Ronald Reagan
Chandler Webb
Elections of Reagan
First election:
-1980
-Republican party
-Against Carter (democratic party) and Anderson (Independent)
-489 electoral votes to 49 for Carter
-43,899,248 popular votes to 35,481,435 for Carter and 5,719,427 for Anderson (he had received 0 electoral votes)
Second election:
-1984
-Reagan easily won the second election
-Ran against Walter Mondale (democrat). He had a female VP, which was new to the country.
-Won with 525 electoral votes to 13 for Mondale and 52,609,797 popular votes to 36,450,613.
National Budget Concerns
- With Reagan's approved budget proposals, the country had a deficit of about $38 billion.
- To make up for this, Congress focused on social programs created by the Great Society, and worried democrats thought Reagan was going to hurt the economy more than help
- However, Reagan impressed everyone with his power
- Cut taxes and asked Congress to pass the tax-cut bill
- Reagan instituted a supply-side economics where budgetary discipline and tax reduction would help new investment, productivity, dramatic economic growth, and lower the defecit.
- Supply-side had a negative turn and instead ended up being the "Reagan Recession", but Reagan waited to see if it would take a positive turn in the long run - and it did, more or less.
- The rich got very rich under it while the poor became even poorer. Yuppies became known as young, wealthy, and high spending people.
- A result of Reagan's deals was that America became one of the world's heaviest borrows of money globally in the 1980s.
Cold War
- Reagan wanted to build the US military up enough to scare the Soviets into giving in
- As long as the Soviets wouldn't retaliate by building their own arms (& they shouldn't because of their economic instability), Reagan's plan could work
- Reagan did this by creating the SDI or Star Wars which was a high tech missile-defense system.
- When Soviets blasted a Korean passenger airliner with Americans in it from the skies in 1983, the US quit negotiations
Iran-Contra Imbroglio
- Two problems for Reagan: American hostages being taken by Muslim extremists in Lebanon and the contra rebels fighting against the Sandinista regime
- To try and help it, American diplomats sold arms to Iranians for Iranian aid in releasing the American hostages. Money gained from the arms was given to help the contra rebels.
- When people found out about it, Reagan denied that he was involved in wrongdoings.
- This was called the Iran-Contra Affair and damaged the people's view of Reagan.
Economic Legacy
- Even with all of Reagan's efforts, the deficit enlarged throughout his presidency by adding nearly $2 trillion (more than all other presidents combined)
- Despite this, Reagan had been planning to slow the growth of the government and to end LBJ's Great Society programs, both of which happened and resulted in the containment of the welfare state.