Original subtitles

[horse blustering]

[indistinct chatter]

[chatter continues]

[man] What time is it?

Depends.

[man] Okay. Bring him on.

dramatic music plays

[Ronald] Good morning.

[man] Typical California weather.

Yes, since this is the first day

of this kind of weather of fog since we've been here,

I shall refrain from saying that you're all responsible.

[laughter]

Western dramatic music plays

[Ronald] That is the tax program.

They are signed, and now all we have to do

is implement them.

This is the budget deal,

and this is the tax program,

but I think they represent and mark an end to

the excessive growth in government bureaucracy

and government spending, government taxing.

[dog panting]

And we're getting...

No, no, the bill's passed. You can't do anything about it.

[dog whines]

[panting]

Victory.

[woman] Will you still be able to balance the budget in '84?

[Ronald] Well, this has always been our goal.

Millie won't hurt you.

[laughter]

[Ronald] Lassie.

Oh, Lassie--Millie.

[laughter]

[Lear] When Ronald Reagan was running for the presidency,

I hired Robert Scheer to travel with him, side-by-side.

suspenseful music plays

Robert Scheer was the toughest journalist I knew

in terms of an investigative journalist.

Reagan was answering everything with a kind of simplicity.

You came to a place where his likeability

was more important than his lack of an answer.

If you reduce the extravagant size

and cost to the federal government,

you're going to have the money to do the things,

to build the defense that we need

because you're going to have a far more prosperous nation.

[Scheer] He was pretty comfortable

with his understanding of politics at that point.

He knew what he believed, and Reagan was, uh,

a consummate salesman.

The biggest obstacle to efficient service

to the poor and the needy is Washington.

[Scheer] Everybody else wants to talk about the polls.

They wanna talk about who's winning, who's losing.

Nobody wants to talk about whether it's good

for the country, what they do, what the issues are,

and, uh, why do these people like Ronald Reagan?

I mean, personally I think he's okay, but why do they want

Ronald Reagan to be their president?

I think it's a fascinating thing to look into, you know?

Today, I wanna talk about the decline

in the American standard of living.

[Will] In 1980, the country was depressed,

was in a bad mood, it had had a long bad patch.

[Reporter] Today, for the first time,

President Carter admitted we are in a recession,

and he said it's going to cause pain and disruption

for a lot of Americans before it's over.

I would like Mr. Carter to explain to me,

why the inflation is as high as it is,

why unemployment is what it is.

[Stahl] So many people were out of work,

we had just had gas lines.

The economy was really suffering,

It was a very dark time.

[Alter] Reagan saw that as an opportunity to run

as an upbeat, sunny candidate,

he was able to fuse optimism and patriotism.

[crowd cheering]

At the period of time that he was running,

his message, his belief system was resonating.

No problem that we face today can compare with a need

to restore the health of the American economy

and the strength of the American dollar.

[Baker] The principles and values he embraced

were conservative Republican principles--

lower taxes, stronger defense, freedom of the individual,

small government.

[Norquist] To call yourself a Reagan Republican

is to say, "We're gonna rein in spending

and limit the size and scope of government."

"So you wanna abolish government?"

No, I don't wanna abolish government.

I wanna make it so small, you could drag it

in the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub,

that small, small as a bathtub, okay?

Very small.

[Ronald] And the leadership that I envision

would be to take the lead in getting government off

the backs of the people of the United States

and turning you loose to do what you can do so well.

Small government message was always code

for more money in your pocket.

That was a strong message.

[Shearer] It seemed like a painless economic policy--

cut government and get out of the way,

and everybody will get wealthy together

but it was a cover for privilege and corporate power.

[crowd chanting]

militaristic music plays

[Cronkite] Good morning.

Ronald Reagan is just about to become the 40th President

of these United States.

[sirens wailing]

[man] The motorcade is beginning to roll

toward Capitol Hill, Walter.

[man] I think what struck both of us--

the contrast and the crowd.

[man] Just four years ago, Jimmy Carter tried to run

a populist, a people's inauguration,

today, the emphasis was upon a different approach.

They made no excuse of the fact that the rich folks

were here and the-- and the wealthy Republicans.

They were having a good time. This was their day in the--

in the sun.

You could look out across that crowd

and see very, very few minorities.

[trumpets playing triumphant music]

[Lopez] For Ronald Reagan,

the point of power was to convince Americans

to turn against government,

to build popular support for policies

that ultimately helped corporations and the very rich.

[band playing Hail to the Chief]

[cannon firing]

[Lopez] One way to do that was to describe government

as a threat to all of us.

In this present crisis, government is not the solution

to our problem.

Government is the problem.

