Ronald Wilson Reagan Part 15

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President Ronald Reagan’s 100th birthday anniversary

Nancy Reagan pauses, then kisses her husband’s casket, just before it was taken from the Capitol Rotunda to Washington National Cathedral for a state funeral.

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President Reagan addressing the crowd during Ford Theatre’s Gala, “The Stars Salute the President,” with Nancy Reagan, Tony Bennett, Lynda Carter, Rodney Dangerfield, Luciano Pavarotti, Jack Klugman, Victoria Principal, and George Benson. 3/21/81.

In a world of political correctness and Christmas culture wars, Reagan’s national address is almost unbelievable! It is a breath of fresh Christmas air! What happened to the politicians like him who are not afraid to hold fast to the Christian faith despite what others think or say about their Christmas beliefs? (12-23-81 Christmas address by Reagan)

President Reagan posing with Kirk Douglas and his wife Anne Buydens at a private dinner at Eldorado Country Club in Rancho Mirage, California. 12/30/87.

I have a story to tell about Kirk Douglas. A good friend of mine was the pastor at a small church in Fillmore, California several years ago.  He said back in 1995 Fillmore’s Towne Theater was restored with the help of Kirk Douglas.  It is the only movie house in the town and it only has one screen. Several of my friend”s church members told him that they would notice at times that after a movie would start they would notice Kirk Douglas sneaking in about 5 minutes after the movie would start.

I  really got a lot out the article “The Real Reagan Economic Record: Responsible and Successful Fiscal Policy” by Peter Sperry. In the next few days I will be sharing portions of this article.

The Real Reagan Economic Record: Responsible and Successful Fiscal Policy

Published on March 1, 2001 by Peter Sperry

HOW DID REAGAN’S POLICIES AFFECT ECONOMIC GROWTH?

Despite the steep recession in 1982–brought on by tight money policies that were instituted to squeeze out the historic inflation level of the late 1970s–by 1983, the Reagan policies of reducing taxes, spending, regulation, and inflation were in place. The result was unprecedented economic growth:

  • This economic boom lasted 92 months without a recession, from November 1982 to July 1990, the longest period of sustained growth during peacetime and the second-longest period of sustained growth in U.S. history. The growth in the economy lasted more than twice as long as the average period of expansions since World War II.10
  • The American economy grew by about one-third in real inflation-adjusted terms. This was the equivalent of adding the entire economy of East and West Germany or two-thirds of Japan’s economy to the U.S. economy.11
  • From 1950 to 1973, real economic growth in the U.S. economy averaged 3.6 percent per year. From 1973 to 1982, it averaged only 1.6 percent. The Reagan economic boom restored the more usual growth rate as the economy averaged 3.5 percent in real growth from the beginning of 1983 to the end of 1990.12

HOW DID REAGAN’S POLICIES AFFECT THE FEDERAL TAX BURDEN?

Perhaps the greatest myth concerning the 1980s is that Ronald Reagan slashed taxes so dramatically for the rich that they no longer have paid their fair share. The flaw in this myth is that it mixes tax rateswith taxes actually paid and ignores the real trend of taxation:

  • In 1991, after the Reagan rate cuts were well in place, the top 1 percent of taxpayers in income paid 25 percent of all income taxes; the top 5 percent paid 43 percent; and the bottom 50 percent paid only 5 percent.13 To suggest that this distribution is unfair because it is too easy on upper-income groups is nothing less than absurd.
  • The proportion of total income taxes paid by the top 1 percent rose sharply under President Reagan, from 18 percent in 1981 to 28 percent in 1988.14
  • Average effective income tax rates were cut even more for lower-income groups than for higher-income groups. While the average effective tax rate for the top 1 percent fell by 30 percent between 1980 and 1992, and by 35 percent for the top 20 percent of income earners, it fell by 44 percent for the second-highest quintile, 46 percent for the middle quintile, 64 percent for the second-lowest quintile, and 263 percent for the bottom quintile.15
  • These reductions for the lowest-income groups were so large because President Reagan doubled the personal exemption, increased the standard deduction, and tripled the earned income tax credit (EITC), which provides net cash for single-parent families with children at the lowest income levels. These changes eliminated income tax liability altogether for over 4 million lower-income families.16

Critics often add in the Social Security payroll tax and argue that the total federal tax burden shifted more to lower-income groups and away from upper-income groups; but President Reagan’s changes were in the income tax, not in the Social Security payroll tax. The payroll tax was imposed by proponents of big government over the past 50 years, and it is they, not Ronald Reagan, who should be held accountable for its distributional effects.

Nevertheless, even if one counts the Social Security payroll tax, the share of total federal taxes increased between 1980 and 1989 for the following groups:

  • For the top 1 percent of taxpayers, from 12.9 percent in 1980 to 15.4 percent in 1989;
  • For the top 5 percent of taxpayers, from 27.3 percent in 1980 to 30.4 percent in 1989; and
  • For the top 20 percent of taxpayers, from 56.1 percent in 1980 to 58.6 percent in 1989.

On the other hand, the share of total federal taxes, if one includes the Social Security payroll tax, declined for four groups:

  • For the second-highest 20 percent of taxpayers, from 22.2 percent in 1980 to 20.8 percent in 1989;
  • For the middle 20 percent of taxpayers, from 13.2 percent in 1980 to 12.5 percent in 1989;
  • For the second-lowest 20 percent of taxpayers, from 6.9 percent in 1980 to 6.4 percent in 1989; and
  • For the lowest 20 percent of taxpayers, from 1.6 percent in 1980 to 1.5 percent in 1989.17

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Nancy Reagan with Prince Charles before a private dinner for the Prince of Wales at the White House. 5/2/81.

