Reagan's Presidency Without the Assassination Attempt

Well possibly without tha sympathy from the assassination attempt, he possibly could not get this tax reform bill pass through Congress
 
Well possibly without tha sympathy from the assassination attempt, he possibly could not get this tax reform bill pass through Congress

In that case while Reagan is probably re-elected, he wins by a smaller margin. Conservatives can't idolize him or his policies to the same degree since many of them won't even be enacted.
 
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In James Baker’s book,

he says because of the sympathy, they reached too far and got a backlash.

the issue was Social Security (unsurprising for Reagan)
 
Work Hard, Study...and Keep Out of Politics!': Adventures and Lessons from an Unexpected Public Life

James Baker, with Steve Fiffer, 2006.

https://books.google.com/books?id=0...efore the climactic May 7 House vote”&f=false

‘ . . Tip O’Neill threw in the towel before the climactic May 7 House vote. “I can read Congress,” he said. “They go with the will of the people. And the will of the people is to go along with the president.” . . ’

‘ . . Then we shot ourselves in the foot.

‘The issue was Social Security, . . ’
Yes, the Reagan team, and Reagan himself, over-reached.
 
Well possibly without tha sympathy from the assassination attempt, he possibly could not get this tax reform bill pass through Congress
Given that market pressure (petroleum and real estate) would have curbed inflation in 1983, he would get re-elected in 1984. How much tax reform? Hard to say, but much of the supply-side part would probably be stopped.

Another point: the attempt stopped the government for a day or two. It had a worldwide effect of causing leaders around the world to pause and give condolences. The butterfly effect seems rather trivial, but who knows decisions happened differently.
 
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Rawhide Down: The Near Assassination of Ronald Reagan, Del Quentin Wilber, 2011, page 218:

https://books.google.com/books?id=P... that he understood God's intentions"&f=false

‘ . . . Never one to presume that he understood God's intentions, Reagan later speculated that he'd been granted his wish to live so that he could help mitigate the risk of Armageddon. . . ’
Reagan wrote a heartfelt letter to Brezhnev. But then Secretary of State Al Haig worried that it would misunderstood and wrote his own letter. Both letters ended up being sent.

And apparently, Brezhnev responded stiffly.

So, maybe in Reagan’s mind, hopes were raised too high, without amounting to anything, and this was a contributing factor to a more dangerous 1983?
 
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