USA 1929–2000: Life in America
GCSE > History (WJEC) > USA 1929-2000 > Changing life in the USA
What did President Reagan
do for the USA?
Ronald Reagan, 1981–1989
Republican
•Ronald Reagan, who had been an actor before turning to politics,
inherited a country with high inflation (15 per cent) and unemployment
(7.5 per cent).
•He emphasised the old idea of ‘rugged individualism’ by reducing
income tax and social benefits.
•Reagan’s Economic Recovery Act of 1981 cut $33 billion off taxes on
individuals and businesses – the biggest reduction in taxes in the history
of the USA. By 1984, the economy was successful.
•Reagan backed the Star Wars research programme, worth $26 billion, to see whether it would be possible to have a defence system in space to protect the USA from nuclear attack.
•Recession hit in the middle of the 1980s. Reagan raised taxes by $91 billion – the greatest rise in taxes in the history of the USA.
•At the end of 1982, Reagan led a country with unemployment that was higher than it had been since 1941.
•Reagan became president for a second term in 1984, emphasising the fact that the country’s economy was growing, unemployment falling and inflation plummeting.
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