In the 1920 presidential election Warren G. Harding and running mate Calvin Coolidge won a landslide victory promising a return to normalcy. Presumably this meant they wished to restore the conditions that existed before World War I now that the war was over. Please discuss the policies they pursued in the pursuit of this goal. At the end of World War I, the US had come to experience a significant reliance on government regulation. This experience had outlived its stay and there was now a widespread desire to shift from Federal regulation to state and local management that was had in the prewar years.This desire for “normalcy” was especially true in the business sector where people wanted the government to shoo. [2] At the conclusion …show more content…
His final few days in office were spent encouraging these policies. It was too late and too little, however. Harding and Coolidge would end up adapting the same popular stances but with much more enthusiasm than the Wilson campaign. They sincerely believed in minimal government intervention with business affairs.Additionally,Harding ran under the slogan “not nostrums but normalcy; not revolution by restoration” while Coolidge ran under “the business of America is business …show more content…
This was partly due to the great fortunes made in crime due to the era of Prohibition which occurred from 1920 to 1933. This consequence was likely not intended by the government but it nonetheless contributed greatly to US prosperity. As previously touched on, Harding and Coolidge pushed hard for tax cuts that led to significantly increased tax revenue during the 1920s. In fact, for every year in the 1920’s, there was a federal government surplus. These surpluses were used to pay off US debt and fueled employment. American employment actually reached near-full employment throughout Harding and Coolidge’s presidencies. [1] This policy was logical in that the war fostered a huge increase in net income for Americans which meant that a lower tax could be implemented while still netting the government, record-high tax revenues. The decline in taxes would further stimulate spending and the cause a positive feedback loop in which the US economy flourished.. In the period from 1920 to 1924, customs revenue doubled in response to income tax halving. The 1920s would go on to be considered the best decade in US history with respect to economic