  • ________________________________________________________
  1. (Little known facts about our presidents) An anarchist and lawyer named Charles Guiteau shot James Garfield in the back with a five-barrel, .44-caliber pistol called a British Bulldog in 1881. He said he chose the gun because it would look good on a display in a museum someday. No one currently knows where the gun is.b
  2. The first attempt to assassinate a president was on Andrew Jackson by Richard Lawrence, a house painter. Both of his guns misfired, however—an event that statisticians say could occur only once in 125,000 times. Andrew Jackson then chased Lawrence with his walking stick.j
  3. James Garfield didn’t die from the gunshot wounds from his assassin’s gun; he died of blood poisoning after doctors and experts (including Alexander Graham Bell) tried to remove the bullet from his back with their dirty fingers and instruments, causing him to linger in pain for 80 days before dying. His assassin, Charles Guiteau, later claimed that he didn’t kill the president, the doctors had.i
February 2, 2011 – 9:25 pm Categories: Ronald Reagan | Post a comment

Will Senator Pryor be re-elected or not? Part 2

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CBS — October 19, 2010 —

New York Times’ Jeff Zeleny talks to Jan Crawford about the state of Democrats in the South… Are they a dying species?

In the article “Southern Democrat much closer to extinction after GOP wave,” (Washington Times, Nov 4, 2010), Ben Evans notes:

After this week’s elections, the Democratic Party barely holds a presence in the region outside of majority-black urban areas such as Atlanta and Memphis. The carnage for the party was particularly brutal in the Deep South, where just one white Democrat survived across Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina…

“Right now in most of Dixie it is culturally unacceptable to be a Democrat. It’s a damn shame, but that’s the way it is,” said Dave “Mudcat” Saunders, a campaign strategist for conservative Democrats such as Jim Webb of Virginia, one of the few remaining Southern Democratic senators.

The losses were particularly disappointing for the party after the baby steps it made in the South in 2006 and 2008, when it picked up a host of Republican-leaning House districts and won Senate seats in North Carolina and Virginia. Many thought the party had learned its lessons and had begun to reverse recent history by nominating conservative candidates who hit the right notes on divisive social issues such as abortion and smaller government.

None of it mattered Tuesday.

Democrats didn’t just see most of their recent gains obliterated, they lost at least 19 Southern House members and a senator, Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas. Even some of the most conservative Democrats such as four-term Rep. Jim Marshall of Georgia and 10-term Rep. Gene Taylor of Mississippi couldn’t withstand the wave. It also snared such veterans as John M. Spratt Jr. of South Carolina, the 14-term chairman of the House Budget Committee, and 14-term Rep. Rick Boucher of Virginia…

Most of the losing Democrats this year were moderates representing Republican-leaning districts. And the challenges could get even tougher for Southern Democrats as legislatures begin redrawing congressional districts from the 2010 census.

Mark Pryor said on Arkansas Week in Review which was broadcast on AETN on Dec 24th, “We owe the American people good government and to try and be productive. I think one reason why you saw the elections turn out the way they turned this November was because I think people all across America feel like the folks inside the beltway are  not listening. I try to listen and to be home as much as I possibly can.”

Senator Pryor claims to be listening to the people back home. Evidently the reason most of these Democrats in the south are losing is very simple. They do not represent the conservative values of the people in the south. Is Senator Pryor listening to the people of Arkansas who have voted against every Democrat in 2010 that wished to represent them in Washington. Did the people of Arkansas want Obamacare? The verdict is clear from the results in 2010 that they did not. Take a look at my earlier post where I show he ignored what the people thought and voted with his liberal northern senator friends.

President Obama and the Democrats have not given up on the South. They have in fact announced that the 2012 Democratic National Convention will be in Charlotte, NC. They probably have about the same chance as carrying the South as Pryor has to staying in office in 2014.

February 2, 2011 – 8:36 pm Categories: Uncategorized | Post a comment

Ronald Wilson Reagan Part 14

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President Reagan and Nancy Reagan talking with Bob Hope during the State Dinner for Prime Minister Thatcher at the White House. 2/26/81.

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I really did have a fondness in my heart for these old school Hollywood actors of long ago. I still tape the Bob Hope Road movies and watch them from time to time.

In 1977, two huge events made national news at the now titled “Danny Thomas Memphis Classic.” First, President Gerald Ford made a hole-in-one during Wednesday’s Celebrity Pro-Am. That event is now referred to as the “Shot Heard ‘Round the World.” Two days later, Al Geiberger shocked the golf world with his record low round of 59 on Friday of the tournament. The 13-under-par round still stands as a PGA TOUR record. (Chip Beck and David Duval have since tied the mark.)

I had the chance to hear the roar that came from the crowd that day that President Ford hit the hole in one (on hole #5 at Colonial Country Club in Cordova, TN). Just a few holes later I saw Danny Thomas walking around saying with slurred speech, :”This is the ball, this is the ball” while he held up a golf ball. I thought he was going to fall on me as he passed by.

Then just two days later I saw the last 5 holes of Al Geiberger’s 59. He was walking around with this silly grin on his face because almost every putt was going in.

