American Political History, Topic 8: Ronald Reagan, the New Right, and Reagan s First State of the Union Address (1982)

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Agnes Flowers
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1 Background: When Ronald Reagan assumed the presidency in 1981, he promised to effect a change in American government more profound than any since FDR s New Deal. He represented the New Right a powerful coalition of conservative Americans who demanded a return to a freer market, traditional family values, smaller government, and a strong American military and was the most conservative Republican in at least sixty years to have won election. His Reagan Revolution gave conservatives a level of power and popularity that they had rarely enjoyed since the 1920s; decreased federal funding for social welfare programs; opposed abortion, gay rights, feminism, affirmative action, unions, and environmentalism; pushed military spending to unprecedented levels (thus incurring massive amounts of debt); ratcheted up the tensions of the Cold War by promoting anticommunist rhetoric at home and pursuing interventionist policies abroad (before warming relations with a reforming Soviet Union towards the end of his presidency); and implemented supply-side economics, which lowered taxation especially for the richest individuals and corporations and promoted deregulation to make dramatic cuts in the federal budget. Coupled with his political views, Reagan s patriotic, hopeful rhetoric and engaging, glamorous personality made him the most popular American president since FDR. His support came largely from two camps: free marketers such as corporate elites and other entrepreneurial capitalists, who supported supply-side economics and deregulation and social conservatives such as Jerry Falwell s Moral Majority and other Christian fundamentalist groups, Catholics, neo-conservatives, and populist conservatives who hoped to reaffirm the Western values of democratic republicanism, anticommunism, anti-multiculturalism, absolutism (as opposed to relativism), an opposition to centralized power and socialist programs, respect for authority (churches, political leaders, and the military), and, especially, a return to reverence for God and traditional Christian values. In retrospect, though Reagan s hard line against communism appeared to hasten the end of the Cold War, though Reaganomics likely led to an impressive economic revival, and though the Age of Reagan ( ) renewed the confidence of conservatives, the Reagan Revolution resulted in far, far less deep legislative, structural changes than those which had occurred during the New Deal and, as such, has lacked the lasting imprint on American government that Reagan had promised. Nevertheless, for eight years, Reagan s domestic policy brought many temporary changes to the federal government. Reagan declared that government was the problem, not the solution and worked to limit the size of the federal government and reorient the economy toward the free market. He began with taxes. In 1981, he proposed to lower the federal income tax rate by 30 percent over three years, and a Republican-dominated Congress made the cut happen though at a rate of 25 percent. Reagan believed that freeing the wealthy to make more money rather than taxing them the most would trickle down to boost the entire economy, and, accordingly, Congress lowered the top individual tax rate from 70 to 28 percent. In order to free up more capital for investors to stimulate growth, Congress also dramatically lowered taxes on corporations, capital gains, and inheritances. To afford the initial drop in government revenues, Reagan implemented a sweeping policy of deregulation to cut the federal budget and

