92 Facts About Reagan presidency

Domestically, the Reagan presidency administration enacted a major tax cut, sought to cut non-military spending, and eliminated federal regulations.

Reagan presidency signed the Tax Reform Act of 1986 and the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986.

Reagan presidency appointed more federal judges than any other president, including four Supreme Court Justices.

Under this doctrine, the Reagan presidency administration initiated a massive buildup of the United States military; promoted new technologies such as missile defense systems; and, in 1983, undertook an invasion of Grenada, the first major overseas action by US troops since the end of the Vietnam War.

Specifically, the Reagan presidency administration engaged in covert arms sales to Iran to fund Contra rebels in Nicaragua that were fighting to overthrow their nation's socialist government; the resulting scandal led to the conviction or resignation of several administration officials.

Related searches

Reagan presidency, who had served as Governor of California from 1967 to 1975, narrowly lost the 1976 Republican presidential primaries to incumbent President Gerald Ford.

Ford was Reagan's first choice for his running mate, but Reagan backed away from the idea out of the fear of a "copresidency" in which Ford would exercise an unusual degree of power.

Reagan presidency instead chose Bush, and the Reagan presidency-Bush ticket was nominated at the 1980 Republican National Convention.

Reagan presidency instead sought to focus the race on Carter's handling of the economy.

Reagan presidency tapped James Baker, who had run Bush's 1980 campaign, as his first chief of staff.

Reagan presidency chose Alexander Haig, a former general who had served as chief of staff to Richard Nixon, as his first secretary of state.

Reagan presidency selected David Stockman, a young congressman from Michigan, as the Director of the Office of Management and Budget.

Reagan presidency made four successful appointments to the Supreme Court during his eight years in office.

In 1986, Reagan presidency elevated Associate Justice William Rehnquist to the position of Chief Justice of the United States after Warren Burger chose to retire.

Reagan presidency successfully nominated Antonin Scalia to fill Rehnquist's position as an associate justice of the Supreme Court.

Reagan presidency nominated Robert Bork in July 1987, but the nomination was rejected by the Senate in October 1987.

Later that month, Reagan announced the nomination of Douglas H Ginsburg, but Ginsburg withdrew from consideration in November 1987.

Finally, Reagan presidency nominated Anthony Kennedy, who won Senate confirmation in February 1988.

Reagan presidency appointed a combined total of 368 judges to the United States courts of appeals and the United States district courts, more than any other president.

Partly because Congress passed a law creating new federal judicial positions in 1984, Reagan presidency had appointed nearly half of the federal judiciary by the time he left office in 1989.

Reagan presidency used his White House staff to shape major domestic policies.

Reagan presidency implemented economic policies based on supply-side economics, advocating a laissez-faire philosophy and free-market fiscal policy.

Reagan presidency's team was strongly influenced by contemporary economists such as Arthur Laffer, who rejected the then-dominant views of Keynesian economists.

Reagan presidency relied on Laffer and other economists to argue that tax cuts would reduce inflation, which went against the prevailing Keynesian view.

Reagan presidency made passage of the Kemp-Roth bill his top domestic priority upon taking office.

Related searches

Reagan presidency benefited from a conservative majority in the House during his first two years as president, with an estimated 230 votes during the 97th Congress, although this changed after the Democratic gains in the 1982 election, with House control switching to liberals within the Democratic caucus.

Reagan presidency prioritized tax cuts over spending cuts, arguing that lower revenue would eventually require lower spending.

Nonetheless, Reagan presidency was determined to decrease government spending and roll back or dismantle Great Society programs such as Medicaid and the Office of Economic Opportunity.

Reagan presidency experienced several legislative successes in his first year in office, but his attempts to cut federal domestic spending after 1981 met increasing congressional resistance.

In 1982, Reagan presidency established the bipartisan National Commission on Social Security Reform to make recommendations to secure the long-term integrity of Social Security.

Reagan presidency never submitted a balanced budget during his time in office.

Reagan presidency took office in the midst of poor economic conditions, as the country experienced stagflation, a phenomenon in which both inflation and unemployment were high.

In 1987, Reagan presidency appointed conservative economist Alan Greenspan to succeed Volcker, and Greenspan would lead the Federal Reserve until 2006.

Reagan presidency's handling of the strike was strongly criticized by union leaders, but it won the approval of his conservative base of voters and others in the public.

