What was Ronald Reagan's economic plan in the 1980s with regards to taxes and military spending? What was Ronald Reagan's economic plan in the 1980s with regards to taxes and military spending? Ronald Reagan devoted his economic plan to balancing the budget by decreasing taxes and military spending. Ronald Reagan focused on increasing taxes in order to increase military spending during the Cold War. Ronald Reagan implemented trickle down economics to decrease taxes while increasing military spending. Ronald Reagan's policy favored cutting military spending to provide tax breaks to the middle class