What a great group of performers that our country was blessed with. That is why I am including so many pictures on my posts. Enjoy them. (The one on the bottom of the post is one of my favorites.)

I really got a lot out the article “The Real Reagan Economic Record: Responsible and Successful Fiscal Policy” by Peter Sperry. In the next few days I will be sharing portions of this article.

The Real Reagan Economic Record: Responsible and Successful Fiscal Policy

Published on March 1, 2001 by Peter Sperry

HOW DID THE REAGAN TAX CUTS AFFECT THE U.S. TREASURY?

Many critics of reducing taxes claim that the Reagan tax cuts drained the U.S. Treasury. The reality is that federal revenues increased significantly between 1980 and 1990:

  • Total federal revenues doubled from just over $517 billion in 1980 to more than $1 trillion in 1990. In constant inflation-adjusted dollars, this was a 28 percent increase in revenue.3
  • As a percentage of the gross domestic product (GDP), federal revenues declined only slightly from 18.9 percent in 1980 to 18 percent in 1990.4
  • Revenues from individual income taxes climbed from just over $244 billion in 1980 to nearly $467 billion in 1990.5 In inflation-adjusted dollars, this amounts to a 25 percent increase.

HOW DID REAGAN’S POLICIES AFFECT FEDERAL SPENDING?

Although critics continue to focus on President Reagan’s budget “cuts,” federal spending rose significantly during the 1980s:

  • Federal spending more than doubled, growing from almost $591 billion in 1980 to $1.25 trillion in 1990. In constant inflation-adjusted dollars, this was an increase of 35.8 percent.6
  • As a percentage of GDP, federal expenditures grew slightly from 21.6 percent in 1980 to 21.8 percent in 1990.7
  • Contrary to popular myth, while inflation-adjusted defense spending increased by 50 percent between 1980 and 1989, it was curtailed when the Cold War ended and fell by 15 percent between 1989 and 1993. However, means-tested entitlements, which do not include Social Security or Medicare, rose by over 102 percent between 1980 and 1993, and they have continued climbing ever since.8
  • Total spending on all national security programs never equaled domestic spending, even when Social Security, Medicare, and net interest are excluded from domestic totals. In addition, national security spending fell during the Administration of the senior President Bush, while domestic spending increased in both mandatory and discretionary accounts.9
  • 1981 Frank Sinatra’s song for Reagan.

President Ronald Reagan’s 100th birthday anniversary

Former first lady Nancy Reagan watches the casket bearing former president Ronald Reagan be placed on a caisson on Constitution Avenue near the White House. The funeral procession led to the Capitol where he would lie in state. Reagan died June 5, 2004, at the age of 93 after a decade-long battle with Alzheimer’s disease.
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President Reagan greeting Walter Cronkite for an interview in the Diplomatic Reception room. 3/3/81.
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President Reagan and Nancy Reagan attending “All Star Tribute to Dutch Reagan” at NBC Studios(from left to right sitting) Colleen Reagan, Neil Reagan, Maureen Reagan, President, Nancy Reagan, Dennis Revell. (From left to right standing) Emmanuel Lewis, Charlton Heston, Ben Vereen, Monty Hall, Frank Sinatra, Burt Reynolds, Dean Martin, Eydie Gorme, Vin Scully, Steve Lawrence, last 2 unidentified. Burbank, California 12/1/85.
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Little known facts about our presidents:
  1. Thomas Jefferson had a family of plants named after him, Jeffersonia diphylla, which is also known as twin root or rheumatism root.k
  2. Thomas Jefferson wrote “The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth,” which was discovered after his death by his daughter. It argues that Jesus Christ was a great thinker, but that he was devoid of other worldly qualities that made him the center of Christianity.k
  3. James Madison (1751-1836) was the shortest president of the United States, standing at only 5’4”. He never weighed more than 100 pounds.j
  4. George Washington made the shortest inauguration speech on record—133 words and less than two minutes long.b
    5. William Henry Harrison
    William Harrison served the shortest term of any president
  5. William Henry Harrison (1773-1841) holds the record for the longest inauguration speech in history at 8,578 words long and one hour and 40 minutes. Unfortunately, he gave the speech during bad weather and a month later, he was dead from pneumonia, making his the shortest presidency on record.j
February 2, 2011 – 2:43 pm Categories: Ronald Reagan | Post a comment

Ronald Wilson Reagan Part 13

https://i0.wp.com/www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/photographs/large/C508-22A.jpgPresident Reagan and Nancy Reagan greeting Billy Graham at the National Prayer Breakfast held at the Washington Hilton Hotel. 2/5/81.

Recently on my series on Ronald Reagan (part 10), a gentleman by the name of Elwood who a regular on the Ark Times Blog site, rightly noted, “Ray-gun created the highest unemployment rate we have yet experienced since Hoover did the honors in the 1930s.”

I responded to him:

Elwood, you were right about Reagan having the largest unemployment figure since the depression.

You have just inspired me to start a series that shows how cutting the top marginal rate on the federal income tax usually results in an expanded economy and lower unemployment. That is exactly what happened during the Reagan years. Reagan’s unemployment figure in 1982 of 9.7% is the largest since the depression (23.6% in 1932). I respect you for your accuracy and research. However, Reagan’s tax cuts changed all that.

