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"Reaganomics, or supply-side economics, is a highly politicized term, which can be interpreted many different ways. In brief, Reaganomics is based on two key ideas: lower taxes and smaller government. Or in Reagan's words "government is the problem."

A new school of thought gradually arose. It argued that the competitive nature of free markets (free of government regulation) made markets the best means to distribute economic resources. Businesses have to be innovative and create wealth to survive. This anti-government view saw businesses as the "goose that lays the golden eggs" and government regulation and taxes as "strangling the goose". Reagan partially agreed with this anti-government view and sought to stimulate the economy by lowering taxes, financed by borrowing. He argued that lowering taxes will revive the economy. When the economy revived, the increased tax revenues will be used to pay off the debt. Excluding military spending, he argued for broad cuts in government spending, which he viewed as a drain on the economy. Reagan raised military spending, however, as he saw defense as an integral government function, especially in regards to the Cold War.

While taxes were cut and thus endorsing that element of neoclassical theory, massive military spending in the Reagan era resulted in a massive budget deficit. The 1983 deficit reached $207.8 billion, equivalent to 6 percent of the economy, the highest level since the World War II era. This emphatic deficit spending violates neoclassical economic theory emphasis on a balanced budget. Absent this, private actors will rationally expect, as explained by the Ricardian equivalence, for taxes to increase sometime in the future to offset this deficit, and will end up saving enough to offset any increase in consumption resulting from government spending. Furthermore, deficit spending is problematic under neoclassical theory because even if the Federal Reserve lowers the federal funds rate to keep interest rates low and combat this "crowding out" effect, the rational public will see the lack of credibility with this merely fiscal-policy-reactionary monetary policy.

Reaganomics ultimately exists in two forms, actual historical experience and theory. The historical experience of Reaganomics is of increased defense spending and large federal deficits. But the theoretical Reaganomic initiative of smaller government and spending restraint was never implemented, due to a lack of political will.

The early Reagan tax cuts of August 1981 embodied Reagan's supply-side economics. Economist Robert J. Gordon writes in his textbook Macroeconomics (9th ed. 2003, p. 392) that this was "the most dramatic shift in fiscal policy of the postwar era not related to the financing of wars." The Tax Reform Act of 1986, which had broad bipartisan support, partly implemented the principles of supply-side economics in a more moderate way. It simplified the tax code and eliminated tax loopholes.

Part of what Reagan implemented was in fact not supply side economics, but rather his own version of Keynesianism. Reagan advocated initiating deep tax cuts and simultaneous increases in military spending, while at the same time claiming that the Federal deficit would be erased. Critics argued that while Keynesian economics promoted the idea of consumers (including the poorest) creating jobs by increasing the demand for goods and services, Reaganomics relied on giving more money to producers by giving tax cuts especially to the wealthiest citizens, who would then create jobs that would somehow find a demand. This type of economic theory has also been referred to derisively as "trickle-down economics."

The belief of Reaganomics that the tax cuts would more than pay for themselves was influenced by the Laffer curve, a theoretical taxation model that was particularly in vogue among some American conservatives during the 1970s. Laffer's model predicts that excessive tax rates actually reduce potential tax revenues, by lowering the incentive to produce. The rise, rather than fall, in government deficits during the Reagan era caused many to question the validity of the Laffer curve. In addition, although the Laffer curve was used to justify tax cuts, its main emphasis was on showing how to maximize government revenues through fiscal policy; because this conflicted with the aim of conservatives to reduce spending as well as revenues, the Laffer curve has more recently been deemphasized by conservatives in recent years. Nonetheless, Federal Government tax revenues did increase significantly following the tax cuts of the Reagan years; it was the dramatic increase in spending that produced the budget deficits of that era.

Before Reagan's election, Reaganomics was considered extreme by the liberal wing of the Republican Party. While running against Reagan for the Presidential nomination in 1980, George Bush had derided Reaganomics as "voodoo economics", a term that held currency long after the recession ended. Similarly, in 1976, Gerald Ford had severely criticized Reagan's proposal to turn back a large part of the Federal budget to the states. After the Reagan election, however, most Republicans endorsed Reaganomics, including Bush, who became Reagan's Vice President."


(Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reaganomics )

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Samuel Tomich

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Lower taxes for the wealthy - apex

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Deregulate industries

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