Reagan legacy- stats

The economy after Reagan: Bush

• promised to decrease $2.7 trillion deficit, proposed to pay $200 billion annually

• he failed, rose to $4 trillion (1993)

The economy after Reagan: Clinton

• managed to achieve balanced budget (cut defense spending and raised taxes on big corps)

• by 1996, economy was booming, helped with his re-election

Big government after Reagan: Bush

• ‘make wider the face of the nation’

• strongly supported Disability Act, vetoed others helpful to workers

Big government after Reagan: Clinton

• ‘end welfare as we know it’

• 1993 speech, Memphis ‘not for the freedom of [black] people to kill each other..”

• AFDC welfare reform bill- non-disabled unemployed to work 2 years - only opposed when Dept. of Health and Human service official predicted 1 million children without food or shelter - opposed

Welfare Reform Act 1996 summary

• denied benefits to immigrants not yet citizens

• Clinton dared not to oppose the bill for a 3rd time, after promising to ‘end welfare..’

Positive impact of 96 welfare reform act

• Positive impact:

  • mother who left welfare for work expected to make $1900 more, in 1999 = $7000

  • Workforce of poorest women rose 35% to 55% in 3 years

  • married parents rose from 34.8% to 38.9%

  • Number of children living with single parents dropped by 8%

Social change after Reagan: abortion

Bush: initially pro-choice, 1988 election declared “abortion is murder”

nominated pro-lifer David Souter to Congress

Bowen v Kendrick 1988- denied federal funding to pro-choice programmes

Webster v Reproductive Sources of Missouri- states could deny abortion facilities

O’Conner argued abusive spouses would lead to women being unspoken about abortion

Social change: Gay rights

• both Bush and Clinton relatively liberal positions

• clinton said he would allow gay people to serve in the military

• Opposition from military chiefs and veterans led to a compromise of “don’t ask, don’t tell’ formula

Social change: permissiveness

• 1992 campaign of woman who had 12 year affair with the married Clinton, who had been governor of Arkansas

• 1994 Paula Jones sued Clinton for sexual harassment, led to Monicagate, 1998

• // Clinton left office with 70% approval rate (highest since Kennedy)

Race relations: Political status

• Colin Powell, headed JCS

• NAACP lawyers won hundreds of cases leading to distinct voting changes

• Black congressmen: 1990- 45, 1992- 69

• no hispanic american congressmen

• 1990s, only Carol Mosely Braun from Illinois sole black senator

Race relations: legal status

• Perception of law enforcement as characterized by racism

• e.g. 1992 LA car chase, white policemen caught beating Rodney King, police found innocent= Riots in LA, 55 died, 2300 injured, further protests in Chicago, Birmingham and Atlanta

Race relations: Social status

• 1992, ½ black population lived in areas where over 50% where white, 43% were black

• 9% still lived in segregated ghettos

• Southern schools increasingly segregated in 80s and 90s

• proportion of Hispanic-Americans in majority-minority schools rose from 55% to 74%

• Reagan and chief justice Rehnquist remarked ‘inferior’ native-American culture

Women after Reagan

1991- 28 women in House of Reps, 2 in Senate

1991 hearings of Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment of black law professor, Anita Hill — 98% male senate dismissed the campaign

1992, declared ‘Year of the Woman’ by Democrats

Number of women elected doubled: new Congress of Jan 1993, 47 women in House and 7 in Senate