What is MacroWeb?

In the 1980 election Republicans thought Reagan was too old to hold office because he had been mentioned as the presidential contender in every campaign since 1968. Fortunately for him he was well-financed and had loyal support which helped him sweep through the primaries to nomination. George Bush was selected as his running mate. Democrats helped begin the campaign by underestimating Reagan’s strengths. Even though he was thought as being too old to be president he had robust health.

Reagan launched a program just shortly after inauguration which would fundamentally alter the U.S. political economy. He promised the country an economic revitalization. The Reagan plan featured sharp budget cutting, tax cutting, and a broad retreat from business and social regulation.

At the time of his tax cut he also implemented a $43 billion dollar cut in domestic programs and cutbacks in environmental and business regulation. Unemployment in ‘82 was the highest in forty years.

In 1982 Reagan’s defense buildup commenced while foreign relations saw a strong anti-Soviet stance. Reagan’s defense buildup was put off until 1982 because of the deficit increase he had caused.

The Israeli invasion of Lebanon during the summer of ‘82 prompted the dispatch of the U.S. forces as well as other peacekeeping forces to that beleaguered country. For the buildup of defense Reagan began with the Carter administration’s military outlays of $158 billion in 1981. As time went on Reagan spent $765 billion above this baseline over the course of eight years in office. Non-defense spending was $1.365 trillion above a similar base-line. Even the average rate of increase in defense spending outpaced the rate for non-defense expenditure growth, 8.7% to 6.2%. Defense spending was only accountable for one-quarter of federal outlays.

As stated by Jonathan Rauch in "Tooth Fairy Defense Budgets" “In 1986, at the peak of the Reagan defense buildup, the United States spent 6.3 percent of its gross domestic product on the military.” This shows that government spent quite a bit on the military to build up it’s defenses. By being able to build up the defenses for the country Reagan made some good decisions for his time and other’s who followed behind him.

Source:

Ronald Reagan and His Legacy

Who is Dave Tufte?