[Shearer] That was an incredibly influential

bit of political propaganda.

Government is the problem.

Because on the face of it, it's absolutely not true.

It's a myth,

but it's a convenient myth for the powerful.

[Wiley] This rhetoric about small government

represented a concerted strategic effort

by the wealthy to expand their wealth and their power

and their privilege

and convince the American public

that it was good for them.

[man] Ladies and gentlemen,

the President of the United States

and Mrs. Reagan.

[Kelley] They had in Ronald Reagan

the perfect vehicle to take their gospel forward.

But he wasn't just a Manchurian Candidate.

He believed it.

[cheers and applause]

[Alter] Reagan's presidency marked a turning point

in American politics.

It represented a massive shift of economic power

in the country.

A toast.

[applause]

serious music plays

[Brinkley] Have you thought about the fact

that the last president who tried really seriously

to change the course of the American economy

in a substantial way was Franklin Roosevelt in 1933?

No one has tried since then?

Well, without saying anything about those who followed,

it is true, and isn't it somewhat comparative today

that he came in at a kind

of watershed time when the people said

"We cannot continue on this path.

We have to try something"?

And he was willing, uh, to try.

[birds chirping]

calm orchestral music plays

[man] The atmosphere has changed.

Sure, there's still a good deal of unemployment around,

but now many who are working have the five-day week,

and more important,

the feeling of imminent disaster,

the fear of economic collapse is gone.

[FDR] I pledge myself

to a New Deal for the American people.

[crowd cheering]

[Alter] To help the country in the Great Depression,

President Roosevelt proposed a new social contract--

a New Deal between the people and the government.

[Lopez] FDR understood that the economy is outside

of the control of any one individual,

so we need government to actively intervene

in the marketplace to help all of us.

[Wiley] It was investments in things like

unemployment insurance, Social Security,

mortgage lending backed by the federal government,

the creation of labor unions--

those are the things that created the middle class.

[Johnson] Prior to The Great Depression,

most Americans were poor.

The only middle class in America were people

who had businesses, who owned shops.

It was literally the New Deal that gave America

the opportunity to build a middle class.

[Shearer] Ronald Reagan's family

was supported and helped by New Deal programs,

as were millions of Americans.

[man] I have the sense that not everything

that has happened since the New Deal is bad,

and I can't believe that you think everything is--

you can't believe that unemployment...

-No. -...Insurance and...

No. But what I have to say is that some of those things

would be done better at the private sector.

Some could be done better at the local sector.

But what's good that they've done?

Come on.

[Scheer] The whole point of that interview

is he's denying his own family's experience,

that government intervention certainly was essential,

and he became a hypocrite.

We spread across this land building farms

and towns and cities and we did it

without any federal land planning program

or urban renewal.

[Lopez] One of the foundational myths

of the United States is always the frontier...

[horse blusters]

the rugged individual who took care of himself,

and what it said was real men don't need government.

They'll stand on their own two feet,

and if they fail...

they'll have the virtue to die quietly

without complaining.

But the frontier was never that way.

The frontier was a collective enterprise.

[motor sputters]

[buzzing]

[Cannon] What is missing from the picture

is what the government did,

particularly the building of the railroad,

which is what opens the West, but also telegraph lines,

and all sorts of infrastructure that no individuals,

no matter how brave or rugged,

could've constructed on their own.

Both of these, look, both of them

dead up there where-- where it counts.

[Alter] All the things that government did

were just sort of kissed off by Reagan.

[man] What gives this administration its cache

are Ronald Reagan's beliefs, which grew and matured

in America which no longer exists

or exists only in his mind,

that hard work and self-reliance, for instance,

will inevitably produce personal success,

satisfaction, and wealth.

Reagan was committed to promoting the message

that we're all on our own,

whether you succeed or whether you fail.

[Wiley] That was so incredibly cruel,

and it drives Reagan's narrative of

"We pulled ourselves up by our bootstraps.

Wow come you don't have any boots?"

[man] United States.

[camera shutters clicking]

How do you do?

[Stahl] The first time I actually saw him in person

was right in front of the press corps

and we all kind of melted.

We were all little puddles on the floor.

He also had more wrinkles up close

than the camera picked up.

The camera loved this man.

And a little bit of frailty to him.

He wasn't as hardy and healthy

as he seemed on television,

but when he went on television, he was the actor,

and he was playing a vigorous president.

[indistinct chatter]

dramatic music plays

[Parvin] Mrs. Reagan was not as comfortable

as President Reagan,

and she didn't convey the same personality

that he did.

So she had some things in that regard

that she needed to overcome.

I wait, and I think I have to wait.