Arthur Laffer has noted, “Prior to the tax cut, the economy was choking on high inflation, high Interest rates, and high unemployment. All three of these economic bellwethers dropped sharply after the tax cuts. The unemployment rate, which peaked at 9.7 percent in 1982, began a steady decline, reaching 7.0 percent by 1986 and 5.3 percent when Reagan left office in January 1989.”

Elwood, I follow you on the Arkansas Times Blog. Thank you for taking time to put a comment in here. I really do appreciate it.

I think that I will take a look at Reagan’s policies (mainly tax policies) in the next few weeks. However, I will also include lots of pictures of President Reagan with other famous people, but most enjoyable may be the little known presidential facts I will include about our past presidents. Some of these facts come from Dr. Paul F. Boller, Jr. and his book  Presidential Diversion: Presidents at Play from George Washington to George W. Bush. Dr. Boller has corresponded with me several times, and our mutual friend, the late Dr. John George, co-authored with Dr. Boller They Never Said It: A Book of Fake Quotes, Misquotes, and Misleading Attributions.

I really got a lot out the article “The Real Reagan Economic Record: Responsible and Successful Fiscal Policy” by Peter Sperry. In the next few days I will be sharing portions of this article.

The Real Reagan Economic Record: Responsible and Successful Fiscal Policy

Published on March 1, 2001 by Peter SperryBACKGROUNDER #1414

by Daniel J. Mitchell, Ph.D.

After President George W. Bush sent Congress an outline of his tax reform plan on February 8, some critics immediately began to attack it as a return to what they portray as the fiscally irresponsible policies of the Reagan Administration. According to these commentators, Congress should scale back–if not outright reject–President Bush’s tax reform proposals because they are based on a period when the wealthy received excessive tax cuts and revenue was wasted on defense even though most Americans struggled in poverty. This is a revisionist view of recent history that ignores reality and denies the fact that President Reagan’s sound policies and determination deserve much of the credit for the current economic picture. Congress should embrace President Bush’s tax reform plan as a responsible return to the most successful economic policy of the 20th century.

President Ronald Reagan’s record includes sweeping economic reforms and deep across-the-board tax cuts, market deregulation, and sound monetary policies to contain inflation. His policies resulted in the largest peacetime economic boom in American history and nearly 35 million more jobs. As the Joint Economic Committee reported in April 2000:2

In 1981, newly elected President Ronald Reagan re-focused fiscal policy on the long run. He proposed, and Congress passed, sharp cuts in marginal tax rates. The cuts increased incentives to work and stimulated growth. These were fund-a-mental policy changes that provided the foundation for the Great Expansion that began in December 1982.

Even with the growing surplus, however, a small but vocal faction in Congress opposes any policies that would allow taxpayers to keep more of their own money through real tax cuts and that generally would shift power from the government to the people. This attempt to rewrite history should not be surprising. Proponents of additional government spending try to make the Reagan boom appear to be a bust because they fear that Reagan’s success will help President Bush build popular support for lower taxes, further deregulation, and reduced government spending. But their rhetoric is easily countered by the evidence.

History confirms the soundness of the Reagan, and now Bush, approach to economic policy. Under President Reagan, federal revenues increased even with tax cuts, federal spending did not decrease, the country experienced the longest period of sustained growth during peacetime in its history, and the rich paid more taxes proportionately than they had before the tax cuts were implemented.

Great skit on tonight show on Ronald Reagan by Johnny Carson.

President Ronald Reagan’s 100th birthday anniversary

First lady Nancy Reagan watches as President Reagan is sworn in during his second inauguration in the Rotunda beneath the Capitol dome in Washington. Reagan, forced indoors by a record inaugural freeze, re-enacted his oath-taking.
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President Reagan cutting in on Nancy Reagan and Frank Sinatra dancing at the President’s birthday party in the East Room. 2/6/81.
Little known presidential facts:
  1. George Washington, James Monroe, Andrew Jackson, James Polk, James Buchanan, Andrew Johnson, James Garfield, William McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt, William Taft, Warren Harding, Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Lyndon Johnson, and Gerald Ford were all Masons, many symbols of which are found on American currency.i
  2. The body of John Scott Harrison, father of President of Benjamin Harrison, was stolen by grave robbers and sold to Ohio Medical College in Cincinnati for use as a training cadaver. The body was eventually recovered and reburied.k
  3. Gerald Rudolph Ford’s (1913-2006) name before he was adopted was Leslie Lynch King Jr.g
  4. The youngest president was Teddy Roosevelt who became president at age 42 when McKinley (1843-1901) was assassinated. JFK was the youngest president elected at the age of 43.j
  5. As a young man, Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822-1893) fought lyssophobia, or the fear of going insane.k
  6. Three presidents died on July 4th: Thomas Jefferson (1826), John Adams (1826), and James Monroe (1831). Calvin Coolidge is the only president to have been born on the Fourth (1872).h
  7. George Herbert Walker Bush is the only President with four names.k
  8. James Garfield could write Latin with one hand and Greek with the other hand simultaneously.i
February 2, 2011 – 1:26 pm Categories: Ronald Reagan | Post a comment

Ronald Wilson Reagan Part 12

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President Reagan, Gerald Ford, and Bob Hope  10/17/81.
You got to check this clip out below of Ronald Reagan and Bob Hope. I will never forget getting to see Bob Hope’s performance in person at Cook Convention Center in 1982. He was originally scheduled to appear at Mud Island but it got rained out. My grandfather, Everette Hatcher Sr. (1903-1988) and I had a great time and we were sitting on about the 5 th row.
Today I wanted to take a look at this excellent article below by William A. Niskanen and Stephen Moore. It takes a look at the across the board tax cuts that he put in during the early 1980’s and how they energized our economy.

