Ronald Reagan
Michael Nehme
Election of Reagan
The Presidential Election of 1980
- Ronald Reagan (Rep.) vs. Jimmy Carter (Dem.)
- Reagan was well suited to lead the gathering conservative crusade
- He denounced the activist government and failed "social engineering" of the 1960s
- drew on the ideas of an influential group of thinkers known as the "neoconservatives"
- Reagan collected 489 electoral votes and 50.8% of the popular votes
- Carter collected 49 electoral votes and 41% of the popular votes
The Presidential Election of 1984
- Ronald Reagan (Rep.) vs. Walter Mondale (Dem.)
- Reagan received 525 electoral votes and 58.8% of the popular vote
- Mondale received 13 electoral votes and 40.6% of the popular vote
- Mondale is famous for naming as his running mate Congresswoman Geraldine Ferraro
The National Budget
- Congress swallowed Reagan's budget proposals with a projected deficit of about $38 million
- Reagan's triumph amazed political observers
- He also called for deep tax cuts that amounted to 24% across-the-board reductions over a period of three years
- August 1981, Congress approved a set of far-reaching tax reforms
- The economy slid into its deepest recession since the 1930s, Reagan's "supply-side" economics began to fail him
- Many charged the presidents budget cuts for causing the recession
- Reagan was accused of making the poverty stricken Americans carry the heaviest burden
- Reagan waited for the "supply-side" economic policies (Reaganomics) to produce its promised results
- Income gaps widened between the rich and the poor
- "Yuppies" or young, urban professionals began to emerge symbolic of the new income stratification
- Reagan cascaded 2 trillion budget dollars onto the Pentagon in the 1980
- Federal budget deficits topped $100 billion in 1982
- Americans became the world's heaviest borrowers in the global economy in the 1980s
Reagan and the Cold War
- Reagan continued to condemn Kremlin as the Soviets carried on their war in Afghanistan
- Reagan claimed that the Soviets were "prepared to commit any crime, to lie, to cheat"
- He believed in negotiating with the Soviets from a position of strength
- By expanding the US military capabilities, he planned to threaten the Soviets with an expensive new round of the arms race
- Reagan announced in March 1983 his intention to pursue a high-technology missile-defense system called the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI)
- Scientists considered his intention an impossible goal
- Relations further nose dived in late 1981 when the government of Poland organized into a massive union called "Solidarity"
- September 1983, The Soviets blasted a Korean passenger airline that inexplicably crossed into Soviet airspace
- By the end of 1983, all arms control negotiations with the Soviets were broken off
Iran-Contra Imbroglio
Iran-Contra Affair
- Two foreign policy problems troubled Reagan: the captivity of American hostages seized by Muslim extremist groups in Lebanon; and the grip of power of the left-wing Sandinista government in Nicaragua
- Reagan repeatedly requested military aid to the contra rebels in Nicaragua, and Congress refused
- Washington officials saw a link between the two problems in the Middle East and in Nicaragua
- In 1985, the US arranged arms sales to Iranians in return for Iranian aid in releasing the American hostages
- At least one was eventually set free
- The money from the payment for the arms was diverted to the contras
- These actions violated a congressional ban on military aid to the rebels
- The news of these secret dealings broke in November 1986 and controversy broke out
- Reagan claimed he was innocent of wrongdoing and was ignorant about the activities of his subordinates
- Criminal indictments were brought against several individuals tarred by the Iran-contra scandal, but all the convictions were reversed
- The affair cast a dark shadow over the Reagan record in foreign policy
Reagan's Economic Legacy
- Had vowed to invigorate the American economy by rolling back government regulations, lowering taxes, and balancing the budget
- He did push major tax reform bills through Congress in 1981 and 1986, and eased many regulatory rules
- Reagan added nearly $2 trillion to the national debt
- The deficit constituted a great economic failure
- He guaranteed that the future generations would have to work harder in order to overcome this debt
- The deficits prompted Congress in 1986 to pass legislation mandating a balanced budget by 1991
- They also constituted a kind of political triumph
- The deficits served to slow the growth of government and block the social programs set up by LBJ
- They achieved Reagan's highest political objective: the containment of the welfare state
- Another legacy was a sharp reversal of a long term trend toward a more equitable distribution of income and an increasing squeeze on the middle class