The first year or two of the Reagan presidency was clearly recessionary, in fact it was deliberately induced by chockingly tight monetary policy.
Reagan and the then-ascendent supply-siders cut marginal tax rates in two steps (1981 & 1983), and the punishingly high capital gains tax rates. The economy roared ahead, tax revenues went way up in response and “paid for” the tax cuts. Supply-siders have ever since pointed to those years as vindication.
As to the tax cuts, I’m not sure what effect they had (I was 8 in 1983.) On the other hand, if they actually made up for the reduction in collections (which is possible) why the need to borrow 50 billion a year from 83 onwards? In my opinion it was spending increases. That is what got the economy expanding. Capital gains decreases only explain in increase in economic activity if you actually believe that money goes into some sort of production based economy. We’ve spent the last 25 years destroying ours and replacing it with the FIRE economy. Now you can blame a Democratic congress if you want to, but Reagan was just as interested to spend all that lovely new cash on defense. Ultimately the borrowing is inflationary though its mostly showed up in things that cannot be imported like health care and education.
