Congress pass the bills. The president signs them into law. If he veto's them, congress can override the presidents veto. But back then, and even still now, it's very rare. So the end result was that Reagan signed most of those spending bills. Why? Because he didn't understand that "NOTHING IS FREE." He, like Trump, don't give a crap about the adverse consequences of over spending and dumping trillions of $$$$ of new money into the economy. They just want things to look good while they're in office.
Congress has the power of the purse. Let's get real about that, shall we? Like I said before, they inject all the spending into a bill. Every dime in the bill comes from them. The president doesn't have much say in what goes into those bills. That's the power of the congress. But in the end, it's still just a bill that hasn't been signed into law.
The president has just as much power when signing those spending bills into law. If Reagan was a fiscal conservative, as he portrayed on TV, he would've vetoed all of that over spending and forced congress to either pass a balanced budget, or override his veto.
You're trying to make out like the congress has more power than the president. And that's just not so. Collectively, as in a rare veto override, they do. But that's it.
They bring the purse to the president. It's the president that has to sign the check. Without a signed check, it's worthless.
I was then loyal to Carter. But he departed leaving Reagan debt of 79 billion dollars.
When Reagan took office the economy was one of double-digit inflation and interest rates near 20%. During the campaign Reagan promised to restore the free market from excessive government regulation and encourage private initiative and enterprise.
Reagan's economic policies highlighted his long-standing dislike of high federal income taxes. Reagan embraced the theory of "supply side economics," feeling that tax cuts encouraged economic expansion which would result in increases in federal government revenue at a lower tax rate. Higher revenues would then be used to increase defense spending and balance the federal budget. This overall approach became known as "Reaganomics," or as Republican primary candidate Vice President George H.W. Bush once called it, "voodoo economics." The President also vowed to protect certain entitlement programs (like Medicare and Social Security) while cutting the budgets for other social programs by targeting waste, fraud and abuse.
During his first year in office, Reagan engineered the passage of $39 billion in budget cuts into law, as well as a massive 25 percent tax cut spread over three years for individuals, and faster write-offs for capital investment for business. At the same time, he insisted on, and for the most part, was successful in gaining increased funding for defense.
Although inflation dropped from 13.5% in 1980 to 5.1% in 1982, a severe recession set in, with unemployment exceeding 10% in October, 1982 for the first time in forty years. The administration modified its economic policy after two years by proposing selected tax increases and budget cuts to control rising deficits and higher interest rates. After the 1982 downturn, the reduced inflation rate (under 5% for the remainder of the administration), lowering interest rates, and added discretionary income from tax cuts sparked record economic growth, and produced one of the lowest unemployment rates in modern U.S. history (unemployment hit a 14 year low in June of 1988). As Reagan left office, the nation was experiencing its sixth consecutive year of economic prosperity.
The economic gains, however, came at a cost of a record annual deficit and a ballooning national debt. The budget deficit was exacerbated by a trade deficit. Americans continued to buy more foreign-made goods than they were selling. Reagan, however adhered to his free trade stance, and was the primary proponent of the Free Trade Agreement with Canada, which evolved into the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). He also signed, reluctantly, trade legislation designed to open foreign markets to U.S. goods.
