This speech was given I believe just a week after John Hinkley shot President Reagan outside of the Mayflower Hotel in Washington. President Reagan also had a national TV address about the 1981 Economic Recovery Act which consisted. Of across the board tax cuts and cuts in regulations in business and once he decided that the economy and defense budget were his top priorities. President Reagan essentially gave the shaft to his goal of having a balance budget by 1984. Thats a big part of the legacy of the 1981 Economic Recovery Act, the goal of balancing the Federal. Budget took a back seat to economic recovery and the defense budget in hopes of ending the Cold War with the Soviet Union. Because the Reagan Administration along with Congress poured hundreds of billions of dollars. Each year as Ron Reagan was President and the tax cuts for the new spending didn't keep up with. Which is how the debt and deficits piled up and the Reagan Administration knew this. Which is why they moved to deficit reduction in 1982, 1984 and 1985, tax reform in 1986. They wanted an economic recovery but when they saw the debt and deficits piling up. They changed course again and moved back to deficit reduction.