Supply-Side Tax Cuts and the Truth about the Reagan Economic Record

by William A. Niskanen and Stephen Moore

Bob Dole’s proposal for a 15 percent income tax cut has reignited the long-standing debate about the economic impact of Reaganomics in the 1980s. This study assesses the Reagan supply-side policies by comparing the nation’s economic performance in the Reagan years (1981-89) with its performance in the immediately preceding Ford-Carter years (1974-81) and in the Bush-Clinton years that followed (1989-95).

On 8 of the 10 key economic variables examined, the American economy performed better during the Reagan years than during the pre- and post-Reagan years.

  • Real economic growth averaged 3.2 percent during the Reagan years versus 2.8 percent during the Ford-Carter years and 2.1 percent during the Bush-Clinton years.
  • Real median family income grew by $4,000 during the Reagan period after experiencing no growth in the pre-Reagan years; it experienced a loss of almost $1,500 in the post-Reagan years.
  • Interest rates, inflation, and unemployment fell faster under Reagan than they did immediately before or after his presidency.
  • The only economic variable that was worse in the Reagan period than in both the pre- and post-Reagan years was the savings rate, which fell rapidly in the 1980s. The productivity rate was higher in the pre-Reagan years but much lower in the post-Reagan years.

William A. Niskanen is chairman and Stephen Moore is director of fiscal policy studies at the Cato Institute.

More by William A. Niskanen

This study also exposes 12 fables of Reaganomics, such as that the rich got richer and the poor got poorer, the Reagan tax cuts caused the deficit to explode, and Bill Clinton’s economic record has been better than Reagan’s

Reagan at Bob Hope’s 80th birthday.

Caroline Kennedy, daughter of the late President John F. Kennedy, sits alongside President Reagan and first lady Nancy Reagan during a fundraising event for the John F. Kennedy Memorial Library at Sen. Edward Kennedy's home in McLean, Va.

President Ronald Reagan’s 100th birthday anniversary

Caroline Kennedy, daughter of the late President John F. Kennedy, sits alongside President Reagan and first lady Nancy Reagan during a fundraising event for the John F. Kennedy Memorial Library at Sen. Edward Kennedy’s home in McLean, Va.
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President Reagan talking with Audrey Hepburn and Robert Wolders at a private dinner for the Prince of Wales at the White House. 5/2/81 .
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Little known facts about our presidents
  1. Herbert Clark Hoover (1874-1964) gave his White House servants strict orders to hide from him whenever he passed by. Those who failed to do so were at risk of being fired.g
  2. Lyndon Baines Johnson “LBJ”(1908-1973) affectionately called the many women he slept with his “harem.” He even had a buzzer system installed that rang inside the Oval Office so that Secret Service could warn him when his wife was coming.c
  3. James Buchanan is the only bachelor president. He was virtually inseparable from William R. King (1786-1853), a senator from Alabama, earning the pair the nickname “Miss Nancy and Aunt Fancy” and “Mr. Buchanan and his wife.”c
February 2, 2011 – 11:29 am Categories: Ronald Reagan | Post a comment

Ronald Wilson Reagan Part 11 (Cold War won by Reagan)

President Ronald Reagan’s 100th birthday anniversary

In his earliest movies, many of his roles emphasized Reagan’s physical prowess. This is a publicity photo of Ronald Reagan from Warner Brothers/First National Studios.
A :30 commercial for the Ronald Reagan Centennial Celebration.
I remember walking in Austria in 1981 with an elderly man who did not know English but when I told him I was from the USA, he responded, “Jimmy Carter is no good, but Reagan is strong and will stand up to Russia.” He did not say those words in English but another student that was with me was able to interpret at least those words.
Also on the same trip, I got to visit 4  Communist countries and while in Hungry, I heard one of the saddest stories I had ever heard. Our tour guide (who knew 6 languages) spoke to a gentleman who met all of us. This poor man said (in German) that he was married in 1944 to a lady from Hungary who wanted to live by her relatives. He left his homeland of Austria and moved to Hungary. He said that he regretted moving to what would later become a communist country. His relatives in Austria had done really well but he was stuck in a communist country that basically caused everyone to live in poverty.
One of the most treasured items on my office bookshelf is a dedication on a thin pamphlet, published in the Soviet Union in 1990, by one of the top authors of glasnost, political philosopher Igor Klyamkin. I became friends with him in the late 1980s. The dedication reads, in Russian, “To Leon Aron, who understands Ronald Reagan‘s role in our revolution.”

What did Igor mean?

As the Soviet regime was disintegrating, Reagan was the most popular foreign leader in the U.S.S.R., followed by British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Partly, of course, this was a tribute to Reagan’s uncanny sense ofrealpolitik: He gave Moscow a cold shoulder when the Soviet regime was at its reactionary worst (post-Afghanistan, 1981-85) and his Strategic Defensive Initiative, derisively described as “Star Wars” by Reagan’s detractors, was a direct challenge to a Soviet leadership that knew it could not technologically match it. SDI undoubtedly contributed to the “new political thinking” in Soviet foreign policy. Yet, Reagan sensed also thatMikhail Gorbachev was a genuine reformer and that a fundamental difference in the regime was underway. Reagan responded by traveling to the Soviet Union in May 1988.