[Stahl] I once took a trip with the President

and on the plane coming home, Nancy Reagan--

she was telling jokes and being a little sarcastic.

And she was hilarious. Hilarious.

So I said, "I have to have an interview with her,

and the public has to see this."

And they gave me an interview, eventually.

And no, what she gave me was the public presentation.

She seemed stiff.

She seemed as if she didn't have a real personality.

She was an actor, too, but not--

she couldn't reach down the way the President could.

[man] That's great.

[man] Just looking right at me like that.

Oh, sure.

[camera shutter clicks]

serious music playing

[man] I'm gonna stick with just a drink.

-Bran and flakes? -Not all bran.

Bran and flakes, if you got it on the bananas.

Suspenseful music plays

[Baker] Priority one for the Reagan administration

after the inauguration in 1981

was the economic situation,

and we decided we were gonna be very tough about that.

-Morning. -Good morning.

Good morning, all.

Everyone looks very bright and happy.

Okay.

The agenda is mainly concerned with the economic program,

though try not to smile too much.

[laughter]

I have to say that I am not one to shrink from a tough task,

but I must also say that the goals that you gave us

are extraordinarily difficult to reconcile,

but I'm pleased to report today that we're almost there.

When President Reagan was elected,

his centerpiece economic promise was a large tax cut.

[Lopez] Reagan had a story to tell.

He said, "We have to cut taxes for the very rich

and wealthy corporations.

Trust me, that money is gonna trickle down

to all the rest of you,"

the idea being that the very rich

from all that they would save would invest more,

would spend more,

and then everybody would be better off.

This was an idea that had been debunked for decades.

He's promising to cut taxes by 30%

and balance the budget and increase defense spending

and stop inflation all at the same time.

[Shearer] When George Bush ran for president in 1980,

he referred to Reaganomics as black magic.

What I call a voodoo economic policy--

But of course, he couldn't say that

once he became Vice President.

[woman] The President has been lobbying Congress by telephone.

-Hello? -But with each day,

his opponents are gaining time to effect the outcome.

I don't see a compromise out there.

But are we still working for a compromise? Yes.

[woman] Mr. President!

President Reagan!

-Mr. Reagan! [gunshot]

ominous music playing

[man] Lyn Nofziger told reporters at the hospital

the president was not wounded.

He was wounded. Oh, God!

-He was--the President was hit? -[man] He's stable.

He is in stable condition, all this information...

[man] How do you feel? How do you feel?

Great.

[man] Reagan was unquestionably helped

in his drive for his fundamental

domestic policy of tax cuts by the fact that he got shot.

[man] It was in the early months of his first term.

[Khachigian] Just about a month after his assassination attempt,

he gave his speech

before the joint session of the Congress.

The intention was in this speech

was to take advantage of the situation

and write the speech in such a way as to,

sort of, manipulate the Congress to get them

to do our bidding.

-I have a letter with me. [papers rustle]

Letter came from Peter Sweeney. He's in the second grade,

and he said, "I hope you'll get well quick,

or you might have to make a speech in your pajamas."

[laughter]

[applause]

[Ron Jr.] How do you thwart somebody who has just reacted

so courageously to being shot and nearly killed,

you know, become this, sort of figure in the public's eye?

You know, if he wants a tax cut, we'll do the tax cut, okay.

White House officials can see their growing worry

that the President's economic package

is being perceived as too rough on the poor.

[Shearer] The 1981 Reagan tax cut

was the most significant redistribution of income

since the 1930s in the Depression.

[Johnson] Almost immediately after the tax cuts,

the government was running out of money,

and even his own economic advisors

understood that that tax cut had gone too far.

[man] Federal Reserve Chairman Volcker warned

the Reagan administration and Congress that efforts

to revive the economy would falter

unless the budget deficit is reduced.

[Stahl] People around him--

they said you have to start raising taxes again,

but because he had set this goal,

he really balked at it.

Eventually, he did. He raised taxes many times.

But if you tell a Republican that he raised taxes today,

'cause this has happened to me, they'll say, "You're a liar."

He somehow made us forget that.

It was proof that he was a great actor,

that he could make us forget that.

[applause]

[band playing Hail to the Chief]

[Stahl] There was a great deal

of opulence around the Reagans.

In terms of their values, they seemed

to be quite different from the average Americans.

They'd come from not just Hollywood but Beverly Hills.

There was a display of wealth.

It wasn't just that they had money.

They had to display it.

And Nancy Reagan projected that.

[cheers and applause] -Thank you.

Thank you. Thanks.

[Kelley] She came to the White House,

and it was like Sacramento again.

"This is a dump.

I can't live here.

