usertron2020
Donor
Bush goes ahead with the tax and budget cuts. The party expects it. He engages the Soviets more. There may be and earlier IMF Treaty. He is reelected in the good economic times of 1984. If his Vice President, like his OTL one, does not become popular, Bob Dole is elected in 1988.
Agreed on everything EXCEPT:
The dying nature of the Soviet Gerontocracy was such that these men generally couldn't make any decision beyond when to pee. You needed not only Gorbachev but Gorbachev securely in power before serious diplomacy can begin.