President of the U.S., 1981-1989; Republican Governor (CA)
New Federalism: shift programs to states & deregulate
Deregulation became a watchword of the Reagan administration, but critics charged that reduced regulation created hazards to public health and safety. During his first term, the president sought to shift dozens of federal programs to the state
and local levels under his system of “new federalism.” Officials in these jurisdictions complained that promised federal aid to implement the programs was inadequate.
Source: Grolier Encyclopedia on-line, “The Presidency”
Dec 25, 2000
Principal mission was government deregulation
Reagan’s principal mission in the presidency, he thought, was to rein in a government he considered an obstacle to economic opportunity and human liberty. His complaint that the federal government had “over-spent, over-estimated, and over-regulated”
changed little over the years, but the audience for this message grew steadily larger during the 1970s. Regulatory reform had the status of consensus by the time Reagan took office.
OMB led the deregulatory charge, seeking to accomplish through
executive action what another administration might have attempted through the legislative process. OMB [required] strict cost-benefit analyses of all federal regulations, [and was accused of] “ideological arithmetic” that ignored the cost in lives and
illnesses.
Reagan might have been able to do more if his approach to deregulation had been less overtly pro-business. Instead, he aroused the hostility of liberals with appointments that critics likened to naming a fox to guard a chicken coop.
Softened on “Gov’t isn’t the solution; gov’t is the problem”
In his State of the Union address to Congress in January 1983, he seemed to be abandoning the conservative economic philosophy that had brought him to power. He called for bipartisan, emergency action to save
Social Security from bankruptcy, even if that meant increased taxes. He cited Franklin
Roosevelt’s believe that “the great public is interested more in government than in politics,” to the dismay of libertarians who remembers his old mantra, government isn’t the solution, government is the problem.
Only those veteran observers who remembered his willingness to compromise, when necessary, as president of the Screen Actors Guild and Governor of California, were reassured that Reagan knew what he was doing.