The dishes are terrible.

[ laughs ] Everything is awful."

dramatic music plays

[Tumulty] She sets about to redecorate the White House--

something that Jackie Kennedy had done in the Camelot era

and had been acclaimed for, but this isn't Camelot.

Mrs. Kennedy went after historical aspects

and made the White House a museum.

[man] Can you make these changes,

uh, according to your own personal tastes and desires?

Well, no, I, uh, have a committee,

which has museum experts

and government people and private citizens on it.

And then everything we do is subject to approval

by the Fine Arts Committee.

[Kelley] With Nancy, most of the money went

into the second and third floors in the White House,

which are not public rooms.

This was interpreted as making the White House

better for herself.

[woman] The country is headed into the worst recession

since The Great Depression,

and as the Reagan administration

is cutting social programs,

as people are really struggling in their own lives,

they see the First Lady redecorating,

renovating the White House.

It was really tone-deaf.

Some people say if the poor family

on food stamps has to tighten its belt,

wouldn't it be a good example for the Reagans

to tighten their belt?

We've tightened our belts in many ways.

How?

Well, we're not making any money here. [laughs]

[jet engine whirring]

[man] 5 Golf, Yankee, standby 120.

Course runway 22 out at Foxtrot,

right in ground point on.

[Wiley] Reagan understood

that part of supporting corporate power

was going after the labor movement.

[chanting] The workers united will never be defeated.

[man] Air traffic controllers defied court orders

grounding half the nation's commercial airline flights.

[Wiley] If it weren't for the union movement,

we wouldn't have the 40-hour work week.

We wouldn't have benefits on the job like healthcare.

[Alter] When he was running for President,

Reagan could make it seem like he shared

the interest and especially the values

of union members and blue collar workers.

And so he was able to say, "I'm one of you."

I happen to be the only president

of a union ever to be a candidate

for President of the United States.

[cheers and applause]

[Lopez] Reagan turns against the idea of unions

as he shifts his alliance to corporations,

to capital, to big employers, to big money.

The union representing those who man America's

air traffic control facilities called a strike.

They are in violation of the law,

and if they do not report for work within 48 hours,

they have forfeited their jobs and will be terminated.

End of statement.

[Baker] He fired 'em. It's what they deserved,

and it was a wonderful thing that he did

politically and substantively.

After that, he looked powerful.

[Stahl] In terms of his image, he looked very strong,

but it was unbelievable because they were--

they were the people who kept the planes in the air.

And it just devastated the union movement.

That is when the union started to go into decline.

[Shearer] It was a clear signal that Reagan

was not gonna support any pro-labor legislation.

He was gonna change the equation.

He was gonna support the rise of corporate power.

[Stahl] Once the workers lost power,

they lost power to hold on

to real economic gains for themselves.

I can't believe the government is doing this to us,

I don't think we're getting a fair deal out of it,

but, uh, we're gonna stick with it till the end.

If they won't make his working conditions better,

maybe it's for the best.

dramatic music plays

[camera shutters clicking]

[indistinct chatter]

[Ronald] Hi.

Everybody on and ready here?

Yeah? Hmm...

Well, we've been a long time.

We've been decades coming to the point where we are.

And you're not going to cure this overnight.

And of course, the budget cuts in government,

uh, are going to be felt as they begin

to take place in the 1982 budget year

that begins October 1st.

[Stahl] When the budget was seen by everybody,

people realized, he was cutting social programs.

He was cutting programs for poor people.

We were in recession, and it seemed out of sync

with what was going on in the country.

It was shocking.

[Bill] The President and Congress have chosen

not to offend the rich, the powerful,

and the organized.

It is easier to take on the weak.

Social programs were cut almost $30 billion this year.

The burden falls most heavily on the poor,

and some of the truly needy are truly hurting.

These programs are a life support system.

For many, we are pulling the plug.

[woman] I'd like to, um, apply for food stamps.

[man] President Reagan cut Medicaid,

cut aid to families with dependent children,

student lunches, the food stamp program,

and other New Deal programs

that the most vulnerable were benefitting from.

[Wiley] He cut things like the ability for a single mom

to amass savings over a thousand dollars.

So you actually saw women spending savings

because they had no choice

but to try to preserve their welfare checks.

It had the exact opposite effect that it was supposed to have.

And it was deeply cruel to them

because it kept them on welfare.

[woman] And this is supposed to be the land of opportunity.

It's not anymore. It's not the land of opportunity.

It's the land for the rich, and the poor can go to hell.

I keep remembering what Milton Friedman once said,

"If you start paying people to be poor,

there is going to be a lot of poor people."

