USII.29

 =media type="custom" key="29582651" align="right"= =Analyze the Presidency of Ronald Reagan=

Topics on the Page

 * ** Overview of the Reagan Presidency **
 * ** Important Speeches **
 * ** Large Income Tax Cut and Reaganomics **
 * ** Historical Biography page on Keynes, von Mises, von Hayek and Friedman **
 * ** Major reduction in domestic spending **
 * Income Inequality Since the 1980s
 * ** Large Increase in spending on National Defense **
 * **Anticommunist Foreign and Defense Policies**
 * **Iran-Contra**
 * ** Other Topics **
 * ** Reagan and AIDS **
 * ** Supreme Court Appointments **
 * ** The Conservative Movement **
 * ** Air Traffic Controllers Strike of 1981 **

//**Focus Question: What were the major impacts of Ronald Reagan's presidency?**//
For more, see AP United States History 26

Overview of the Reagan Presidency
Click here for an Overview of the Reagan Presidency from American President: An Online Reference Resource from the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia.

See also, [|Reagan] from the PBS series, The Presidents.

A short clip from a History Chanel video on American Presidents gives an insightful overview to Reagan's Presidency

Click here for the[| Reagan Presidential Library]

In 1980 when President Reagan won his first term he did so in a convincing manner.
 * With 489 electoral votes compared to the 49 electoral votes that President Carter received, the elections were considered a landslide victory.
 * When President Reagan ran once again in 1984 his margin of victory was even greater.
 * With 525 electoral votes compared to the 13 electoral votes that Walter Mondale received, President Reagan was once again the clear victor, and shattered the record for the highest total of electoral votes ever received by a candidate.



[|This lesson plan] provides a teacher's guide for showing students Reagan's documentary, //Reagan.// This lesson plan includes guided questions to ensure students are grasping the main points of the documentary. It includes discussion questions for before and after watching the video and activities (11).

[|Ronald Reagan] became president of the United States in 1980 and went on to serve two terms from 1981-1989. His presidency was almost cut short on March 30, 1981, when John Hinckley Jr. attempted to assassinate the President. This was only 69 days after President Reagan had been sworn into office had been sworn into office.
 * Here's a video of the President's account of what happened.

Click here for a biography of Nancy Reagan

[[image:primary_sources.PNG]]Important Speeches by Ronald Reagan

 * First Inaugural Address, January 20, 1981 ( text and video)
 * [|Address at Moscow State University] (text and video)
 * Ronald Reagan's Farewell Address
 * Reagan's address on the Iran-Contra Affair
 * Video of Reagan's "Berlin Wall" Speech

Click here for a timeline of Reagan's life. Click here for an NPR report on Reagan's civil rights legacy
 * He believed in “trickle-down economics,” reasoning that if the rich get richer, the economy gets stronger, and the middle and working classes also benefit.
 * Notable events included his sweeping tax cuts
 * the Iran-Contra affair [2], and
 * His “Star Wars” plan in which he hoped to have missile defense systems on the moon in case of nuclear war.


 * [[image:dollarsign.png width="40" height="40"]]Tax rate cuts and Reaganomics **

Reaganomics (also called "Supply-Side" Economics) was a radical reversal of the American economic policy than had been in place since the New Deal.
 * This approach holds that if the "government left more money in the hands of the people, they would invest that money, rather than spend the excess money on items like consumer goods."
 * In theory this would produce larger production rates, higher employment rates, prosperity as well as larger amounts of income available for the governments use while having lower tax rates.
 * Reaganomics [| [3]] describes the major economic policy changes Reagan believed in and enforced during his presidency.
 * A major part of this was a series of tax cuts throughout his two terms.
 * It was believed that by cutting the taxes of the richest in the nation, they would have even more money and would invest it back into the economy. He was a supporter of supply-side economics, which attempted to create a faster growing economy.
 * GDP did grow, but incomes became more unequal and that inequality has continued to grow
 * In 2016, the top 1 percent nows earns 18 percent of all income, double what it did when Reagan entered office ("Trump: What the Market Is Saying," Jeff Madrick, New York Review of Books, November 18, 2016)

For more, see ** Historical Biography page on Keynes, von Mises, von Hayek and Friedman **
 * **See also Economics 4.9 for how governments seek to use taxes to promote economic growth**

[|This video] covers all aspects of Reagan's presidency, but largely focuses on his economic policies. While he did utilize supply-side economics, he did keep many policies of the Great Society and the New Deal. He also worked with Democrats during his second term, promoting bipartisanship. By today's standards, he would be considered more of a moderate.

