Reagan's Presidency AP US History Mrs. Marshall

1980 Election Ronald Reagan and George Bush defeated Jimmy Carter in a landslide victory. 489 to 49 in electoral votes

Republicans gained control of the Senate and increased their number of representatives in the House.

January 20, 1981 Jimmy Carter released Iranian assets and the hostages were freed shortly after Reagan took the oath of office

March 30, 1981 Ronald Reagan was shot in the chest by John W. Hinckley

Reagonomics/Supply-Side Economics The belief that the economy would be stimulated and would recover quickest if the supply of goods increased. Because Reagan backed policies and supported corporate tax cuts designed to benefit producers, “Reaganomics” was a term used by his critics who thought his economic plan was a mistake

Economic Recovery Tax Act This law provided budget and tax cuts that structurally changed government policy.A 25% cut over 3 years Reagan abandoned the long sought after Republican goal of a balanced budget

Government Spending Congress passed the Budget Reconciliation Act in 1981 cuttting $39 billion from domestic programs Reagan increased defense spending by $12 billion.

December 1982 economy was experiencing a recession. The FED began to lower interest rates which along with lower inflation and more spendable income due to lower taxes resulted in more business activity. Unemployment rate fell to less than 8%.

Increasing Revenue Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act Social Security benefits became taxable income Deficit Reduction Act The deficit continued to increase.

Air Traffic Controllers August of 1981 Reagan fired over 11,000 air-traffic controllers for staging what he called an illegal strike This was a major blow to the power of labor unions

Defense Involved the re-building of the navy, modernizing the nuclear Air Force and implementing the Strategic Defense Initiative (Star Wars) Led to big increase in the defense budget in 1985 (rose from $197 billion to $279 billion)

Election of 1984 Reagan and Bush reelected Opposition- Walter Mondale and Geraldine Ferraro electoral votes

Affirmative Action Controversial government program started by Nixon Held to be constitutional by Supreme Court Benefited minorities

Reagan and the US Supreme Court Sandra Day O’Connor-1 st female appointed to the court Associate Justice William Rehnquist was appointed Chief Justice Antonin Scalia Anthony Kennedy

USSR Mikhail Gorbachev-leader of the USSR who initiated the radical policies of openness and restructuring. Gorbachev and Reagan meet in 4 summits These changes and economic collapse of Communist nations in Europe paved the way for the fall of communism in the SU ans its satellite nations.

Berlin Wall came down Cold War was essentially over A few years after the wall came down the USSR dissolved Many credited Reagan with ending the Cold War

PLO Palestine Liberation Organization They used southern Lebanon to launch attacks on Israel Lebanese government could not stop operations June 1982, Israeli forces marched across the border into Lebanon and pushed the PLO back to the capital city of Beirut

Caused tension between Israel and the US At request if Israel, a multinational peacekeeping force arrived in Beirut to supervise the evacuation of the PLO Violence broke out following the assassination of the Lebanese president Israeli forces withdrew, Lebanon on the verge of a civil war

Oct. 1983, 241 people died when a suicide bomber drove car into barracks of US Marines who were part of a peace keeping mission 1984 the multinational peacekeeping force left Beirut

Iran-Contra Affair Scandal during the Reagan presidency in which the US arranged to secretly sell arms to Iran and use the profits to fund and support the Contras in Nicaragua Nicaragua was ruled by a pro-Soviet government know and the Sandinistas

To counter the Sandinista we supported the rebels-the Contras Congress found out-cut off funding Some in Reagan’s administration found other means to help the Contras In exchange for helping secure the release of hostages held in Lebanon, the US secretly sold arms to Iran

Did little to help win release of hostages- big scandal Oliver North-a Marine colonel who had been the key figure in making the arrangements took most of blame Reagan claimed he had no knowledge of the arrangement-no evidence was produced to suggest that he did