[Lopez] It's a story that says to folks,

"You should hate government

because it's government that is theoretically

reaching into your pockets

to take your hard-earned dollars,

and giving it away

to these underserving people of color.

So all of those social programs, defund them,

because government's on the side of these underserving people.

[woman] Showing his sense of humor,

the president brought a knife

to this important budget cutting session.

[Wiley] I'll never forget,

he did this masterful performance.

He opens up the newspaper, and he starts reading want ads.

I made it a point to count the pages of help wanted ads.

In this time of great unemployment,

there were 24 full pages of classified ads of employers

looking for employees.

And it was a great manipulation that told the American public,

if they are not working, they just don't wanna work.

[applause]

At the same time, Reagan is choking

and gutting programs

that were trying to expand opportunity.

The Reagan administration this afternoon

unveiled its controversial new china policy,

4,372 pieces of new china

arrived in time for tonight's formal dinner

for President Mubarak.

[Mubarak] Let me first congratulate Mrs. Reagan

for the new china,

which is very elegant and very beautiful.

[Tumulty] Nancy Reagan decides to buy

a $1,000 a place setting china.

This is announced on the very same day

that the Reagan administration

announces that for the purposes of the School Lunch Program,

they are going to classify ketchup as a vegetable.

Somebody got overambitious in the bureaucracy

with their ketchup for a vegetable,

and we had to pull back on some regulations

that were suggested.

The timing couldn't have been worse.

[reporter] $1 billion dollars may be cut nationwide

from School Lunch Programs in 1982.

I accepted the donation because the White House

needed china very, very badly.

[Tumulty] The china purchase becomes a real metaphor

for a lot of things that bother people

about the Reagan administration and its policies.

[reporter] There are more and more homeless people

in America--perhaps two million and growing.

[Wiley] Advocates had called for better forms

of housing and services,

and support for people who are poorest

among us in this country,

including and especially for people who are mentally ill.

[Scheer] Reagan disparaged mental health facilities.

He thought, you know, well, these people will find work,

or they'll take pills.

He was against helping them.

[Alter] The homeless crisis we see today

accelerated on Reagan's watch.

The people who are sleeping on the grates,

the homeless who are homeless, you might say, by choice.

[Johnson] Reagan would tell the American public

that many of the ways that people in America

were suffering was because they chose to suffer

and the problem was a moral failure,

not a structural one.

[Wiley] Reagan was deeply invested

in being the good guy.

That was an image he actively cultivated.

So he wanted to disconnect

the very real human pain

that was now visible on streets with the policies

that were central to his presidency.

We believe that there was a mandate last fall.

And that mandate was for cutting spending,

not raising taxes.

I think you've been brilliant,

but I also think you've been cruel,

and I think you've been inhumane,

and I think you are causing a perversion of justice

for the poor and middle class Americans.

[Stahl] It kind of hit the country with a jolt,

and he would make these cuts,

and they seemed callous,

and yet there he was, sunny, smiling.

And so it just didn't compute that

that man could make these cuts.

[sirens wailing]

[woman] This was one presidential trip

that had not been announced.

The Reagans had a dinner engagement

with the President's second grade pen pal, Rudy Hines.

[Ron Jr.] My father had a hard time feeling empathy

for groups of people.

You could think about welfare recipients,

for instance, as just this sort of amorphous mass

of lazy people who don't wanna work.

And therefore, he could be, you know, tough on them.

But when it came to an individual,

he was actually rather big-hearted.

[Alter] He was personally compassionate,

but he didn't understand

that personal compassion isn't meaningful

without public compassion if you're president.

[Stahl] I had the impression he was not educating himself

on what was really happening to people around the country.

Among those filing claims recently was this man.

[Ron Jr.] Laid off until October 25th.

As far as I know, everybody's collecting unemployment.

I am, too.

I used to get into arguments sometimes with my father,

and you would think, well,

I'm gonna now introduce him to a new set of facts.

He would listen, somewhat reluctantly,

to what I would think are, you know,

incontrovertible facts.

And then, you would get to that point

where he would throw up his hands and say,

"Well, all I know is..."

and he'd sort of push away like this with his hands,

which was really, keep that reality away from me.

I do not want that near me now.

It's--It's upsetting my whole picture of America,

myself, whatever it might be.

And you'd say, "Well, that's the point.

All you know is this,

but this turns out to be incomplete, at best.

So what about all this other stuff?"

"Well, all I know is..."

[man] Mrs. Reagan, are you looking forward

to the wedding? -Yes, I certainly am.

[narrator] The wedding guests assembled,

not just the famous

like Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher

and Mrs. Nancy Reagan, wife of the American President,

but personal and family friends as well.

