1980: Ford beats Carter in ‘76...

[Kingpoleon]

Ford passes a tax cut of 5% on the bottom four brackets, raises the salary of all military by 20%, and increases the welfare spending by 15.5%. This agreement with the Democrats allows the economy to quickly recover, with unemployment hitting 4% in 1978. Ford receives a 54-seat majority in the Senate, as well as 181 seats in the House. Once unemployment hits 3.5% in 1979, he cuts the welfare increase and raises the top four brackets rates by 6% and the bottom four by 3%, creating a near-balanced budget. A sales tax of 16.5% is passed, 59-39 in the Senate and 220-211 in the House, allowing the budget to be fully balanced. With Ford also pledging a 40% increase in NASA spending, another moon landing takes place in August of 1980.

291: Senator Mark Hatfield/Attorney General Edward Brooke - 48.0%
247: Senator Howell Heflin/Fmr. Governor Reubin Askew - 43.6%
Shirley Chisholm/La Donna Harris - 6.1%
Others - 2.3%

[Kingpoleon]

Ford passes a tax cut of 5% on the bottom four brackets, raises the salary of all military by 20%, and increases the welfare spending by 15.5%. This agreement with the Democrats allows the economy to quickly recover, with unemployment hitting 4% in 1978. Ford receives a 54-seat majority in the Senate, as well as 181 seats in the House. Once unemployment hits 3.5% in 1979, he cuts the welfare increase and raises the top four brackets rates by 6% and the bottom four by 3%, creating a near-balanced budget. A sales tax of 16.5% is passed, 59-39 in the Senate and 220-211 in the House, allowing the budget to be fully balanced. With Ford also pledging a 40% increase in NASA spending, another moon landing takes place in August of 1980.

291: Senator Mark Hatfield/Attorney General Edward Brooke - 48.0%
247: Senator Howell Heflin/Fmr. Governor Reubin Askew - 43.6%
Shirley Chisholm/La Donna Harris - 6.1%
Others - 2.3%

Afterwards, either Hatfield is assassinated and Brooke looses handily to Askew or Nunn, or Hatfield feels forced to step down when Defense Secretary Barry Goldwater, Attorney General Norma Paulus, Chief of Staff William Buckley, and Treasury Secretary Roy Goodman informed him that they intended to resign if the party can’t be brought together.