2 reduce the role of government in the nation s economic life. He freed public land and water for private development, relaxed or eliminated the enforcement of environmental regulations, eased the enforcement of civil rights laws, relaxed the implementation of emissions and safety standards, and after promoting the merits of individual responsibility and casting welfare recipients as lazy and irresponsible reduced federal spending for social welfare programs, including food stamps, school lunches, job training, low-income housing, Medicare and Medicaid (which had been initiated by Lyndon B. Johnson in the mid-1960s as part of his Great Society reforms), student loans, public education, and assistance to states and cities. By reducing environmental regulations, granting easier private access to natural resources on public lands, opening large amounts of public land in the West to commercial use, and reducing government management of preservation and conservation efforts, Reagan also reversed two decades of increasing environmental protection. Reagan s domestic policies helped consumer spending and business investment to increase, the stock market to begin a sustained and historic boom, unemployment and inflation to decline and remain low, the gross national product to rise, federal deficit spending (mostly on the military) to pump billions of dollars into the economy, and the economy to average a robust rate of growth throughout the 1980s. Conversely, a mind-boggling national debt sobered many who celebrated a revived economy. The enormous national debt was largely the result of Reagan s foreign policy. Despite promising a balanced budget within four years, Reagan presided over record deficits and was responsible for more debt during his two terms than the entire American government had accumulated in its history. Despite once being the world s largest creditor nation, Reagan s America became its largest debtor nation. Though the 1981 tax cuts which had been the largest in American history to that point contributed to the huge budget deficit, it was Reagan s borrowing of money to increase military spending that added the largest burden to America s balance sheet. Reagan s intense desire to renew the Cold War led to his appropriation of billions of dollars for the military. During the first half of his presidency, he rejected the policy of détente (the easing of military or diplomatic tensions between nations) that Nixon, Ford, and Carter had espoused and favored viewing the Soviet Union as the evil empire. As such, during his first term, he launched the largest peacetime military buildup in American history and increased the Pentagon s budget by 40 percent. He also proposed what was perhaps the most ambitious and expensive military program to that point: the Strategic Defense Initiative (know as SDI or, pejoratively, as Star Wars ), which would use lasers and satellites, as well as a vast array of missiles, to create a multi-faceted defense system against nuclear attack that would destroy weapons instead of people. Reagan spent billions of dollars on SDI, though it never became fully operational and eventually (following his presidency) evolved into more realistic missile defense programs. Reagan believed in U. S.-led containment and rollback and gave the CIA a license to revive covert operations and secret assistance to anticommunist governments and insurgencies in the Third World. The Reagan Doctrine as the president s foreign policy became known, promoted an American activism that

3 had its greatest impact in Latin America. Implementing the Reagan Doctrine led to the American overthrow of a Marxist regime in Grenada, American military and economic assistance for an anti-communist government in El Salvador, and the training, funding, and supplying of anti-communist Contras in Nicaragua. Interestingly, despite his hard line against communism, the last years of Reagan s presidency would be marked by a warming of relations between the American president and the USSR s reform-minded Mikhail Gorbachev. Reagan supported Gorbachev s glasnost (political openness) and perestroika (economic restructuring), rightly believing that they would be the holes that would burst the Soviet dam and lead to its eventual collapse and entrance into the free world. In December 1987, the two leaders signed a historic treaty to eliminate intermediate-range nuclear forces (INF): the first time the rival nations had committed to destroy an entire class of weapons systems and a first step toward the eventual end of the arms race altogether. Questions to Consider as You Read: What grand changes does Reagan want to make in American government? How does Reagan propose to help the American economy? What does Reagan say about national defense and foreign affairs? Research: Ronald Reagan, First State of the Union Address (January 1982) As you read, don t forget to mark and annotate main ideas, key terms, confusing concepts, unknown vocabulary, cause/effect relationships, examples, etc. It is my duty to report to you tonight on the progress we have made on a bold and spirited initiative that I believe can change the face of American government and make it again the servant of the people. We have an economic program in place completely different from the artificial quick-fixes of the past. It calls for reduction of the rate of increase in government spending, and already that rate has been cut nearly in half. But reduced spending alone isn't enough. We've just implemented the first and smallest phase of a three-year tax-rate reduction plan designed to stimulate the economy and create jobs. Together, we not only cut the increase in government spending nearly in half, we brought about the largest tax reductions and the most sweeping changes in our tax structure since the beginning of this century. And because we indexed future taxes to the rate of inflation, we took away government's built-in profit on inflation and its hidden incentive to grow larger at the expense of American workers. Together, after 50 years of taking power away from the hands of the people in their states and local communities, we have started returning power and resources to them. Together, we have cut the growth of new federal regulations nearly in half. In 1981, there were 23,000 fewer pages in the Federal Register, which lists new regulations, than there were in By deregulating oil, we have come closer to achieving energy independence and helped bring down the costs of gasoline and heating fuel. Together, we have created an effective federal strike force to combat waste and fraud in the government. In just six months it has saved the taxpayers more than $2

