller federal government, de-regulation in the business sector, lower taxes, and a strong national defense against communism. These are the ways in which religious right, social conservative, southern racist, businessmen, and entrepreneur where convinced that Conservative value were the best plan, in a time of

2. Large financial incentives have been given to low enforcement agencies to make drug arrests.