Reagan Revolution

Reaganomics was economics policies which were propelled by United States President, Ronald Reagan during 1980s. These policies were based on fours pillars namely; reduction of the growth of government spending, reduction of income and capital gains marginal tax rates, reduction of government regulation of economy, and controlling of the money in supply so as to reduce inflation. Their basic aims were to lower taxes and create a leaner government. According to Reagan his decision was informed on stimulation of the economy taxes, financed by borrowing. Lowering taxes was aimed at reviving the economy, which in turn would see the increased tax revenues being used to offset the debts incurred (Niskanen

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.

Reagan really focused on improving the economy during his presidency, with a plan he called Reaganomics, or supply side economics. The main parts of this plan were cuts on taxes and budgets, and monetary policy. Also, he wanted to reduce government regulation on businesses. He thought that these and increasing defense expenditures would heighten economic efficiency. Reagan managed to cut taxes by twenty five percent in three years. However, the plans did not work out at first, causing a recession that some call “The Great Inflation.” The national debt heightened substantially, and the rate of unemployment reached up to eleven percent. Despite these negative outcomes, the economy experienced a sudden growth and prosperity in 1983, which was

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

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).

    During Reagan’s presidency he took economics seriously. He made efforts to lower Government spending as well as regulation, taxes, and prosperity. He would lower government expenditure because it would create room to decrease taxation. By decreasing income revenue it created more money for people to spend which would stimulate the economy. Reagan fought hard for helping out the economy.

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

Perhaps Reagan's most controversial cause was his foreign policy. He wanted to prevent communist expansion and helped countries free themselves of it and believed the nation should negotiate with the Soviet Union. On Washington Summit in December of

A good place to begin would be in regards to Reagan’s administration and his communication with said administrators or better the lack thereof. President Reagan’s style of administration was regarded as a ‘hands off’ approach in which left him out of a lot the specifics in decision making other than just making the decision of yes or no to a certain degree. The reliance on his administration to make most of the decisions for him ended up creating some issues small and major such as the Iran-Contra scandal. Reagans un

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.

Leading up to the year 1981, America had fallen into a period of “stagflation”, a portmanteau for ‘stagnant economy’ and ‘high inflation’. Characterized by high taxes, high unemployment, high interest rates, and low national spirit, America needed to look to something other than Keynesian economics to pull itself out of this low. During the election of 1980, Ronald Reagan’s campaign focused on a new stream of economic policy. His objective was to turn the economy into “a healthy, vigorous, growing economy [which would provide] equal opportunities for all Americans, with no barriers born of bigotry or discrimination.” Reagan’s policy, later known as ‘Reaganomics’, entailed a four-point plan which cut taxes, reduced government spending,

The Republican Party's central leader by 1980 was Ronald Reagan, whose conservative policies called for reduced government spending and regulation, lower taxes, and a strong anti-Soviet foreign policy.

President Reagan wanted America to govern itself. He felt that when some prosper it would trickle down to all. He especially did not believe in big government spending programs. With his less government views

Beginning with the creation of the Monroe Doctrine in 1823, up to the current Obama doctrine, presidential doctrines have dominated United States foreign policy. A presidential doctrine highlights the goals and positions for United States foreign affairs outlined by the sitting president. Many of the country’s major foreign policy successes or disasters can be explained by tracing the doctrines of sitting or previous presidents and analyzing their evolution and eventual impact on world events. After established, a presidential doctrine often takes on a life of its own. This can be explained by the military resources and human capital involved in carrying out these doctrines. Future presidents often feel compelled to abide by previous doctrines, or find the reality of change can only be done with incremental changes over a period of years. For this reason, presidential doctrines often outlive their creators and consequently effect American foreign policy for years to come.

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.