4 billion, and it's just getting started. Together, we have begun to mobilize the private sector not to duplicate wasteful and discredited government programs but to bring thousands of Americans into a volunteer effort to help solve many of America's social problems. Together, we have begun to restore that margin of military safety that insures peace. Our country's uniform is once again being worn with pride. We must stick to our carefully integrated plan for recovery. That plan is based on four common-sense fundamentals: continued reduction of the growth in federal spending, preserving the individual and business tax reductions that will stimulate saving and investment, removing unnecessary federal regulations to spark productivity and maintaining a healthy dollar and a stable monetary policy the latter a responsibility of the Federal Reserve System. Contrary to some of the wild charges you may have heard, this administration has not and will not turn its back on America's elderly or America's poor. The entitlement programs that make up our safety net for the truly needy have worthy goals and many deserving recipients. We will protect them. But there is only one way to see to it that these programs really help those whom they were designed to help, and that is to bring their spiraling costs under control. The protection of our national security has required that we undertake a substantial program to enhance our military forces. We have not neglected to strengthen our traditional alliances in Europe and Asia, or to develop key relationships with our partners in the Middle East and other countries. When radical forces threaten our friends, when economic misfortune creates conditions of instability, when strategically vital parts of the world fall under the shadow of Soviet power, our response can make the difference between peaceful change or disorder and violence. That is why we have laid such stress not only on our own defense, but on our vital foreign assistance program. A recognition of what the Soviet empire is about is the starting point. They respect only strength and resolve in their dealings with other nations. That is why we have moved to reconstruct our national defenses. We have promised the world a season of truth the truth of great civilized ideas: individual liberty, representative government, the rule of law under God. Don't let anyone tell you that America's best days are behind her that the American spirit has been vanquished. We've seen it triumph too often in our lives to stop believing in it now. 1 1 SOURCE: Reagan, Ronald. First State of the Union Address (26 January 1982). en.wikisource.org. Accessed 30 May 2011.

5 Notebook Questions: Reason and Record What grand changes does Reagan want to make in American government? How does Reagan propose to help the American economy? What does Reagan say about national defense and foreign affairs? Notebook Questions: Relate and Record How does the document relate to FACE Principle #2: The Christian Principle of Self- Government: God ruling internally from the heart of the individual. In order to have true liberty man must be governed internally by the Spirit of God rather than by external forces. Government is first individual then extends to the home, church and community? How does the document relate to Galatians 6:7-10? Record Activity: Multiple Choice Comprehension Check 1. Background: Which two concepts had the greatest impact on Reagan s domestic policy? a. interventionism and arms reduction b. glasnost and perestroika c. the Reagan Doctrine and SDI d. a balanced budget and social welfare programs e. supply-side economics and deregulation

6 2. Background: To which of the following did Reagan s foreign policy contribute? a. increased American interventionism, especially in Latin America b. more debt during two terms than the entire American government had accumulated in its history c. America becoming the largest debtor nation in the world d. (during the first half of his presidency) a rejection of détente e. (during the second half of his presidency) a warming of relations with Moscow and the signing of the INF Treaty f. a, b, and e g. all of the above 3. Source: In his first State of the Union Address, Reagan claims that his government is doing all of the following except which one? a. making government the servant of the people b. reducing the rate of increase of government spending c. creating the largest tax reductions and most sweeping changes in America s tax structure since the beginning of the century d. returning power and resources to the people in their states and local communities e. removing unnecessary federal regulations to spark productivity f. combating waste and fraud in the federal government g. mobilizing the private sector to solve America s social problems h. preserving the individual and business tax reductions that will stimulate saving and investment i. abolishing entitlement programs for the nation s elderly and poor j. laying stress on national defense and foreign assistance k. promising the world a season of truth the truth of great civilized ideas: individual liberty, representative government, and the rule of law under God

Was the Reagan Revolution good for the nation?

Was the Reagan Revolution good for the nation? Warm Up 6- Take this short, 5-question true or false quiz. 1. T or F: Reagan had a very quiet, shy personality. 2. T or F: Reagan was nationally famous before