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While the blue-collared worker who voted for Reagan suffered unemployment under Reagan’s new economic plan, the rich who voted for Reagan prospered. In order to justify this tax cut to the American people, the Laffer Curve is introduced.

According to both of the video’s speakers, nobody in the Reagan administration believed the Laffer Curve would work and there was no actual evidence to validate its theoretical results. However, this is the explanation which was offered to the American people to defend the tax cuts Reagan’s economic plan offered the rich and corporations. The bill was signed into law in August of 1981. “By that November, blue-collared workers who had voted for Reagan were losing their jobs” (“Ronald Reagan Introduction”). According to Senator Daschele (D-SD), “The tax cuts and the defense increases and the recession—those three factors—were immensely responsible for the creation of a huge debt.”

Reagan’s economic plan, which was signed into law in August of 1981, did not include a balanced budget. As a direct result of this economic plan which did not include a balanced budget and unprecedented tax cuts for the rich, the nation would go on to face the largest deficit in the nation’s history, and unemployment would rise as high as was experienced during The Great Depression. �?�4����Aa

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President Reagan inherited a country whose confidence and economy were in shambles. Reagan understood the country needed a shot in the arm economically that would boost Americans confidence. Reagan believed lowering taxes on corporations and the wealthy would inspire job creation. Reagan believed many Americans would take pride in a strong military, especially after the debacle of Vietnam and the failed Iran Hostage rescue, he increased military spending. During Reagan's administration, America went from the worlds largest creditor to the biggest debtor as the national deficit skyrocketed. These actions meant large companies and the wealthy were the main benefactors of Reagan's economic policies.

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The causes of the large federal deficits during the Reagan administration were the increased government spending, cut in taxes, and strong foreign policy. The consequences of those policies and those actions were the economic recession and the fall of communism with the Soviet Union. During this time conservative groups in the South and Anti Communist groups in Central America benefited from the actions that created the deficits. This time was tough for America and a lot of policies involving the national debt, taxes, and rates did not happen during his presidency. During his term the national debt went from 700 Billion to 3 trillion. America was concerned with this new president and everyone thought he was going to give them the change they desired.

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When Ronald Reagan took over the leadership of the United States in 1981, he inherited an economy that was in bad shape—the worst American economy, in fact, since probably the Great Depression of the 1930s. Reagan claimed an undue tax burden, excessive government regulation, and massive social spending programs hampered growth. Reagan proposed a phased 30% tax cut for the first three years of his Presidency. The bulk of the cut would be concentrated at the upper income levels. The results of this plan were mixed. Initially, the Federal reserve board believed the tax cut would re-ignite inflation and raise interest rates. This sparked a deep recession in 1981 and 1982. The high interest rates caused the value of the dollar to rise on the international exchange market, making American goods more expensive abroad. As a result, exports decreased while imports increased. Eventually, the economy stabilized in 1983, and the remaining years of Reagan's administration showed national growth. Although Reagan had cut taxes, he and Congress had failed to cut government spending. In fact, he greatly increased spending on military programs. As far as who benefited I would say that the Rich and the poor. Looks as if the Middle class is who suffered the most.

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What were the causes and consequences of the large federal deficits of the Reagan years? Which group/s of supporters in Reagan's political coalition benefited the most from the actions that created the deficits?

Budget cuts decreased money being used to aid black communities & more blacks became unemployed. The tax cuts enacted by Reagan gave more money to the wealthy, who instead of using that money within the country, used it overseas. Both the budget cuts and tax cuts decreased the amount of money being made by the country as a whole increasing the nation's debt from $780 billion to $3 trillion.

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There was a lot of changes in the 1980’s. The first change was a new president in 1980. The election convinced that American people need a change. When President Reagan came in office, interest rates has been pushed as high as 20%. Even though, he believed in family values, his own family had problems.  He was the first president that was an actor.  Reagan had come up with a plan to help our National budget, Reaganomics. He wanted to balance the national budget, but it never happened. The four points, Reaganomics are lowered marginal rate cuts, control federal spending except for defense, reduce regulation and bureaucratic, stable monetary policy. In 1981, President Reagan, passed an economic recovery tax which lower the top tax bracket from 70% to 50%  also cutting taxes by corporations. During Reagan’s term our national debt tripled, from $900 billion to nearly $3 trillion. In the 1980’s the black communities’ federal grants were cut and lots of blacks were unemployed. President Reagan was shot in March 1981. In 1983, Reagan signed a nuclear force treaty with Russia. Crack cocaine was introduce to the black communities. He helped to tear the Berlin Wall. In 1986, Reagan passed a tax reform act which reduced the highest tax bracket from 50% to 28% and minimum rate went from 11 % to 15%. In 1987, he signed a nuclear weapon treaty with Gorbachev.

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What were the causes and consequences of the large federal deficits of the Reagan years?  Which group/s of supporters in Reagan's political coalition benefited the most from the actions that created the deficits?

The massive tax cuts and increased spending lead to the growth of the United States deficit in the 1980s, and as a result this lead to the buildup of the deficit which, in turn, caused many government programs to be de-funded, and regulations that covered a while variety of business practices were lessened. Mergers that were approve by the Reagan administration were often criticized for allowing monopolies, yet the administration argued it allowed for Business growth.

The textbook offers the idea that President Reagan’s experience as an actor influenced his economic policies, “Reagan drew heavily from his experience as an actor in many aspects of his presidency. In the case of tax policies, the president believed that high tax rates discouraged other talented and successful individuals in their chosen fields from making a maximum effort each year. In his field, it might mean fewer movies. However, if entrepreneurs and financiers followed a similar strategy, then high taxes would constrain economic growth. “

This placed a lot of faith in the wealthy elite to be the job creators President Reagan thought they would become. However, along with numerous other loosening on the regulations and taxes, these wealthy elite created powerful corporate entities that were in the business of making money, and not job creation. c������0� ۰*

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Leslie Ward -
The causes of the large federal deficits of the Reagan years were the policies that were adopted by the administration; increased government spending, cut in taxes and strong foreign policy; that sought to enhance the development of the country. The consequences of the policies were the economic recession that left many unemployed as well as the fall of communism in the Soviet Union. The groups of supporters in Reagan political coalition that benefited from the actions that created the deficits include: conservative groups from the Southern districts and the supporters of the anti-Communist policies in Central America.

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The three main causes of the large federal deficit in which America faced during Reagan's administration were tax cuts, massive defense spending, and a economic recession. "Reaganomics" and his policy of trickle down economics which involved reducing the tax rates on the wealthy, which in turn would encourage bigger spending on American investments, however this did not happen and instead of investing back into American businesses, the corporations invested over-seas. The consequences would be, the growing national debt and deficit, it expanded from 900 billion to 3 trillion dollars. The working class above the poverty level were worse off due to "Reaganomics" than they had ever been in previous administrations. The wealthy benefited the most from Regan's policies, and the military industrial complex which received huge amounts of money in order to modernize the military and to provide aid to foreign friendly countries that were containing communism.