Question

When Ronald Reagan became president in 1981, he reinforced the Supreme Court's assault on the public welfare by cutting taxes for the wealthy, attacking organized labor and rolling back environmental protections. That trajectory has not yet been reversed.

Answer 1

Reagan's presidency in 1981 marked a shift in policies, emphasizing tax cuts for the wealthy, weakening of labor unions with the firing of PATCO union members, and environmental deregulation, establishing a long-standing economic and political direction.

Step-by-step explanation:

When Ronald Reagan became president in 1981, his administration implemented a policy trajectory that considerably altered the American economic and political landscape. His actions notably centered around tax, labor, and environmental policy changes. One of his early measures as president was to fire over 10,000 federal air traffic controllers during the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO) strike, which effectively crushed the union and set a precedent for labor relations going forward.

Additionally, Reaganomics led to significant tax cuts for the wealthy, with reductions in the tax rates of more than 50 percent by 1986, mainly benefiting corporations and affluent citizens, without providing similar relief to middle and lower-income classes. Moreover, his economic policies were characterized by deregulation across many sectors, including banking and environment, with less strict enforcement of pollution control and relaxed restrictions on oil drilling and logging in public lands.