But there was more to it. Far more. Like all great modern revolutions, the Russian revolution from 1987-91 was first and foremost a moral revolution, concerned with human dignity and liberty as its central component. Its mantra was tak dal’she zhit’ nel’zya. “That’s it. We cannot live like this any longer.” This was repeated by theperestroika trio of Gorbachev, Eduard Shevardnadze and Alexander Yakovlev, as well as leading glasnostauthors and millions of rank-and-file men and women. At its essence, this was about the rejection of the moral core of the “old regime” — and Reagan had a magnificent, unerring moral instinct. His clarity of vision and his rhetoric exposed the moral disfigurement of Soviet totalitarianism. This was a charge for which the regime had no answer.

We know of the whispered admiration within the Soviet Union for Reagan’s “empire of evil” speech to the British Parliament in 1983. The dissident and “refusenik” Anatoly Shcharansky, who at the time was imprisoned in the gulag, recalled in his memoirs how the news was spread by Morse code knocks on the walls.

Similarly, Reagan’s famous declaration at the Berlin Wall’s Brandenburg Gate — “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” — was a moral statement because it exposed the key sin of the Soviet regime that no amount of tanks could camouflage: the indignity of holding entire peoples in a cage.

Like all truly great political leaders, at critical moments Ronald Reagan was guided by and openly articulated a profoundly moral judgment of right and wrong, good and evil, liberty and slavery that resonated with tens of millions people in America and abroad. More than anything else, I think, it was this judgment that defined Reagan’s “role” in Russia’s latest revolution of which Igor wrote — and made it so effective.

Leon Aron is resident scholar and director of Russian studies at the American Enterprise Institute. His new book about ideas and ideals that inspired and shaped the 1987-1991 Russian revolution will be published in the fall.

Ronald Reagan tells Soviet jokes told by Soviets themselves.


President Ronald Reagan’s 100th birthday anniversary

His role as halfback George Gipp in the movie Knute Rockne, All American gave Reagan a movie nickname that would last a lifetime.
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Little known facts about our presidents:

John Fitzgerald Kennedy’s (1917-1963) famous inaugural line “Ask not what you your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country” echoes similar directives made by many others, including Cicero, Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. and President Warren G. Harding, who told the 1916 Republican convention: “We must have a citizenship less concerned about what the government can do for it, and more anxious about what it can do for the nation.”k

  1. Martin Van Buren was the first to be a United States citizen. All previous presidents were born British subjects.g
  2. Six presidents were named James: Madison, Monroe, Polk, Buchanan, Garfield, and Carter.k
February 2, 2011 – 7:28 am Categories: Ronald Reagan | Post a comment

Will Senator Pryor be re-elected or not? Part 1

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Roland Martin appears on Rick’s List with Rick Sanchez and the Best Political Team on television (Candy Crowley, John King, Jeffery Toobin, Ed Rollins, Gloria Borger and Victoria Toensing) to discuss day two of the Elena Kagan Supreme Court confirmation hearings. During the analysis, Senator Graham and Elena Kagan had an interesting exchange over the confirmation hearings of former nominee Miguel Estrada.

Max Brantley on the Arkansas Times Blog (Feb 1, 2011) rightly noted:

An Obama White House official has described as a “cold war” the situation in the Senate, where the judicial confirmation process seems to have been slowed down to an unprecedented degree by Republican opposition. No doubt. But it’s worth noting that Arkansas has two vacancies on the federal bench for which the president has yet to make a nomination.

Where did this “cold war” start? I contend that it started back during the Bush years when Mark Pryor and his Democratic buddies were holding up judges like Miguel Estrada for no good reason.

Paul Greenberg in the editorial “Dept. of Hypocrisy: Mark Pryor’s Selective Outrage,”  (May 3, 2010) pointed out that Pryor was angry that Republicans were holding up the  President’s picks for the federal bench. ”There’s just no place for this in the Senate,” he huffs. “There’s no place just to play partisan political games with these judicial appointments.” Greenberg went on to show how hypocritical this was of Pryor.

I wish the Republicans would not play politics like this and I do not condone it at all. However, to call Pryor and Lincoln hypocrites concerning the Miguel Estrada matter is correct too. Both Pryor and Lincoln claimed that Estrada would not answer questions they needed answered, but in March of 2003 all 100 senators were sent a letter from the Bush White House inviting any senator who had doubts about Estrada’s views to send him written questions.

“He would answer the questions forthrightly, appropriately, and in a manner consistent with the traditional practice and obligations of judicial nominees, as he has before,” wrote White House counsel Alberto Gonzales. Did the White House receive any responses from Pryor and Lincoln? The answer is no.
Later both Lincoln and Pryor released statements saying that Estrada had not been willing to answer their questions. In fact, Pryor said, “I am deeply disturbed with the number of unanswered questions that remain about Mr. Miguel Estrada and am troubled by his unwillingness to answer questions posed to him.”

I agree that partisan politics should end, but I also must point out that both Lincoln and Pryor are being hypocritical.  Working with liberals like New York’s Chuck Schumer does not bode well for Pryor’s re-election.