[Stahl] We were going through those difficult times,

and there was Nancy showing off diamonds.

She was wearing clothes that designers were lending

and then ended up giving her.

[Kelley] We're talking millions of dollars as gifts.

Nancy got to wear the clothes and look good,

and they got exposure and publicity.

It was a wonderful relationship,

except for one little thing. It was against the law.

She never reported these things as a gift.

[man] Mrs. Reagan's Press Secretary today admitted

the First Lady does borrow designer fashions

without reporting them.

[Tumulty] Taking free designer clothes

is something that doesn't raise eyebrows in Hollywood.

She discovers this can get you

in a lot of trouble in Washington.

laughter]

[man] Within months, she had grown sensitive

about even mentioning her clothes.

Are we still on?

[Tumulty] The White House Counsel would send somebody,

at least once a year, to the family quarters,

just to be on the lookout for gifts

that they don't know about.

The White House quietly announces

that she will no longer be taking these free clothes.

Ultimately, it is revealed that that's a promise she broke.

dramatic music plays

[Kelley] Nancy Reagan had a sense of entitlement,

and she was criticized as this imperious queen.

[Nancy] There is now a picture postcard of me as a queen.

Now, that's silly because I'd never wear a crown.

It messes up your hair.

[laughter]

[Tumulty] At the end of that first year,

she finds herself the most unpopular

First Lady in the polls in modern history.

I guess what you really want for Christmas

is for the press to take a fresh look at you.

That would be nice. [chuckles]

[indistinct conversations]

[applause]

[Ronald] And I'm delighted to be here with Heritage.

I remember the days when a conservative intellectual

was considered a contradiction in terms.

[laughter]

[Alter] The Kitchen Cabinet and the other business leaders

who loved Reagan--

they didn't love him because they liked his movies.

They loved him because he was the front man

for their ideas.

[Lopez] Government is a threat to the very wealthy.

It taxes them. It regulates them.

It creates alternative sources of power.

So they're trying to support politicians

who promote a set of economic policies

that actually hands government over

to the control of corporations.

I'd like to get rid of several thousand

of what I think are unnecessary regulations

that have caused your problems. [applause]

[Scheer] What he was told at every business meeting

he'd ever gone to when he was with GE

or anywhere else,

is the government--they require all these regulations.

It costs us so much money, and we can't do our work.

We'd hear this all the time, and he would soak it up.

You know, aren't you really talking

about coddling big business?

No. Not coddling at all.

As a matter of fact, our government has

a hostile adversary relationship with business.

[Alter] Reagan ended up appointing

a lot of third-rate people

to important positions who often didn't believe

in the mission of their department.

[man] Interior Secretary James Watt

has already tried to clear the way

for more mining and development of federal land,

has proposed cutbacks in national parks,

and is ordered a speed up in the controversial program

to encourage offshore oil and gas drilling.

[Alter] It wasn't just foxes guarding the chicken coop.

It was that they would dismantle the chicken coop.

[man] Here are just a few

of the regulations under review--

rules on contents of pesticide,

rules on handling chemical waste.

[man] A rule to install airbags was killed by President Reagan.

A rule that would have required special elevators

and subway stations to help handicap people

get on and off trains was rescinded.

[Johnson] Deregulation at its core

is about allowing the rich and powerful

to expand their power.

It also means that there is no one monitoring

the behavior of these economic actors.

We're going to turn the bull loose.

[crowd cheering]

[crowd chanting indistinctly]

[bell dinging]

[cheers and applause]

[Nancy] Did all of you start first on pot?

[man] How many started on pot? Hands up.

[Nancy] I'm very much interested in,

and concerned about,

the whole drug problem in the country now.

[Tumulty] There was always this belief with Nancy Reagan

that things could always be rewritten,

could be spun.

[crowd chanting]

[man] Those close to the First Lady

hope she can leave unfavorable press accounts

of her high style of life behind,

as she continues to become involved.

[man] Do you think you're more self-confident?

Yes, because I think maybe more people like me.

[chuckles]

If someone offers you drugs, what will you do?

[crowd] Just say no!

She believed that you could knock your drug problem.

"Just say no."

Just chew your food 43 times,

and you'll never weigh more than 90 pounds.

The discipline, the control of this woman.

[Wiley] Just like Ronald Reagan wrapping himself

in the fatherly mantle,

she was wrapping herself in the mother-y gauze

of loving advice.

Let's practice saying, "Just say no."

[Wiley] Just stay off those drugs.

We will ignore all the things that are creating a problem

and make it clear

that if you are still doing it, it's 'cause you chose to.

If you're a casual drug user, you're an accomplice to murder.

