Ronald Reagan, Budget Cuts, Deficit Spending and the Deconstruction of Social Programs

Shouldn't "The Greatest American Ever" Have Been Someone Who Actually Helped People?

President Ronald Reagan was given the honor of The Greatest American Ever as the result of a poll conducted in cooperation with a Discovery Channel presentation that narrowed down the candidates for that particular honor. According to many of those who defend this choice, Reagan deserves this honor in part because he brought back a sense of respect to Americans following the Vietnam War, Watergate and the Iran hostage crisis. According to Reagan's own campaign slogan for the 1984 election, thanks to the previous four years of his Presidency, it was morning again in American.

Maybe someone just misspelled "mourning." The budget deficit explosion that occurred during the 1980s were a direct result of President Reagan's tax cuts, and the resulting lack of available funds that could have been earmarked toward social programs contributed to the continuing deconstruction of American social programs. Reagan's assault on these programs took as its starting point the conservative ideological foundation that if people rely upon government welfare strategies to provide them with such things as food, housing and help taking care of their children it will serve as a disincentive for them to work; therefore the less the government helps the poor, ultimately the more they will help themselves and the better off they will be.

President Reagan was a firm believer in this methodology and almost from the moment he took his oath of office set to work dismantling government entitlement programs. The first major step toward rolling back opportunities for those not lucky enough to be born into wealth took place when he signed the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (OBRA). OBRA served to cut federal funding programs for the poor as well as inducements for states to provide funding. Unfortunately, cutting funding for programs was not enough to revolutionize the welfare programs in the way that conservative ideologues desired. In order to completely undermine the progressive system of entitlements to the poor, the Reagan administration began to use tax reform as a method of undercutting welfare.