February 2, 2011 – 6:46 am Categories: Uncategorized | Post a comment

Ronald Wilson Reagan Part 10 (John McCain on Reagan)

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President Reagan, center, and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., left, meet with members of Congress at the White House on Jan. 26, 1988.

HALT:HaltingArkansasLiberalswithTruth.com

Heroes like John McCain made it possible for us to win the cold war. Reagan gives one of his finest speeches concerning the cold war in 1964.

I remember watching the news every night in the late 1960’s about the Vietnam war and praying for the safety of my uncle who was deployed. Reagan had some strong feelings about fighting communism and he eventually was able to a have a big part in bringing down communism in Russia and the eastern block. Now we have a world that only has 5 communist countries left. Much better than the world that Reagan came to know in 1981 when he took office.

When I was a prisoner of war, the Vietnamese went to great lengths to restrict the news from home to the statements and activities of prominent opponents to the war. They wanted us to believe that America had forgotten us. They never mentioned Ronald Reagan to us, or played his speeches over the camp loudspeakers. No matter. We knew about him. New additions to our ranks told us how the governor and Mrs. Reagan were committed to our liberation and our cause.

When we came home, we were eager to meet the Reagans to thank them for their concern. But more than gratitude drew us to them. We were drawn to them because they were among the few prominent Americans who did not subscribe to the then-fashionable notion that America had entered her inevitable decline.

We came home to a country that had lost a war and the best sense of itself; a country beset by social and economic problems. Assassinations, riots, scandals, contempt for political, religious and educational institutions gave the appearance that we had become a dysfunctional society. Patriotism was sneered at, the military scorned. And the world anticipated the collapse of our global influence. The great, robust, confident Republic that had given its name to the last century seemed exhausted.

Ronald Reagan believed differently. He possessed an unshakable faith in America’s greatness, past and future, that proved more durable than the prevailing political sentiments of the time. And his confidence was a tonic to men who had come home eager to put the war behind us and for the country to do likewise.

Our country has a long and honorable history. A lost war or any other calamity should not destroy our confidence or weaken our purpose. We were a good country before Vietnam, and we are a good country after Vietnam. In all of history, you cannot find a better one. Of that, Ronald Reagan was supremely confident, and he became president to prove it.

His was a faith that shouted at tyrants to “tear down this wall.” Such faith, such patriotism requires a great deal of love to profess. And I will always revere him for it.

When walls were all I had for a world, I learned about a man whose love of freedom gave me hope in a desolate place. His faith honored us, as it honored all Americans, as it honored all freedom-loving people. Let us honor his memory by holding his faith as our own, and let us, too, tear down walls to freedom. That is what Americans do when they believe in themselves.

Sen. John McCain of Arizona was the 2008 Republican presidential nominee.

President Ronald Reagan’s 100th birthday anniversary

Ronald Reagan in Law and Order.
Facts about presidents
 

  1. “Teddy Bears” were so named when Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt (1858-1919) refused to shoot a small bear cub one day. The incident was reported in the news, which inspired a toy manufacture to come out with the cute stuffed animals.a
  2. George Washington never lived in the White House. The capital was actually located in Philadelphia and other cities when Washington was president. He is also the only president who didn’t represent a political party.b
February 1, 2011 – 11:15 pm Categories: Ronald Reagan | Comments (3)

Ronald Wilson Reagan Part 9 (Sarah Palin on Reagan)

President Ronald Reagan’s 100th birthday anniversary

Ronald Reagan and Diana Lynn in Bedtime for Bonzo
A portion of Sarah Palin’s remarks at an RNC Rally, October 23, 2010. Palin talks about Reagan legacy.
I had the privilege of coming of age during the era of Ronald Reagan. I like to think of him as America’s lifeguard. As a teenager, Ronald Reagan saved 77 lives as a lifeguard on the Rock River, which ran through his hometown of Dixon, Ill. The day he was inaugurated in 1981, a local radio announcer famously declared, “The Rock River flows for you tonight, Mr. President.”

The image of the lifeguard seems to represent what Reagan was to America and to the freedom-loving people of the world. He lifted our country up at a time when we were in the depths of economic, cultural and spiritual malaise. We were told that we must accept that the era of American greatness was over; but with his optimism and common sense, President Reagan held up a mirror to the American soul to remind us of our exceptionalism.

Reagan showed us that despite a deep recession, there could still be morning in America. He could speak to the economic troubles facing ordinary Americans because he understood what it was like to live through a Great Depression where families scraped to get by. And yet, he saw us recover from our Great Depression, and under his leadership we experienced the greatest peacetime economic boom in our history. He could speak to our fears that our years as a superpower were over, because he understood what it was like to see America at war and really fear that we might lose. And yet, he saw us win two world wars, and under his leadership we won the Cold War without firing a single shot. Reagan’s belief in American greatness was rooted in historic fact, not blind optimism. He was a sunny optimist because he knew that our best days are yet to come.

Today, when we hear the worry in the voices of Americans wondering where the jobs will be for our children and grandchildren and wondering if the world will be safe and prosperous in the years to come, we should remember Reagan’s faith in our inherent heroism and greatness. When we see people around the globe looking to the White House for leadership, we should remember Reagan’s steel spine. He understood America’s purpose in this world and what we need to do to secure liberty. As Margaret Thatcher said of him, “He sought to mend America’s wounded spirit, to restore the strength of the free world, and to free the slaves of communism.” He sought those things and he succeeded.

