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The extent to which 'Big Government' was reduced under Reagan …
The extent to which 'Big Government' was reduced under Reagan :small_red_triangle_down:
Reagan's aims :bulb:
before reagan, favoured large scale fed gov intervention to help with health, education and equality issues
1964 republican presidential candiate barry goldwater opposition to new deal contributed to his crushing defeat- reagan was similar but a more skillful political operator
some americans feared america was becoming an expensive welfare state
1981 inaugural adress stated that gov is not solution but the problem. americans agreed as they were alienated by expanding fed gov and especially by great society programs rising welfare costs and affirmative action
Reagan's actions: Cuts in federal programmes :red_cross:
Reagan wanted to get rid of the department of education established by carter in 1979- saw it as an unsuccesful example of big gov- reduced its staff by 25% and decreased education block grants to the states by 63%
Overall civillian employment in fed gov rose under him by 3%, due to national defense where civillain employment rose by 11.5%
roughly 13 mil children live below the poverty line in 1984- many had single mothers and were african americans
Conservatives believed that the Aid to families with dependent children AFDC encouraged promiscuity, irresponsibility and break up of the traditional family
Pensions, medical aid for elderly, verterans benefits, school lunches and head start (free breakfast for school kids) were basically left intact
Reagan's actions: Deregulation and Big Government :!?:
americans believed that fed regulations were stifling capitalism and competition led carter and congress to begin to deregulate the airline, trucking, railroad and financial industries. also sought to deregulate fuel prices to encourage price rises and a fall in usage- reagan deregulate more
Reagan appointed individuals who didn't believe in regulatory gov to head regulatory agencies + slashed agency budgets so they couldn't enforce regulations established by congress
Reagan's most contraversial agency head was secretary of the interior James G.Watt who opened fed lands to exploitation by coal and timber companies, blocked creation of new protected wilderness areas and made 1mil acres of offshore land avaliable to drilling companies for drilling , enviromentalists delighted when he had to resign in 1983
Reagan Vetoed the renewal of $18 bil clean water act on costs but congress overrode his veto after the identical 1987 Water Quality Control act
Reagan's deregulation expensive for taxpayers; 1982 increased insurance for saving and loan depositors and authorised risky investments - many S&Ls collaspsed in late 80s and needed $132bil bailout from public funds- most costly financial scandal in US history result of of administrations lax oversight of fed agencies
Impact of Reagan's anti-big Government policies :explode:
some conservatives wanted reagan to demolish the welfare state but he was a pragmatist; would be political suicide to attack programmes like social security and medicare as lots of elderly voters, got around this by collaborating with congress as he cut social security benefits and increased taxes that funded social security- bipartisan
achieved smaller gov by cutting taxes and curtailed domestic programmes. he failed to dismantle new deal but halted its interventionalism and began to reverse it.
Reagan was willing to challenge assumptions the new deal was based on and some democrats agreed
Democrat senator Ernest Hollings said reagan gave the US a 'crippling blow' cititing the debt-ridden federal treasury, the demoralised and discredited federal workforce, the crumbling infrastructure and mobilisation of the electorate against necessary taxation