10. “In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.”
From his first Inaugural Address, Reagan set the tone for what he believed to be the role of government. For so long, it had been expected that an active government should take control and “fix” the lives of Americans when tough times presented themselves. However, these kinds of thoughts were seriously challenged by the President for the first time in over a half-century when Reagan took the Presidential oath. While his Presidency had major defects and broken promises, and there were many of them, it cannot be questioned that Reagan changed the political discourse in America; instead of wondering what more government could do to improve their lives, Americans began pondering how much of government could be eliminated.
