Ronald Reagan
Election of Reagan
Election of 1980
- Republican candidate Ronald Reagan v. Democratic candidate Jimmy Carter
- Reagan won over 51% of the popular vote as opposed to 41% to Carter and 7% to a third party candidate
- Won 489 votes in the electoral college as opposed to Carter's 49
- Republicans gained control of Senate for the first time in 25 years
- Republican candidate Ronald Reagan v. Democratic candidate Walter Mondale
- Mondale ran with female VP Geraldine Ferraro, still lost because he served as Carter's VP and associated with the failed administration
- Reagan won 525 electoral votes to Mondale's 13 votes
- Won 52,609,797 popular votes in comparison to Mondale's 36,450,613 votes
Issues /Concerns over the national budget
- One of Reagan's major goals was to reduce the government's size by shrinking the federal budget and cutting taxes
- Citizens were tired of paying for "government benefits" through programs like those of the New Deal and Great Society
- Californian tax revolt of 1978- Proposition 13- cut property taxes and greatly reduced government services
- Reagan's budget proposal- $35 billion cut in social programs such as food stamps and government funded job training centers
- Was shot in the lung on March 6, 198, recovered quickly, addressed America on television and received overwhelming support for his "supply-siders plan"
- Part 1- Congress agreed to cut back immensely on social welfare plans installed but the Democrats
- Part 2- called for deep tax cuts, up to 25% over the next 3 years
- August 1981- Congress approved a set of tax reforms that: lowered individual tax rates, reduced federal estate taxes and began tax free savings plans for small investors
- Led to nearly 11% unemployment rate in 1982, businesses collapsed and several banks failed
- Especially hit the automobile industry hard
- Democrats accused Reagan of forcing the nation's burdens onto the poor and handicapped by canceling all the social welfare programs
- Widened wealth gap between the rich and poor, created class of yuppies young rich urban professionals who excessively indulged in material goods
Reagan and the Cold War
- Had harsh opinions against Soviets, condemned them for invading Afghanistan
- Believed on negotiating with the soviets only if the US had the upper hand in strength and technology
- Proposed to achieve this through SDI in March 1983
- SDI- Strategic Defense Initiative - called for orbiting battle stations to fire laser beams to vaporize intercontinental missiles
- Mocked by scientific community due to it's complex, impossible, fantasy-like goal, called the Star Wars plan
- Emphasized defense over offense, was questionable whether pouring this much money into defending against the Soviets was worth it
- Relations were further strained through the following events: Polish Solidarity, ill health and deaths of many oligarchs in Kremlin, shooting down of a Korean plane that had reportedly crossed into soviet airspace(killed hundreds of civilians),boycotts of the Moscow and Los Angeles olympics boycotts
Iran Contra-Imbroglio
- Iran Contra Affair- 2 main foreign unsolvable issues for Reagan: growing numbers of American hostages by extremists in Lebanon and the unfaltering strength of the Sandinista regime in Nicaragua
- Reagan wanted to provide military assistance to the contra rebels in Nicaragua, but Congress refused
- Congress saw a link between the 2 problems
- 1985, secretly arranged for arms sales to Iran in return for release of American hostages
- Used the money from the arms sales to help the contras, information about this illegal dealing leaked out in November of 1986
- Reagan denied involvement, and many officials were convicted
- Scandal cast a negative shadow on the Reagan administration though Reagan remains one of the most popular presidents in modern American history
Reagan's economic legacy
- Vowed to improve the economy by rolling back government regulations, lowering taxes, and balancing budget
- Successful in reducing many regulatory rules and pushed major tax reform bills through congress in 1981 and 1986, but couldn't achieve a balanced budget
- Supply-side economics promised that lower taxes would stimulate economy, but in reality lower taxes and military spending led to increase in national debt, nearly $2 trillion
- Led to decrease of excessive social welfare programs such as the Great Society- achieved Reagan's ultimate goal: containment of the welfare state
- Reversal of the trend toward equitable distribution of income, squeezing of middle class, median household income declined etc.