Question

A criticism of President Reagan’s economic policies during the 1980s was that his policies helped only the wealthy. lowered the national debt. lowered federal spending. helped social programs.

Answer 1

The wealthy
... Neo- Conservatism AKA "Reaganomics"

Answer 2

The first alternative is correct (A).

By the early 1980s the US economy was suffering from a severe inflation and unemployment crisis.

 To reverse this picture, President Ronald Reagan began implementing a series of liberal measures to stabilize the US economy. Popularly, this set of policies became known as Reaganomics.

Reaganomics was instrumental in reducing the inflationary spiral of the economy, controlling the supply of currency in the market and reducing the collection of taxes, thus favoring the return of economic growth in the country.

Basically, the Reaganomics plan was based on four main pillars: Reducing government spending; Reduce taxes for individuals, companies and investments; Reduce regulation of business and the economy in general; Control the money supply to reduce inflation.

As can be observed, it is a liberal plan where the state had a lower participation of the government in the economy was the best way to stimulate economic growth.

The results were: increase in the average rate of expansion of the American GDP during the decade, drop in unemployment, increase in family income, decrease in inflation and increase inequality between the poor and the rich.