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Before Ronald Reagan Became President, There Was A Lot

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Before Ronald Reagan became president, there was a lot of hostility between the federal government and working labor (Foner 831). In Reagan’s inauguration address, he states, “We are a nation that has a government – not the other way around. And this makes us special among the nations of the Earth. Our government has no power expect that granted it by the people. It is time to check and reverse the growth of government, which shows signs of having grown beyond the consent of the governed.” He also clears up any misunderstandings by saying, “It’s not my intention to do away with government. It is rather to make it work with us, not over us; but by our side, not ride on our backs. Government can and must provide opportunity, not smother it; …show more content…

In addition, Reagan’s 1981 Program for Economic Recovery had four major policies, which are: to reduce the growth of government spending, reduce the marginal tax rates on income from labor and capital, reduce regulation, and to reduce inflation by controlling the growth of the money supply (Niskanen). Reagan’s Economic Recovery Program, also known as Reaganomics, was the most serious recession of the U.S. economic policy since Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal (Niskanen). However, according to historian, Eric Foner, there have been many issues with Reaganomics since the new policies, rising stock prices, and deindustrialization inevitably resulted into the rise of economic inequality, also known as the second gilded age (Foner 832). There were many critical issues with Reaganomics, which was intended to help expand the economy, but it eventually became the downturn during 1981 through 1982 (Foner 832). For example, the wealthiest American families benefited the most from the economic expansion because they had spent most of their income not on productive investments and charity, but on luxury goods and corporate buyouts (Foner 832). Whereas, the poorest 40 percent of the population’s incomes have declined, especially those with wives who did not work outside of their homes (Foner 832). Foner states that the 1980s was remembered as a decade of misplaced values because buying out companies generated more profits than actually running them or

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