Economic Recovery Program

On February 18, 1981, Reagan laid out his economic recovery program before a Joint Session of Congress. Reagan had previously outlined his recovery program in an Oval Office address on February 5, 1981, in which he displayed a dollar bill and 36 cents to show how inflation had reduced the value of a dollar since 1960.

Reagan made a further plea for enactment of his recovery program on April 28, 1981, following the assassination attempt on his life. Many economists credit this recovery program for reducing the inflation rate and igniting one of the longest and most robust economic expansions in U.S. history.

Reagan paints a grim picture of inflation, the national debt, and lagging productivity plaguing the economy. $41.4 billion of reduced spending is proposed with no reduction for “the poverty stricken, the disabled, the elderly, [and] all those with true need”. Subsidies of the synthetic fuel program, the Export-Import Bank, and the Economic Development Administration are targeted.

Block grants to states are proposed, along with changes to Medicaid, the space program, the Postal Service, and the Department of Energy. To counter the Soviet Union’s military build-up, defense is the one department with an increased budget.

A 10-percent tax cut for individual taxpayers is proposed for each of the next 3 years, along with increased depreciation allowances to allow business the capital needed to modernize.

We “must come to grips with inefficient and burdensome regulations, eliminate those we can and reform the others.”

To reduce inflation and interest rates, we need to slow the growth of our money supply.

This is our proposal for America’s new beginning. “I'm here tonight to ask you to join me in making it our plan.” Government “must not be used to regulate the economy or bring about social change.”

Audio recording courtesy of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.

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Release date

Audiobook: 2 August 2024