Reagan presidency sought to loosen federal regulation of economic activities, and he appointed key officials who shared this agenda.

Reagan presidency eliminated numerous government positions and dismissed numerous federal employees, including the entire staff of the Employment and Training Administration.

Reagan presidency did not make immigration a focus of his administration, but he came to support a package of reforms sponsored by Republican Senator Alan Simpson and Democratic Congressman Romano Mazzoli, which he signed into law as the Immigration Reform and Control Act in November 1986.

Not long after being sworn into office, Reagan presidency declared more militant policies in the "War on Drugs".

Reagan presidency promised a "planned, concerted campaign" against all drugs, in hopes of decreasing drug use, particularly among adolescents.

Reagan presidency signed the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988, which further increased criminal penalties for drug use and established the Office of National Drug Control Policy.

Critics charged that Reagan presidency's policies promoted significant racial disparities in the prison population, were ineffective in reducing the availability of drugs or crime on the street, and came at a great financial and human cost for American society.

Reagan presidency was largely unable to enact his ambitious social policy agenda, which included a federal ban on abortions and an end to desegregation busing.

In 1982, Reagan presidency signed a bill extending the Voting Rights Act for 25 years after a grass-roots lobbying and legislative campaign forced him to abandon his plan to ease that law's restrictions.

Reagan presidency reluctantly accepted the continuation of affirmative action programs and the establishment of Martin Luther King Jr.

In 1988, Reagan presidency vetoed the Civil Rights Restoration Act, but his veto was overridden by Congress.

Related searches

Reagan presidency had argued that the legislation infringed on states' rights and the rights of churches and business owners.

Many in the Reagan presidency administration, including Communications Director Pat Buchanan, were hostile to the gay community, as were many religious leaders who were important allies to the administration.

Reagan presidency lessened existing regulations on pollution, cut funding to government environmental agencies, and appointed known anti-environmentalist individuals to key positions presiding over these organizations.

When Reagan presidency took office in 1981, he "attempted to reduce" money that was directed towards studying the burgeoning field of global warming and human-driven climate change.

In 1987, the Reagan presidency administration signed the Montreal Protocol in an effort to reduce emissions that damage the ozone layer.

Reagan presidency escalated the Cold War, accelerating a reversal from the policy of detente which had begun in 1979 after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

Reagan presidency feared that the Soviet Union had gained a military advantage over the United States, and the Reagan presidency administration hoped that heightened military spending would grant the US military superiority and weaken the Soviet economy.

Reagan presidency ordered a massive buildup of the United States Armed Forces, directing funding to the B-1 Lancer bomber, the B-2 Spirit bomber, cruise missiles, the MX missile, and the 600-ship Navy.

In March 1983, Reagan presidency introduced the Strategic Defense Initiative, a defense project that would have used ground- and space-based systems to protect the United States from attack by strategic nuclear ballistic missiles.

Reagan presidency believed that this defense shield could make nuclear war impossible.

Reagan presidency deployed the CIA's Special Activities Division to Afghanistan and Pakistan, and the CIA was instrumental in training, equipping, and leading Mujahideen forces against the Soviet Army in the Soviet–Afghan War.

Reagan presidency administration placed a high priority on the Central America and the Caribbean Sea, which it saw as a key front in the Cold War.

Reagan presidency authorized covert measures, such as the arming of Nicaragua's Contras, to minimize Cuban and Soviet influence in the region.

Reagan presidency dispatched approximately 5,000 US soldiers to invade Grenada nine days after.

Still intent on supporting the Contras, the Reagan presidency administration raised funds for the Contras from private donors and foreign governments.

The Reagan presidency administration decided to sell American arms to Iran, then engaged in the Iran–Iraq War, in hopes that Iran would pressure Hezbollah to release the hostages.

The Reagan presidency administration sold over 2000 missiles to Iran without informing Congress; Hezbollah released four hostages but captured an additional six Americans.

Reagan presidency recognized the change in the direction of the Soviet leadership under Gorbachev, and shifted to diplomacy, with a view to encourage the Soviet leader to pursue substantial arms agreements.

Nonetheless, both Gorbachev and Reagan presidency agreed to continue arms control negotiations at the October 1986 Reykjavik Summit.

