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The Senate seems likely to stay under Republican control. All politicians, however, admit that the public mood is hard to read. Few citizens have yet to see any improvement in their own lives because of the drop in inflation and interest rates, and they are all too aware of high unemployment and rising bankruptcies. But they differ widely on how much to blame Reagan and his party, if at all. Brenda Pace, who lost her $300-a-week job as a supervisor at Hudson's department store in Detroit, delivers a two-word verdict on Reaganomics: "It stinks."
However, Donna Nowak, who is seeking advice from her lawyer about how to file for the bankruptcy of her framing and print shop in nearby Royal Oak, has "mixed feelings" about the President's policy. Says she: "Sometimes I think it's terrible, but other times I think it's doing a lot of good because it's forcing us to take a lot of the fat out of business." Paul Kampka, a mailman in Warren, Mich., reports that the people to whom he delivers letters "are mad, real mad." Then he adds: "Personally, I think Reagan is right. I hate to say it, but he is getting rid of a lot of the deadbeats." In many areas of the country, there seems to be a strong impression that a certain amount of waste has grown into social programs over the years and that they could be pruned back without inflicting serious hardship.
The President himself was in an ebullient mood last week. "That's wonderful!" he exclaimed when White House Chief of Staff James Baker phoned him at his ranch in California with news of the latest Federal Reserve cut in the discount rate. In two fund-raising speeches in Los Angeles, Reagan ran through a litany of hopeful signs about interest rates, inflation, savings and personal income that he no doubt will repeat endlessly on behalf of the candidates for whom he campaigns.
But outside the halls, crowds of protesters carried signs proclaiming that his program favored the rich.
There are indeed some indications that the economy may be breaking out of the inflation-recession cycle. But the upturn so long awaited has not yet arrived and before it can strengthen into a sustained advance, many hard decisions, especially concerning the budget, must be made. These may involve more pain, but the alternative is a return to the failed and unacceptable economic poli cies of the past.
— By George J. Church. Reported by Gisela Bolte/ Washington and Frederick Ungeheuer/New York