This year, as we celebrate the centennial of Reagan’s birth, let’s remember the lifeguard from the Rock River who rescued us with his optimism and common sense. We need more lifeguards like him.

Sarah Palin was the governor of Alaska and the Republican vice presidential nominee in 2008.

84 presidential elections ad for Ronald Reagan campaign.

President Ronald Reagan’s 100th birthday anniversary

Ann Sheridan and Ronald Reagan in a scene from the 1941 movie Kings Row.

  • The only president to be unanimously elected was George Washington (1732-1799). He also refused to accept his presidential salary, which was $25,000 a year.b
  • Grover Cleveland was the only president in history to hold the job of a hangman. He was once the sheriff of Erie County, New York, and twice had to spring the trap at a hanging.k
  • The “S” in Harry S Truman doesn’t stand for anything; therefore, there is no period after his middle initial.j

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    February 1, 2011 – 3:20 pm Categories: Ronald Reagan | Post a comment

    Ronald Wilson Reagan Part 8 (Edwin Meese on Reagan)

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    President Reagan and Vice President Bush pose in the Oval Office with the administration’s Cabinet in February 1981. Pictured from left, front row: Alexander Haig, Reagan, Bush, Caspar Weinberger. Back row, from left: Raymond Donovan, Donald Regan, Terrel Bell, David Stockman, Andrew Lewis, Samuel Pierce Jr., William French Smith, James Watt, Jeane Kirkpatrick, counselor Edwin Meese, James Edwards, Malcolm Baldrige, William Brock, Richard Schweiker, John Block and William Casey.

    My pastor in the 1970’s and early 80’s was  Adrian Rogers of Bellevue Baptist Church and he had a personal friendship that developed with Ed Meese.  Evidently that came from Rogers’ visits to the White House to meet with President Reagan.
    An interview with Ed Meese at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation on April 22, 2009.
    For over 30 years, it was my privilege to serve under Ronald Reagan: as legal affairs secretary and chief of staff when he was governor of California; as counselor to the president and attorney general; as a founding trustee of the Reagan Presidential Library; and as co-chairman of the Board of Governors of the Reagan Ranch project. He was my leader, my mentor and my friend. And he provided remarkable leadership to the nation.

    When Ronald Reagan became president in January 1981, our nation faced unprecedented challenges. We were in the midst of the worst economic crisis since theGreat Depression, marked by high unemployment, soaring inflation, enormous interest rates and a serious energy shortage. Our defense capability had deteriorated, and we were in a highly vulnerable position as the Soviet Unionexpanded its aggression worldwide. Many pundits proclaimed that our best days were behind us, that capitalism had peaked, and socialism was the wave of the future.

    In eight years, Reagan provided the leadership that culminated in a remarkable record of accomplishment. He initiated a series of policies that led to the longest period of peacetime economic growth in our history. He rebuilt our national defense capability, assured the success of the all-volunteer force, and provided the finest military forces our country had ever seen. At the same time, he restored our position of world leadership and initiated a crusade for freedom that offered hope to captive nations and oppressed peoples. Finally, by personal demeanor and encouraging communication, he revived the spirit of the American people.

    Reagan was a man of contrasting attributes. He was self confident without being arrogant. He portrayed a genuine humility without timidity or weakness. He used his quick wit and legendary sense of humor to illustrate a point, to diffuse tension, to counter an opponent, or often, merely to entertain. Friends and strangers alike treasured the opportunity to be with him, hear his views or listen to his well-told stories.

    Much of his strength as a leader came from his vision. He understood the principles of America’s founding, our history and the basic philosophy of liberty, limited government and free enterprise. These values became the basis for dealing with such problems as economic recovery, welfare reform, tax policy and the energy shortage.

    His vision also led to long-range innovations. Perhaps the most important was his concept of a Strategic Defense Initiative, including a missile defense that would protect nations from nuclear attack, rather than merely retaliating after such an attack had occurred.

    As with any period, Ronald Reagan’s two terms included disappointments, mistakes within his administration and the inability to achieve all that he wished to accomplish. However, most historians rate his two terms as a remarkable period of success and hold him up as the example against which subsequent presidents are measured. He stands today as one of the greatest presidents in U.S. history.

    Edwin Meese III is the Ronald Reagan Distinguished Fellow in Public Policy and Chairman of the Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at The Heritage Foundation.

    Ronald Reagan on the issue of age.


    President Ronald Reagan’s 100th birthday anniversary

     

    Ronald Reagan and Jane Wyman appear together in a scene from the 1940 Warner Brothers film 

  • The “S” in Harry S Truman doesn’t stand for anything; therefore, there is no period after his middle initial.j
  • Lincoln Logs are named after Abraham Lincoln and the log cabin where he was born. John Lloyd Wright, son of famous architect Francis Lloyd Wright, invented them.k
  • Thomas Jefferson and John Adams once traveled to Stratford-upon-Avon to visit Shakespeare’s birthplace. While there, they took a knife to one of Shakespeare’s chairs so they could take home some wood chips as souvenirs.i
  • James Madison and Thomas Jefferson were once arrested together for taking a carriage ride in the countryside of Vermont on a Sunday, which violated the laws of that state.i
  • Andrew Johnson is the only tailor ever to be president. As president, he would typically stop by a tailor shop to say hello. He would wear

    • February 1, 2011 – 12:37 pm Categories: Adrian Rogers, Ronald Reagan | Post a comment