[Johnson] When she said, "Say no to drugs,"

you know who she was not pictured with?

The yuppies who are doing lines of coke

off the back of prostitutes throughout the 1980s.

And yet, crack cocaine,

which was "poor people's cocaine"

and other forms of drugs, were considered to be the enemy.

Those various centers that you've gone to,

it's been pointed out.

Your husband is asking that funds be cut

from those very centers.

You know, we've gotten into a terrible--

I think into a terrible, um, habit.

Somebody will say, "We have a problem,"

whatever it may be, and the immediate response is,

"Well, can't the government do something about that?"

Instead of,

"Can't I do something about that?"

[Johnson] The Reagan administration

decided that the only way that you could deal

with drug addicts was not to address unemployment,

not to address violence,

lack of opportunity, or better healthcare.

It was simply throwing people in jail.

The report out tonight shows the United States

has a larger percentage of its citizens

in prison than any other country.

And the Americans most likely to be in prison?

They're Black.

The war on drugs was really a war

on Black and brown people in this country.

We were taking precious dollars,

and instead of creating communities of hope,

we created communities of criminalization.

[man] Most experts believe we're worse off now

than when Reagan took office,

this despite $21 1/2 billion

and despite Mrs. Reagan's highly publicized

but sadly ineffective anti-drug campaign.

When it comes to drugs and alcohol,

just say no.

God bless you and good night.

Reagan was cutting programs on the social side

and increasing the budget enormously

on the Pentagon side of things on defense.

[marching band playing]

[Alter] Reagan had campaigned on building

a stronger military.

So the ideology kind of crowded out

a clear-eyed analysis of what was actually needed

to protect the country.

[Ronald] We must immediately start a rebuilding

of our defensive capability

to the point that no nation on this Earth

would dare lift a hand against us.

[cheers and applause]

[Adelman] Reagan's view was

we need to spend on defense to protect America.

The Soviets wanna match us on that,

that will spend them into oblivion.

And that wasn't what the CIA was saying.

What the CIA was saying was, since the end of the '70s,

Soviet spending was pretty steady line

regardless of the United States budget.

But Reagan's view was different from that.

I don't know if he knew what the CIA estimates were.

He probably didn't.

[Johnson] Our greatest military adversary

was basically broke.

The Soviet Union was collapsing upon itself

because of grotesque incompetence

and mismanagement of their economy.

So our spending was just expanding

the military industrial complex.

[man] Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger

has been rebuilding America's military,

with a philosophy of peace through strength,

strength through money.

[Shearer] Peace through strength--

it was a convenient and brilliant cover,

use government spending for the military,

then you could starve the rest of the government.

-Hi, Bobby. How are you? -A pleasure.

What's someone gonna do with landing gear

in the backyard? -I had a friend

who sold $100 million or roughly close to it.

[Alter] Defense contractors and the Defense Department

all reinforced each other to spend taxpayer money.

All of Reagan's fiscal prudence

and efficiency went out the window.

[man] The senior official recently said

that military contractors could cut up

to 50% from their cost.

But this is not a system likely to enforce such discipline.

[Wiley] Reagan kept talking about limited government,

but then, essentially created government

of military might and power,

not a government of investing in people.

Let friend and foe alike know that America has the muscle

to back up its words,

and ships like this and men like you

are that muscle.

[loud cheers and applause]

[indistinct chatter]

Now, I imagine you have a few things on your mind

that you would like to talk about, Gary.

Mr. President, the polls continue to show

that between 60 and 70% of the people

still consider you to be a rich man's president

with no idea of what the people who aren't wealthy

are going through out there.

How does that make you feel?

dramatic music plays

I just--my feeling,

and it's very deep within me, is this.

No, the rich don't need my help.

And I'm not doing things to help the rich.

I'm doing things that I think are fair

to all the people.

[Ron Jr.] It was one of those things where facts and evidence

didn't seem to carry the day.

He liked the idea that if you let people,

meaning rich people, hang on to more of their money,

that somehow this will benefit all of society, you know?

[scoffs] No, it doesn't. [laughs] We know that.

But, you know, you'd run into that,

"All I know is..."

[Ronald] What I want to see above all is,

that this country remains a country

where someone can always get rich.

That's the thing that we have and that must be preserved.

Now, I don't know

how much, uh, more I can do, um, on this subject.

I thought I had another line there for a minute

that I was gonna, uh, gonna use,

but maybe it's just as well that I don't use it.

[Alter] The beginning of the end

for the American middle class was in the 1980s.

The economic idea that Ronald Reagan believed in

turned out to not be true.

No argument available on the other side

because enough time has passed

that history has rendered a verdict.

