Perhaps one of the best presidents of the 20th century was the man they called, Ronald Reagan. The Reagan Era was a time in which every income quintile saw gains in overall wealth and income, a time in which the middle class gained the most and our economy grew by a third.
One of the strongest features of the Reagan expansion was the job creation numbers. Almost 20 million jobs were created in just seven years. And contrary to popular mythology, most of those jobs paid at least $10/hour. Part of that myth is that service sector jobs equal low paying jobs. However, that is not the case, as even critics of Reagan are now admitting. In fact, the overall job statistics show the Reagan expansion to be one of the best ever. .
Reagan wanted more defense spending, lower entitlement spending and lower tax rates which would boost the economy. Any way you look at it, Americans earned more in the Reagan expansion. Median family income, median household income and average household income went up every year from 1982 to 1989. Americans continued to live better than their parents did, in larger homes, with higher household incomes, and with better appliances, cars, and technology.
Claims by the anti-Reagan crowd are that President Reagan savaged social programs. However, social spending was not slashed during the Reagan Years. President Reagan kept his promise to turn more programs back to the states, as they were prior to the era of big government. President Reagan first proposed a 30% tax rate cut during the 1980 primary campaign for all tax payers. His proposal stemmed both from his own belief in pre-Keynesian economics and the Kemp-Roth initiatives in congress. .
President Reagan was able to sign into law the tax cuts in late 1981 after an attempt by congressional Democrats to block the cuts failed. However, the tax cut was at the reduced rate of 25%. All taxpayers received these cuts, not just the rich as anti-Reagan revisionists would have you believe.