The following is not about Reagan's economic policies.
I am going to quote a couple of paragraphs from Garry Wills' Reagan's America.
And I am not quoting them to initiate an argument about his policies over the eight years of his presidency, but ONLY to illustrate something about the most peculiar relationship between the man and the beliefs that he had embraced and his staff.
Recall that Reagan came into office upholding the notion that tax cuts would generate a huge economic revival. He got what he wanted from Congress.
Here's the quote. You can skim the first para:
"... By the end of Reagan's first year, December 1981, 59% of those asked by pollsters said no when asked if they were better off than last year; only 36% said yes. And the worst was still ahead. In 1982, unemployment rose to 10.7%, higher than it had been since the Great Depression, along with the greatest number of bank failures since 1940. Record bankruptcies and farm closures were occurring. It was a world gone crazy. The president who came in to cut spending, increased it throughout his first term. He added as much to the national debt in those four years as had been accumulated in our national history to that point...
No sooner had the Reagan program passed, than its creators turned on it-- all but one: Reagan still believed it was working. When David Stockman's doubts were published in the December 1981 issue of Atlantic, Reagan responded the way he usually did when faced with an unpleasant reality. He said it was not there: Journalist William Grieder had misquoted Stockman (a claim Stockman himself never made.)... it took a major conspiracy of his own White House team to make Reagan believe that "revenue enhancement" measures, to make up for the tax cuts, were not themselves taxes. Businessmen had to be brought in to tell him that the stories he was spreading about their happiness were false. Even that did not register. Laurence Barrett, given extraordinary access to Reagan at this time, marvelled at his "absolute refusal to acknowledge the connection between his policies and the major recession of 1981-82."
(bolding is mine) |
