Define the main features of the harding/coolidge years in terms of public policy.

After the Progressive Era (from the 1890s to about 1920) and its emphasis on social reform, President Warren G. Harding (who took office in 1921) pushed for a "return to normalcy," as he called it.  In business policy, he wanted to return to laissez-faire principles that favored industry and business (over against reformist polices).  In foreign policy he wanted to remove America from foreign commitments and entanglements (following World War I).  His policy was isolationist.

Harding died in 1923 from heart problems complicated by pneumonia.  Calvin Coolidge, his vice-president, succeeded him, and then won the presidential election in 1924 to continue in office till 1929.  As to business policies, Coolidge felt any regulation of business was the responsibility of the states, not the federal government.  When Congress proposed policies to aid farmers by purchasing surplus crops to sell abroad or provide federal loans to farmers during difficult times, Coolidge worked against the first bill (which did not pass) and vetoed the second bill when Congress passed it.  He did not favor federal intervention in such matters.

On taxes, Coolidge listened to the advice of his Treasury Secretary that lowering taxes would actually generate better revenues by spurring the economy.  Republicans in Congress concurred with those ideas and passed Revenue Acts in 1924, 1926 and 1928, all of which gradually lowered federal taxes.  Under Coolidge government spending was kept in check because the administration put a priority on reducing the federal debt.

Do some of these policies sound familiar to you in the present?  The ideas of limiting the reach of the federal government, allowing businesses to do business without government interference, and reducing government taxing and spending all remain key policy concerns of the Republican Party today.

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