Question: What did modern conservatives in the 1980s want to reduce?
Disambiguated questions and answers: question: What did modern conservatives in the 1980s want to reduce with respect to political ideology?
What did modern conservatives in the 1980s want to reduce with respect to economic policy?
What did modern conservatives in the 1980s want to reduce in government outlays?
answer: Soviet communism in Latin America, Africa and worldwide
marginal income tax rate on the wealthiest Americans
federal spending, especially in anti-poverty programs
Natural Questions answer: tax (from the Wikipedia article "Timeline of modern American conservatism")