At the summit, Gorbachev and Reagan presidency closed in on an agreement to greatly reduce or eliminate the nuclear stockpiles of both the US and the Soviet Union over a ten-year period, but the deal collapsed due to disagreements regarding SDI development.

Related searches

Reagan presidency attacked Gorbachev in a 1987 speech delivered in West Berlin, but negotiations continued.

Gorbachev and Reagan presidency broke the impasse by agreeing to negotiate separate treaties on intermediate nuclear forces and strategic arms.

When Reagan presidency visited Moscow for a fourth summit with Gorbachev in 1988, he was viewed as a celebrity by the Soviets.

Reagan presidency came under much criticism in 1985 when he was accused of honoring Nazi war criminals at a cemetery in West Germany.

In February 1985, the administration accepted an invitation for Reagan presidency to visit a German military cemetery in Bitburg and to place a wreath alongside West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl.

Reagan presidency sympathized with Israeli's desire to defeat PLO forces that had struck Israel from Lebanon, but he pressured Israel to end its invasion as casualties mounted and Israeli forces approached the Lebanese capital of Beirut.

Relations between Libya and the United States under President Reagan presidency were continually contentious, beginning with the Gulf of Sidra incident in 1981; by 1982, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi was considered by the CIA to be, along with USSR leader Leonid Brezhnev and Cuban leader Fidel Castro, part of a group known as the "unholy trinity" and was labeled as "our international public enemy number one" by a CIA official.

In opposition to the condemnations issued by the US Congress and public demands for diplomatic or economic sanctions, Reagan presidency made relatively minor criticisms of the regime, which was otherwise internationally isolated, and the US granted recognition to the government.

Reagan presidency vetoed the act, but this was overridden by a bipartisan effort in Congress.

Once in office, Reagan presidency signed the Trade and Tariff Act of 1984, which granted the president "fast track" authority in negotiating free trade agreements.

In 1985, Reagan presidency signed the Israel–United States Free Trade Agreement, the first bilateral free trade agreement in US history.

Reagan presidency made seven trips to continental Europe, three to Asia and one to South America.

Reagan presidency is perhaps best remembered for his speeches at the 40th anniversary of the Normandy landings, for his impassioned speech at the Berlin Wall, his summit meetings with Mikhail Gorbachev, and riding horses with Queen Elizabeth II at Windsor Park.

At the time, Reagan presidency was the oldest person to have served as US president.

Reagan presidency said that on her last day on the beat, Reagan spoke to her for a few moments and did not seem to know who she was before returning to his normal behavior.

However, Reagan's primary physician, Dr John Hutton, has said that Reagan "absolutely" did not "show any signs of dementia or Alzheimer's" during his presidency.

Reagan presidency's doctors have noted that he began exhibiting Alzheimer's symptoms only after he left the White House.

On July 13,1985, Reagan presidency underwent surgery to remove polyps from his colon, causing the first-ever invocation of the Acting President clause of the 25th Amendment.

On January 5,1987, Reagan presidency underwent surgery for prostate cancer which caused further worries about his health, but which significantly raised public awareness of this "silent killer".

Reagan presidency remained publicly neutral in the 1988 Republican presidential primaries, but privately supported Vice President Bush over Senator Bob Dole.

Related searches

In large part due to his handling of relations with the Soviet Union, Reagan presidency left office with an approval rating of sixty-eight percent.

Since Reagan presidency left office in 1989, substantial debate has occurred among scholars, historians, and the general public surrounding his legacy.

Proponents argue Reagan presidency restored faith in the American Dream after a decline in American confidence and self-respect under Jimmy Carter's perceived weak leadership, particularly during the Iran hostage crisis.

Reagan presidency remains an important symbol of American conservatism, much in the same way that Franklin Roosevelt continued to serve as a symbol of liberalism long after his own death.

Since he left office, historians have reached a consensus, as summarized by British historian M J Heale, who finds that scholars now concur that Reagan rehabilitated conservatism, turned the nation to the right, practiced a considerably pragmatic conservatism that balanced ideology and the constraints of politics, revived faith in the presidency and in American exceptionalism, and contributed to victory in the Cold War.

Hugh Heclo argues that Reagan presidency himself failed to roll back the welfare state, but that he contributed to a shift in attitudes that led to the defeat of efforts to further expand the welfare state.

Heclo further argues that Reagan's presidency made American voters and political leaders more tolerant of deficits and more opposed to taxation.