Reaganomics Equals Carternomics

Somewhere down in that collective cerebellum where news-media opinion is formed, there was a command decision, traceable back to the summer of 1981, to the effect that “Reaganomics has failed.” It had not by then been implemented, but good results were supposed to show up ahead of time, because of expectations (as the media informed us). Today it is a commonplace that Reaganomics has failed. This, as I say, is a decision, not a conclusion. It has nothing to do with the facts. Do I claim, then, that Reaganomics has been a success? No, I claim that it has not been put into effect.

Let us go back to January 1981. The new “Reaganomics” consisted of four parts: a reduction in the growth rate of federal spending; a reduction of income tax rates, in rough accordance with the Kemp-Roth bill; a reduction of inflation via control of the monetary aggregates; and a commitment to reduce the regulatory burden on the economy.

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Tom Bethell

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Somewhere down in that collective cerebellum where news-media opinion is formed, there was a command decision, traceable back to the summer of 1981, to the effect that “Reaganomics has failed.” It had not by then been implemented, but good results were supposed to show up ahead of time, because of expectations (as the media informed us). Today it is a commonplace that Reaganomics has failed. This, as I say, is a decision, not a conclusion. It has nothing to do with the facts. Do I claim, then, that Reaganomics has been a success? No, I claim that it has not been put into effect.

Let us go back to January 1981. The new “Reaganomics” consisted of four parts: a reduction in the growth rate of federal spending; a reduction of income tax rates, in rough accordance with the Kemp-Roth bill; a reduction of inflation via control of the monetary aggregates; and a commitment to reduce the regulatory burden on the economy.