On January 20, 1981, Ronald Reagan became the fortieth president of the United States.

Question

First Inaugural Address
by Ronald Reagan

These United States are confronted with an economic affliction of great proportions. We suffer from the longest and one of the worst sustained inflations in our national history. It distorts our economic decisions, penalizes thrift, and crushes the struggling young and the fixed-income elderly alike. It threatens to shatter the lives of millions of our people.
Idle industries have cast workers into unemployment, human misery, and personal indignity. Those who do work are denied a fair return for their labor by a tax system which penalizes successful achievement and keeps us from maintaining full productivity.
But great as our tax burden is, it has not kept pace with public spending. For decades we have piled deficit upon deficit, mortgaging our future and our children's future for the temporary convenience of the present. To continue this long trend is to guarantee tremendous social, cultural, political, and economic upheavals.
You and I, as individuals, can, by borrowing, live beyond our means, but for only a limited period of time. Why, then, should we think that collectively, as a nation, we're not bound by that same limitation? We must act today in order to preserve tomorrow. And let there be no misunderstanding: We are going to begin to act, beginning today.
The economic ills we suffer have come upon us over several decades. They will not go away in days, weeks, or months, but they will go away. They will go away because we as Americans have the capacity now, as we've had in the past, to do whatever needs to be done to preserve this last and greatest bastion of freedom.
In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem. From time to time we've been tempted to believe that society has become too complex to be managed by self-rule, that government by an elite group is superior to government for, by, and of the people. Well, if no one among us is capable of governing himself, then who among us has the capacity to govern someone else? All of us together, in and out of government, must bear the burden.

2
How does Reagan develop the idea that the United States is "confronted with an economic affliction of great proportions?"
A.
by explaining how taxes are assessed, collected, and used to run the national government
B.
by blaming the government for all of the economic problems and issues Americans face
C.
by reassuring the public that the government will be able to fix the economic issues in America
D.
by describing how taxes, borrowing, and excessive spending have created financial hardship

Answer 1

D. by describing how taxes, borrowing, and excessive spending have created financial hardship.

In his inaugural address, Reagan outlines the economic difficulties facing the nation, highlighting issues such as inflation, unemployment, and the burdensome tax system, as well as excessive public spending and deficits. He presents these factors as contributing to the overall economic affliction experienced by the United States.