Violence, Scandal, and the End of the Cold War 295end to the excessive growth in government bureaucracy and govern-
ment spending and government taxing.” But the huge loss of revenue
that resulted forced the administration to ask Congress to raise the
debt ceiling above the trillion-dollar mark. And it was done, lifting the
ceiling to $ 1. 080 trillion through September 30 , 1982. By the end of
1981 , the federal deficit was headed beyond $ 100 billion and the econ-
omy was in decline.
Shortly after taking office, Ronald Reagan was shot in the chest on
March 30 , 1981 , at 2:30 PM, by twenty-fi ve-year-old John W. Hinckley
Jr., while emerging from the Washington Hilton Hotel. Also wounded
in the attack were the Presidential Press Secretary, James S. Brady, a
Secret Service officer, and a police officer. Rushed to the George Wash-
ington University Hospital, Reagan jokingly expressed the hope that the
surgeon who would perform the operation to extract the bullet was a
Republican. Fortunately he recovered from the operation and was re-
leased from the hospital on April 11. Hinckley was later found not guilty
of any crime by reason of insanity and he was duly incarcerated.
Reagan had no intention of slowing his efforts to increase defense
spending and reduce taxes and the cost of many domestic programs.
Indeed, he succeeded in providing the greatest increase in military ap-
propriations in American history, along with the largest tax cuts this
country ever experienced. Of course these sent the deficit soaring; and
the national debt rocketed into the trillions. Richard Cheney, Republi-
can from Wyoming, later commented that Ronald Reagan proved that
“deficits don’t matter.” Some Americans worried that if “defi cits don’t
matter,” in time the country could face bankruptcy.
One thing Democrats learned about Reagan after several skirmishes
was the fact that he “would compromise at the right time.” He was not
perpetually “hard-nosed,” declared John Murtha, Democrat from
Pennsylvania. On a proposed $ 15 billion slash of defense funds, for
example, “we knew that he was willing to compromise, but he didn’t
compromise until the end. I mean he fought it right through to the end
and then he would compromise.”
But Reagan did succeed in obtaining bud get and tax cuts suffi cient
to alter government policy significantly. Personal income taxes were
reduced twenty-five percent across the board over thirty-three months.
Beginning in 1985 , tax rates, personal exemptions, and regular deductions