OPINION:
This November, I am thankful for Generation X.
Of course, I am biased as we grew up in the 1980s listening to music from Journey, U2, Bon Jovi, Def Leppard and Van Halen; seeing movies such as “Star Wars,” “Back to the Future,” “The Breakfast Club” and “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”; and watching shows such as “Cheers,” “Growing Pains,” “Roseanne” and “Hill Street Blues.”
Most importantly, though, we grew up with Ronald Reagan as our president.
My generation gave President-elect Donald Trump his largest margin of victory. Those of us in the 45-to-64 age group were the largest percentage of the electorate, and we went with the former and future presidents more than any other generation.
Some might say it is because we grew up, got jobs, paid taxes, raised families and moved more to the right over time. That was true of baby boomers, too, but Gen X went for Mr. Trump by a larger margin than the next oldest generation. I believe it is because we’ve been through this before with Reagan, and we know what works.
In the late 1970s, our nation was a mess. Prices were high, consumer confidence was low and the country was in a “malaise.” We had troubles in the Middle East with hostages in Iran. The Soviet Union was a threat to our safety, yet politicians in Washington cowered with plans for the mere containment of communism.
Along came Ronald Reagan. Liberals and many in the media called him extreme and dangerous. Even some in the Republican establishment attacked him — calling his policies “voodoo economics.” They scoffed at the thought that an actor who had become known to many Americans by hosting a television show could become president of the United States.
Voters, however, gave him a chance after he asked them if they were better off than they were four years earlier. He won a landslide election in 1980 with 489 Electoral College votes and carried 44 states.
Most importantly, Reagan promised to make America great again. And he did.
America experienced one of the greatest periods of prosperity in our history. Prices went down. Confidence went up. The hostages were freed. His policies brought about the fall of the Soviet Union and its empire by the end of the decade. The Berlin Wall — which literally separated the country of Germany with communism, oppression and despair in the east from freedom, opportunity and hope in the west — came down in 1989 because of Reagan’s policies.
Generation X had a front-row seat to all of this as we grew up while Reagan saved our country — and the world.
Cutting Americans’ tax burden, putting people to work and reining in government spending were the “three legs of the stool” for Reagan’s economic plan. It worked.
Reagan signed the largest tax cut in American history, the Tax Reform Act of 1986, which brought about the lowest individual and corporate tax rates of any major industrialized country. By the end of 1987, the tax cuts saved a median-income two-earner family of four nearly $9,000 (worth more than $25,000 in 2024).
Tax relief provided incentives for employers to reinvest and citizens to return to work. During the Reagan administration, 20 million new jobs were created, and more than half were filled by women. Unemployment dropped dramatically as Americans returned to the workforce.
Getting control of government spending helped reduce inflation, which made products more affordable again. During Reagan’s tenure, he cut the growth in federal government spending from 10% in 1982 to just over 1% in 1987. Adjusted for inflation, federal spending actually went down in 1987.
It worked so well that our 40th president once observed, “I could tell our economic program was working when they stopped calling it Reaganomics.” Those who grew up in the 1980s know the truth and which policies deserve the credit.
In 2024, we saw “Bidenomics” as the opposite of what worked in the 1980s. We were not impressed when Vice President Kamala Harris declared that there was nothing she would have done differently from what President Biden did. As Reagan observed decades before, we were not better off than four years ago.
While Reagan’s and Mr. Trump’s styles are much different, the circumstances inherited by each are similar — as are the solutions.
Reduce taxes, cut red tape, restore incentives to work and invest, secure our country through a strong military and border and look out for the American people first. These policies worked in the 1980s, and they can work again through the remainder of this decade too.
This year, I am thankful that my generation was paying attention when President Ronald Reagan made America great again. Now, we are ready for President-elect Donald Trump to do the same.
* Scott Walker is president of Young America’s Foundation and served as the 45th governor of Wisconsin.
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