How come no one calls it Reaganomics anymore?

[laughter and applause]

I never did call it that.

That was their name when they thought it wouldn't work.

I just called it common sense.

[Stahl] Even from within the White House,

people like the budget director, Stockman,

began to say, "This idea is faulty."

[man] David Stockman found that the complexities

of tax policy worked simply beyond the president.

So he ignored the facts and wandered in circles.

[Cannon] Stockman said, "Ronald Reagan doesn't know

what he's doing."

It was an eye-opener into the cynicism

of the budget policies of the Reagan administration.

There is plenty of blame to go around,

starting with me.

And there are plenty of serious problems

lurking in the future

that simply aren't being addressed in the present time.

[Johnson] The economy did improve,

but it improved for people who already had money.

That did nothing to lift anyone out of poverty.

And that is the part of the Reagan revolution

economically that people conveniently ignore

in order to maintain the myth of the Reagan presidency.

[Lopez] We have high levels of equal wealth distribution

running through the 1970s.

And then, under Ronald Reagan, you see the curve of wealth

inequality begin to go skyward,

as the one percent and the one-tenth percent

begin to take more and more

and more of the country's wealth.

[Brown] At a time when we need national unity,

more than ever before, we are experiencing

a growing division

because of this transfer of wealth

from the working poor to the working rich

and the non-working rich.

[Lopez] Ronald Reagan initiates the process

by which government will take wealth

from working families, from the middle class,

and siphon it upwards.

He does so through tax policy, by cutting government programs

that helped the middle class by busting unions.

And now, we have the highest levels

of wealth inequality we've seen in a century.

[applause]

dramatic music plays

[man] And action.

The kind of future our young people will have

is something you never forget when you live here.

[Khachigian] In the re-election campaign,

I was writing commercials more than speeches.

The message in 1984 was encapsulated

in that theme, "It's Morning Again in America."

[engine revving, birds chirping]

The idea of being the economy had come back,

the national defense had come back.

[bicycle bell rings] -[man] Good morning, Jim.

[Khachigian] And the spirit of America had returned.

[man] Under the leadership of President Reagan,

our country is prouder and stronger and better.

[Will] Ronald Reagan understood that

the things happen when people are confident.

[Baker] He was always extoling the virtues

of this shining city on the hill,

the virtues of this wonderful country we live in.

[Johnson] That "Morning in America" campaign

is a pop culture fantasy of a strong nation

that had recovered after years of turmoil.

It is a nation that got its swag back

led by an old-fashioned cowboy and his dutiful wife.

[Shearer] One of Reagan's geniuses

was to convince people to vote against their own self-interest,

the notion that if you supported Reaganomics,

you would have a better life when it wasn't true,

but he convinced people to do it.

[Johnson] Reagan realized something

a lot of politicians were always afraid to admit.

A lot of Americans are just selfish,

and the best way to destroy a program

is not just to tell people that it's inefficient.

It's to tell them that they have to share it with somebody,

especially if that means

Black and brown people in America.

[Wiley] Reagan knew exactly how to package

the myth of the American dream that was painted white

and where everyone could advance.

The wonderful part about our country

is that you can work hard and better yourself...

which is what Ronnie did.

[Wiley] The Reagans erased

their own experience of the world,

their own relationships,

the power and the privilege that they had been given.

Ultimately, Reagan was about serving his own ideology

and not about paying attention

to the needs of the American people.

[indistinct chatter]

[Ronald] The best view of big government

is in a rearview mirror as we leave it behind.

[Lopez] Today, there is this belief

that, of course, the United States

is committed to a vision

in which government does as little as possible.

It's all part of the mythology of Reagan.

[crowd] Four more years!

[Shearer] I think that's one of the worst things,

was this cynicism about government,

because America was supposed to be found

on the idea of a democratic government.

And if you get cynical about government,

then you're gonna get cynical about democracy.

[crowd chanting] USA! USA! USA! USA!

[Lear] Everything Reagan was,

so affable, so likeable, so neighborly,

was antithetical to the polarity

he'd pushed through, which amounted

to greed is good...

[ laughs ] or greed is great,

or screw everybody but the one percent.

[woman] Clad in blue jeans, tennis shoes

and a raid jacket with her name on it,

Nancy Reagan first watched undercover police

make street buys from inside a motor home

and followed as they busted 14 occupants of this home.

[Nancy] What a waste. What a wasted life.

[man] Would you describe what you saw inside?

[Nancy] I saw a lot of people on the floor,

and, uh, floors that were unfurnished,

small little house.

You wish that--

you wish that somehow you could have--

somebody could have gotten a hold of them sooner.