Economic Recovery Tax Act (1981)
Tax cut requested by Ronald Reagan for the American people. Reagan requested 30% tax cut, instead provided with 25% tax cut, over the course of 3 yrs. This 25% tax cut was the same for all classes, thus those who were in the higher class would receive a greater amount of savings then those individuals of the middle and lower classes.

[|Click here for a recent article about Reagan's famous tax-cuts and the military tax increases which people tend to forget about]



**Income Inequality since the 1980s**
[|It's the Inequality, Stupid] from Mother Jones Magazine presents a series of charts detailing income redistribution in American society (May/June 2011).

See [|Striking It Richer: The Evolution of Top Incomes in the United States]

====For more on income inequality, see **Economics 3.9**====

[|The Unequal State of America: Government's Role in Inequality] in the United States from Reuters.

[|President Obama's Speech on Income Inequality], December 4, 2013.
 * Many economists contend that Reagan administration policies set in motion structural changes in the American economy that have resulted in greater income inequality.

=Domestic Spending= - Reduced by the Budget Reconciliation Act (1981)

Budget Reconciliation Act (1981)
- Cut domestic spending by $39 Billion, decreasing spending in such areas such as food stamps, education and public housing. - In addition while decreasing domestic spending it increased the national defense budget by $12 Billion


 * Domestic Policy:** Here is a short excerpt from the [|Miller Center's page] on Reagans Domestic Policy.

"The administration also angered civil rights organizations on a number of fronts. Reagan made ill-considered remarks about Martin Luther King, Jr., in 1982 as Congress debated making King's birthday a national holiday. The same year the Reagan administration supported a lawsuit brought by Bob Jones University of South Carolina against the Internal Revenue Service over its long-standing policy of denying tax breaks to segregated schools. The policy originated in 1970 in an effort to combat the development of segregated private schools, which had become popular among whites in the wake of public school desegregation in the South. The IRS policy, though, also affected religious schools such as Bob Jones University, which enrolled a few minority students but forbade interracial dating and marriage."

Anticommunist foreign and defense policies
For an overview, see [|Reagan's Foreign Policy] from the Office of the Historian at the U.S. Department of State.

Reagan greatly intensified the Cold War during his presidency and was also stuck in the middle of the infamous Iran-Contra affair. His first term saw a sharp decrease in the policy of détente [4] with the Soviet Union that had been displayed by several presidents before him. Instead of keeping things calm, he came close to war again with the Soviets, going so far as to call them the "Evil Empire". It wasn’t until the rise of Mikhail Gorbachev that Regan began to relax his policies and tried to help reestablish the peace.

During his presidency the administration tried to help fund the anti-communist Contras in Nicaragua [5] and weapons were illegally sold to Iran and the money was given to the Contras. Regan wanted to encourage the overthrow of the Sandanistas, who were the communist-leaning government in power. His reasoning had to do with the “Domino Theory,” which was the belief that if communism, supported by the USSR, got a toehold in Central America, then the countries would fall like dominoes, all the way up to the U.S. border.

When the illegal arms sales were discovered it was branded, the “Iran-Contra affair,” and many officials were subsequently forced to resign, with some even facing conviction for the illegal sales.

Here is a link to Reagan's statement on the [|Iran-Contra Affair] Click here for a lesson plan on the Iran-Contra Affair as well as US Foreign Policy in general.

Click here for a video of Reagan urging Congress to intervene in Nicaragua

Another interesting aspect of Reagan’s foreign policy was his shift to a defensive stance, which was seen by his Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) also called “Star Wars.” [6] He hoped to put a missile defense system of lasers on the moon in case of nuclear war with the Soviets.

While many people credit Reagan with the accomplishment of ending the cold war it is important to remember that a lot of the progress made between the United States and the Soviet Union can be credited to the cooperation of Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev who reasoned with the ever so militaristic Reagan. For a biography of Gorbachev, click [|here.] Click [|here] for a video of the signing of the INF treaty between Reagan and Gorbachev.

During Reagan's presidency, the CIA was appointed to intervene in the Soviet-Afghan war. During this intervention, the CIA funded, armed and trained a growing Islamic militia in Afghanistan which was then known as the "Mujahideen." Today they are referred to as Al-Qaeda. Click [|here] for an interesting article which shows the transformation of this group from one of America's allies to one of the US's most sworn enemies. Click [|here] for an informative video about the use of stinger missiles supplied by the United States, and used by the Mujahideen in the Soviet-Afghan war.


 * Reagan's press conference announcing "Star Wars"

Here is a link to a [|lesson plan] about the fall of the Soviet Union based on Ronald Reagan.

