Domestic policy of the Ronald Reagan administration
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Personal life 33rd Governor of California
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This article discusses the domestic policy of the Ronald Reagan administration 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]
Notable events included his firing of nearly 12,000 striking air traffic control workers and appointing the first woman to the
"Reaganomics" and the economy
Policies
Based on supply-side economics, President Reagan implemented his economic policies in 1981. The four pillars of the policies were to:
- Reduce marginal tax rates on income from labor and capital.
- Reduce regulation.
- Tighten the money supply to reduce inflation.
- Reduce the growth of government spending.
By reducing or eliminating decades-long
When Reagan took office, the country faced the highest rate of
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
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.
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]
Along with these, Reagan reappointed
These policies were labeled by some as "
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
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
Legacy
Some economists seem to think that Reagan's tax policies invigorated America's economy, such as
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]
Environment
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
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]
PATCO: Air traffic controllers' strike
Reagan announced that the situation had become an emergency as described in the 1947
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
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
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
Education
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.
War on Drugs
Not long after being sworn into office, Reagan declared more militant policies in the "
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
In 1987, when Associate Justice
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]
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
Reagan appointed 83 judges to the
Response to AIDS
Perhaps the greatest criticism surrounds Reagan's silence about the
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]
Decades after Reagan's presidency, audio surfaced that revealed Larry Speakes, who was the White House Press Secretary from 1981-1987, gave a dismissive attitude to reporter Lester Kinsolving regarding questions on the AIDS epidemic.[95][96]
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
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]
Civil rights
Reagan opposed the
Reagan gave a
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]
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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.
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{{cite book}}
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Further sources
- Appleby, Joyce; Alan Brinkley; James M. McPherson (2003). The American Journey. Woodland Hills, California: Glencoe/McGraw-Hill. ISBN 0-07-824129-4.
- Boskin, Michael J. (1987). Reagan and the US Economy: The Successes, Failures, and Unfinished Agenda. ICEG.
- ISBN 1-891620-84-3.
- S2CID 159222280.
- ISBN 978-0-19-505394-4.
- ISBN 0-312-34264-0.
- 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. ISBN 978-1-4039-9941-2.
Further reading
- Brands, H.W. (2015). Reagan: The Life. New York: Doubleday.
- Brandt, Karl Gerard. Ronald Reagan and the House Democrats: Gridlock, Partisanship, and the Fiscal Crisis (University of Missouri Press, 2009).
- Brownlee, W. Elliot and Hugh Davis Graham, eds. The Reagan Presidency: Pragmatic Conservatism and Its Legacies (2003)
- ISBN 1-891620-91-6.
- 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
- Heclo, Hugh (2008). "The Mixed Legacies of Ronald Reagan". Presidential Studies Quarterly. 38 (4): 555–574. JSTOR 41219701.
- 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.
- Patterson, James (2005). Restless Giant: The United States from Watergate to Bush v. Gore. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0195122169.
- Pemberton, William E. (1997). Exit with Honor: The Life and Presidency of Ronald Reagan. Routledge.
- Primuth, Richard. "Ronald Reagan's Use of Race in the 1976 and 1980 Presidential Elections." Georgia Historical Quarterly 100.1 (2016): 36-66. online
- Rossinow, Douglas C. (2015). The Reagan Era: A History of the 1980s. Columbia University Press. ISBN 9780231538657.
- Rowland, Robert C., and John M. Jones. "Reagan’s farewell address: Redefining the American dream." Rhetoric and Public Affairs 20.4 (2017): 635-666.
- Sharpes, Donald. "Nixon and Reagan on the Environment." White House Studies 14.1 (2014).
- Spitz, Bob. Reagan: An American Journey (2018), 880pp; detailed biography.
- Witcher, Marcus M. "The Failures of Revolution: Conservative Disillusion With Reagan on Social Issues." White House Studies 14.2 (2014).
- Wilentz, Sean (2008). The Age of Reagan: A History, 1974-2008. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-074480-9.
Historiography and memory
- 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.