Domestic Policy and Affairs

The moment Reagan stepped into presidency, he knew what he had to do. As a conservative president, he believed that there should be less government involvement. One of the first thing he does is to shift the Supreme Court to the conservative side by appointing the most conservative justice like Justice William Rehnquist and Antonin Scalia on court. He also appointed the first women, Sandra Day O’Conner, on court. Reagan presented his policy of Reaganomics which includes budget cuts, tax cuts, and increased defense spending. Alongside Reaganomics was the Supply-side economics or “trickle down” economics which cut down the taxes. This would allow people to invest more and banks will be able to loan more money to businesses leading to more productivity thus lower prices for consumers. He passed the Economic Recovery Tax Act with a 25% tax cut resulting in an inflation drop from 13.5% to 5.1%.

Reagan worked to reduce the size of the federal government. He not only cut down on the taxes but also on the national budget. This meant scaling down in the budget for social programs. Reagan kept improving programs like Social Security and Medicare, as for Medicaid and welfare programs, he believed was a waste. He was not popular with the African Americans either, since he did not support the Civil Rights Act and also cut down on programs like job training for them. 30% of the African American incomes were lower than the official poverty level. Even though economy improved, social welfare cuts hurt the poor. Reagan’s programs benefited the rich, but he said that he was helping the poor the indirect way. By supporting the rich, the economy will improve, and the poor will soon benefit. He also believed in the “American Values” in which success is gained through hard, honest work not through welfare programs.

Although Reagan cut many programs, he increased the national defense spending by 35%. He supported the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) or the Star Wars which was a system created to protect America from long-range Soviet missile attacks. Reagan also started the deregulation of the economy. He removed prices controls on oil and eliminated federal health and safety inspections for nursing homes. Businesses like the airline industry were allowed more freedom to operate and be more productive. One of the most significant was cutting the budget of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) which allowed more freedom for people to harvest timber, mine for coal, and drill for oil. Environmental groups strongly opposed this, and it is still an issue debated over today.

Through all of Reagan’s programs, the stock market surged, unemployment decreased with over 118 million new jobs, trade with other nations increased, and the economy grew. Even though Reagan almost doubled the national debt when the federal spending went over limit, his time in granted America its longest period of peacetime economic growth in its history.

Reagan’s main focus was on improving the economy, but he also brought his attention on other issues like AIDS, abortion, drug abuse, and education. Supreme Court judged on a court case Webster v. Reproductive Health Care Services to restrict abortion. Education was also a big issue at the time. America was “A nation at risk” where students lagged behind other nations and research says that 23 million American were unable to follow instruction manual or fill out a job application form. Reagan promoted education for all. He also launched the war on drugs and supported moves to prosecute users and dealers of drugs. His wife, Nancy Reagan toured the country with an antidrug campaign “Just say no!” to drug.