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President Reagan Survives An Assassination
"Then on March 30, 1981, Reagan survived an assassination attempt by a mentally unstable young man named John Hinckley. Public support swelled for the hospitalized president. Congress ultimately approved a $675 billion tax cut in July 1981 with significant Democratic support. The bill reduced overall federal taxes by more than one quarter and lowered the top marginal rate from 70 percent to 50 percent, with the bottom rate dropping from 14 percent to 11 percent" (The Triumph Of The Right, 2019). -
Boland Amendement
"In 1982, the House voted 411–0 to approve the Boland Amendment, which barred the United States from supplying funds to the contras, a right-wing insurgency fighting the leftist Sandinista government in Nicaragua. Reagan, overlooking the contras’ brutal tactics, hailed them as the 'moral equivalent of the Founding Fathers.' The Reagan administration’s determination to flout these amendments led to a scandal that almost destroyed Reagan’s presidency" (The Triumph Of The Right, 2019). -
Strategic Defense Initiative
"Reagan went a step further in March 1983, when he announced plans for a Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), a space-based system that could shoot down incoming Soviet missiles. Critics derided the program as a 'Star Wars' fantasy, and even Reagan’s advisors harbored doubts. 'We don’t have the technology to do this,' secretary of state George Shultz told aides. These aggressive policies fed a growing nuclear freeze movement throughout the world" (The Triumph Of The Right, 2019). -
Jesse Jackson First African American to Campaign for President in 1984
"At the national level, civil rights leader Jesse Jackson became the first African American man to run for president when he campaigned for the Democratic Party’s nomination in 1984 and 1988. Propelled by chants of 'Run, Jesse, run, Jackson achieved notable success in 1988, winning nine state primaries and finishing second with 29 percent of the vote" (The Triumph Of The Right, 2019). Photo Credit: Records of the Office of the Secretary of Defense, 1983 -
Tax Reform Act of 1986
"...legislative compromises, as with the Tax Reform Act of 1986. The bill lowered the top corporate tax rate from 46 percent to 34 percent and reduced the highest marginal income tax rate from 50 percent to 28 percent, while also simplifying the tax code and eliminating numerous loopholes. The steep cuts to the corporate and individual rates certainly benefited wealthy individuals, but the legislation made virtually no net change to federal revenues" (The Triumph Of The Right, 2019). -
George H. W. Bush Wins Presidential Election of 1988
"The conservative Reagan Revolution lingered over the presidential election of 1988. At stake was the legacy of a newly empowered conservative movement, a movement that would move forward with Reagan’s vice president, George H. W. Bush, who triumphed over Massachusetts governor Michael Dukakis with a promise to continue the conservative work that had commenced in the 1980s" (The Recent Past, 2019). -
The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996
"...Clinton again won the election, becoming the first Democrat to serve back-to-back terms since Franklin Roosevelt. He was aided in part by the amelioration of conservatives by his signing of welfare reform legislation, the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, which decreased welfare benefits, restricted eligibility, and turned over many responsibilities to states. Clinton said it would 'break the cycle of dependency'"(The Recent Past, 2019). -
House of Representatives Vote To Impeach Clinton
"Congressional investigations targeted the allegations and Clinton denied having 'sexual relations'...before a grand jury and in a statement to the American public. Republicans used the testimony to allege perjury. In December 1998, the House of Representatives voted to impeach the president. It was a wildly unpopular step. Two thirds of Americans disapproved, and a majority told Gallup pollsters that Republicans had abused their constitutional authority" (The Recent Past, 2019). -
9/11
"On the morning of September 11, 2001, nineteen operatives of the al-Qaeda terrorist organization hijacked four passenger planes on the East Coast" (The Recent Past, 2019). "In less than two hours, nearly three thousand Americans had been killed" (The Recent Past, 2019). "American intelligence agencies quickly identified the radical Islamic militant group al-Qaeda, led by the wealthy Saudi Osama bin Laden, as the perpetrators of the attack" (The Recent Past, 2019).