**[[image:200pxrainbow flag.svg.png width="60" height="33"]]Reagan and AIDS**

 * See World History II.45 for more on HIV/AIDS**

Despite the fact that a lot of Americans remember Reagan's presidency fondly, many remember his actions, or lack thereof, in response to the outbreak of the AIDS epidemic.
 * Click __here__ for a PBS special about President Reagan's silence in the face of the AIDS epidemic and how his wife Nancy Reagan eventually persuaded him to act in response to the horrible disease.
 * Click __here__ for another interesting article about Reagan's inactivity in regards to the AIDS epidemic.

[|A Timeline of AIDS]

For more, see [|How It Began: HIV Before the Age of AIDS] from Frontline.

[|C. Everett Koop: Pioneering Surgeon General Spurred Reagan Response to AIDS]

[|This article] explains how Reagan was not active in gaining rights for women. Reagan did not promote the Equal Rights Amendment and supported a Human Life Amendment that would ban abortion and certain birth controls. He also downsized the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (12).

[|This article] portrays Reagan as someone very against the Civil Rights Movement. Reagan did not approve of both the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. He was also against affirmative action but did not try to enact policies to stifle it (13).

Supreme Court appointments


Reagan brought many changes in the Supreme Court during his presidency.

He appointed three Justices (Sandra Day O’Connor, Antonin Scalia, and Anthony Kennedy), and also made William Rehnquist Chief Justice.

The court therefore took a marked conservative turn. O’Connor became the First Woman to serve as a Justice on the Supreme Court, which was something Reagan had said he wanted to do.

Justices O’Connor and Kennedy were sometimes swing votes, especially on questions of keeping abortion legal, but for the most part these were all conservative appointments.

Click here for more information on Sandra Day O'Connor, the first woman to serve on the Supreme Court.

The First Lady- An online link to a Biography on Nancy Reagan from Biography.com

The conservative movement
The conservative movement was put in full force while Reagan was president. Reagan found support with people who agreed with his economic policy, also known as "Reaganomics" and with people who were also against communism. During the time of Reagan's presidency, the cold war was a big fear for many people and the strengthening of the military was supported by many who feared nuclear war. The administration of Reagan is when the modern conservative movement first came into ascension.

For a recent perspective, see a 2009 Bill Moyers Journal segment, Conservative Movement Woes.

Click [|here] for an interesting discussion from historian Will Bunch who explains the use of mythology in creating Reagan's legacy which is remembered today.

Replacement of striking air traffic controllers with non-union personnel
Reagan fired 11,359 striking air traffic controllers.
 * They were demanding more money and better working conditions; after repeated warnings to return to work, they were all fired, and replaced by non- participants of the strike.
 * The union was called PATCO [7] and the event led to other employers replacing striking employees in far greater numbers then ever before.

Reagan hosting a Q&A on the Air Traffic Controller Strike

[|Labor History: The Air Traffic Controllers Strike] from State Vocational Federation of Teachers

The Strike That Busted Unions, The New York Times, August 2, 2011

[|Introduction to the PATCO Curriculum], Georgia State University

Links
[1] Retrieved April 29, 2007, from Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Library Web site: http://www.reaganlibrary.com/ [2] (2000). Iran-Contra Affair. Retrieved April 29, 2007, from PBS Web site: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/reagan/peopleevents/pande08.html [3] Niskanen, W. A. Reaganomics. Retrieved April 29, 2007, from The Library of Economics and Liberty Web site: http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/Reaganomics.html [4] (April 25, 2007). Detente. Retrieved April 29, 2007, from Wikipedia Web site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%C3%A9tente [5] (April 21, 2007). Contras. Retrieved April 29, 2007, from Wikipedia Web site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contras [6] Succeed by Studying the History of the Strategic Defense Initiative. Retrieved April 29, 2007, from School for Champions Web site: http://www.school-for-champions.com/sdi.htm#Development [7] Bucher, N. The Air Traffic Controllers' Strike of 1981. Retrieved April 29, 2007, from University of St. Francis Web site: http://www.stfrancis.edu/ba/ghkickul/stuwebs/btopics/works/atcstrike.htm [8] Map of Nicaragua http://www.worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/namerica/camerica/ni.htm [9] ACT UP and similar groups were started in the 1980s in response to Regan-instigated conservatism http://www.actupny.org/ [10] photos of Supreme Court justices found at: http://www.michaelariens.com/ConLaw/justices/list.htm (11) [] (12) [] (13) [] (14) [] (15) []