ice controls on oil were eliminated, a deregulation that consists to this day. Reagan also combined and centralized the regulatory office to provide a more efficient base to tackle the system. Led by James Miller, head of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIPA), and Murray Weidenbaum, the head of the Council of Economic Advisors (CEA), the combination was set in place to destroy regulation legislation and the President’s free market ideology (Boettke 120). Some feel Reagan and his administration can only claim success in slowing regulatory laws, nowhere near the goal of wiping them out. Political Economist William Niskanen:“The Reagan program of regulatory relief promised more than it delivered. The failure to achieve substantial reduction in or reform of federal regulations, building on the considerable momentum of the Carter administration was the major missed opportunity of the initial Reagan program.”(Boettke 120)Peter Boetkke states that Reagan relied on reform by changing the names of those in charge instead of structural reform. This resulted in Reagan’s essential failure in pushing his deregulation agenda through (121). Economist Kenneth Boyer disagrees. He states Morris 12that deregulation did occur where it had to – in the public utilities market. The markets Reagan succeeded in deregulating were public transportation, natural gas and oil markets, and most importantly, the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T). The only reasoning in Boetkke’s theory of a slowing deregulation policy was because, besides AT&T, there were no natural monopolies. Most industries were deregulated in the Carter Administration, leaving little for Reagan to deregulate (125-126). The failure or success of Reagan’s free market ideology was left up to public opinion. The failure of the savings and loans suit was given widespread publicity as a deregulation failure. With the ...
