During Reagan's presidency, the U.S. experienced great economic growth; a deregulation (downsizing) of the government; lowered tax rates, allowing businesses to grow, which in turn provided lower-priced goods and services for consumers; in addition, Reagan's presidency strengthened our military.
Ronald Reagan's economic program involved reducing tax rates in order for people to keep more of what they earned. The thinking behind this was, if people kept more of what they earned, they would work longer and harder, leading to more savings and investments. Unfortunately, these tax rates mainly served wealthier Americans.
Still, the thinking behind the plan was that these cuts would extend to lower-income people as well, since higher investment would lead to new job opportunities and higher wages.
During this time in history, many social programs helping poorer Americans were cut, leaving those without money, even less money and help. Food-Aid programs, Aid to Families with Dependent Children, Medicaid, school lunches, and housing assistance were all cut from lower-class families.
Since Ronald Reagan, and his staff, concluded that the government had become too intrusive and invasive, he wanted to decrease the government's involvement. This thinking only lead to slashing needed programs and using money, that could have been used to help lower-income families, on the military, which did not sit well with many Americans.
The Reagan Diaries
The combination of his large military spending, along with the tax cuts, overwhelmed the moderate reductions in spending on domestic programs, and as a result, the federal budget deficit grew beyond levels it had previously reached.
The country saw one of the longest periods of sustained economic growth since World War II; however, a large percentage of this growth came from deficit spending, under Reagan the national debt nearly tripled.
During his presidency there was economic growth; however, virtually all the growth in national wealth took place in the highest income group; many poor/middle-class families lost ground as many low and semi-skilled jobs were eliminated.
America was becoming rich, but it was the already-rich becoming even richer.
