of their money so that the more unfortunate could a have a better way of living. The reaction to “The Great Society” conveyed the American public’s unwillingness to sacrifice their economic security for the unfortunate. The federal government would not take a bigger role. In the eighties Ronald Reagan came into power and instilled an intense fear of big government into the American people. As Theda Skocpol says “…debt and disillusionment with the federal government were growing before the 1980s. But the republican ascendancy of that decade exploded the deficit and deliberately encouraged cynicism about public efforts to address national problems.” The Reagan administration worked to cut taxes and spending on what was called “wasteful” government programs. The democrats, who in the Congressional majority, attempted to maintain the programs that already existed. Yet the republican forces would eventually starve the existing programs in order to cut the federal budget. Twelve years after Reagan and Bush took office the annual deficit rose from 59 billion in 1980 to 300 billion in 1992 and the national debt rose from 914 billion to over 3 trillion in 1992 . Reagan’s plans were not carefully thought through and its repercussions would be felt into the Clinton administration.The Clinton administration ideally wanted to implement new social reforms when it entered the White House in 1992. The plan for his Health Care reform had overwhelming support by the public and the media. On the Clinton home front, however, there was a lot of concern. According to Theda Skocpol “Clinton and his 1992 campaign advisors were obsessed with the avoidance of the word “taxes,”” . The Clinton administration was haunted by the republican parties policies of the eighties. Clinton was aware that the American people would be wary of new social reform if it included taxes beca...
