Topic 4 -Reagan-

Question 1

what was the tax reform bill in 1986

Answer 1

reduced the miximum tax from 50% to 26%
increased the bottom tax from 11% to 15%

Question 2

did the policies stop inflation and unemployment

Answer 2

Reagan put tight restrictions on money supply. This lead to sharp intrest rates that hurt industries that had to buy supply.
in 1980 unemployment was 7.1% by 1983 it was 9.6% and by 1988 it had fell to 5.5%

Question 3

After reagan

Answer 3

george bush promised to continue reagan’s policies however their limitation had become very clear
Bush raised taxes after promising not to
Climton took on some of reagans policies like low taxes and aimed to reduce the deficit

Question 4

what was deregulation of the economy supposed to do

Answer 4

• cut expenditure
• decrease the size of big government
  -allowed capitalism to flourish by lightening the burden of regulation and cutbacks on staff regulatory agencies

Question 5

did policies encourage people to save and invest

Answer 5

policies cut down on finincial regulation which ment that financial organisations would take bigger risks to win customers due to competition.
Many people lost savings and investments during a crisis in the savings and loan industry

Question 6

what was the 1981 budget

2 points

Answer 6

• cuts were made to 212 federal programmes
• most of them aided the poor including food stamps student loans and child nutrition programmes

Question 7

effects on social housing

Answer 7

Reagan’s administartion cut federal funding for low costs homes from 32billion to 9.2 billion
this increased homlessness form 200,000 to 400,000

Question 8

did the policies reduce deficit

Answer 8

in 1980 the defecit was $59 billion and paying it off costed 9% of federal spending
in 1983 it was 208 billion taking 14% of federal spending
this increase in deficit was due to reagans cut in taxes.

Question 9

4 points

what was reaganomics supposed to achieve

Answer 9

• cuts on federal defecit by cutting domestic spending
• Personal and business tax reductions : Economic Recovery tax of 1981
• Deregulation
• Planned control of the money supply:to reduce inflation

Question 10

what were Reagan’s Aims

3 points

Answer 10

• Tax cuts would revive the economy and encourage people to work
• Would limit big government by cutting the budget by 80 million (including welfare programmes)
• deregulation of state and federal government which would allow capitalism
  build cold war defences

Question 11

why was Reagan called the great communicator

Answer 11

• Reagan appeared regularly on TV
• when trying to pass the 1981 bill he appeared on TV asking for help from the public

Question 12

effects on workforce

Answer 12

Reagans adminiatration wanted to change wellfare to workfare.
This ment that to claim benefits fsmillies had to have at least one working parent.
This was a problem for many single parents who couldn’t find child care

Question 14

did policies increase personal wealth

Answer 14

This is highly deliberated. some say it helped the rich by reducing the tax rate from 70% to 50% and then down to 26%
however some srgue it hurt the rich the most and the tax pays from the rich helped rivive the economy.

Question 15

impact on living and working conditions

Answer 15

• working famillies benefitted from lower taxes but were hit harder by changes to family credit.
• The average morgage increaseed by 30%
• many people had to work longer hours

Question 16

Reagans effects on rich and poor

Answer 16

Reagan’s economic cuts mainly effected the poor as it reduced welfare programmes
he saw a difference in deserving and undeserivng poor

Question 17

what is deregulation

Answer 17

the removal of regulations or restrictions, especially in a particular industry.

Question 18

Why did they approve the 1981 budget

6 points

Answer 18

• Reagan came into the presidency knowing exactly what he wanted to do and was tough on congress to pass the budget
• administration handled congress well by decreasing the length of congressional debates - cultivated swing voters increased pressure
• Reagan was willing to compromise with congress
• Reagan’s poll rating’s were particularly high which encouraged democrats
• great communicater

Question 19

what were the social security costs that Reagan inherited

Answer 19

Reagan inherited social security costs which were 21 per cent of the budget
(dwarfing military spending), growing 3.5 per cent each year, a supposedly self funded issue that successive Congresses failed to tackle

Question 20

How did Reagan help inflation

Answer 20

GNP expanded by 30 per cent from 1982 to 1989, with inflation falling from 10.3
per cent to 4.8 per cent over the same period, restoring public confidence in the
federal government’s steering of the economy