He was 93 years old. Rest in peace.

Sorry about that. This site has been a little whacky lately. Somebody delete this one.

America lost one of its greatest today. :(

gives a solemn salute to the greatest president of the last 55 years and one of the best of our country has ever had


mr. gorbachev tear down this wall

A sad day, indeed!

My condolences to the family, RIP Ronald Reagan, our nation lost a great person today.

RIP. :cry: :(

Secret Service agaents escort a hearse carrying the casket and body of former President Ronald Reagan as it leaves his home in the Bel Air section of Los Angeles, Saturday, June 5, 2004. Reagan died Saturday at the age of 93. (AP Photo/Kevork Djansezian)


Although this man was before my time, I hear he was a great president. One of the best in 100 years...And get this, He was a republican!!!

[b]“Honey, I forgot to duck.

Reagan RIP. On the positive side, this is probably a "good" thing. He had a bad disease and now he's at rest.

Truly a sad day in American history. We lost one of our country's greatest presidents. I may have just been born when he was elected the 2nd time, but after doing research on his life, I realized how great this man was. A great man, and a great president. R.I.P. President Reagan. You will be missed.

"There is no question that we have failed to live up to the dreams of the founding fathers many times and in many places. Sometimes we do better than others. But all in all, the one thing we must be on guard against is thinking that because of this, the system has failed. The system has not failed. Some human beings have failed the system."

- Ronald Reagan June 21, 1973

Cajunman02 Wrote:Truly a sad day in American history.  We lost one of our country's greatest presidents.

No we didn't.

For example, most of this is Reagan's legacy:

Schadenfreude Wrote:

Cajunman02 Wrote:Truly a sad day in American history.  We lost one of our country's greatest presidents.

No we didn't.

Reagan's legacy:

I beg to differ...He did not personally do that

UCBearcats1125 Wrote:

Schadenfreude Wrote:

Cajunman02 Wrote:Truly a sad day in American history.  We lost one of our country's greatest presidents.

No we didn't.

Reagan's legacy:

I beg to differ...He did not personally do that

Are you suggesting it was Saddam Hussein's fault?

Some bad, mostly good:
<a href='http://www.heritage.org/Research/Taxes/BG1414.cfm' target='_blank'>Reagan's Economic Policies Analyzed</a>


Words of Wisdom:


"Government is not the solution, it's the problem."
Inaugural address, 20 January, 1981

"Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidise it."
1986

"How do you tell a communist? Well, it's someone who reads Marx and Lenin. And how do you tell an anti-communist? It's someone who understands Marx and Lenin."
1987

"I believe that communism is another sad, bizarre chapter in human history whose last pages even now are being written."
1983.

"Honey, I forgot to duck."
To wife Nancy Reagan in the emergency room after being shot, 30 March, 1981

"If you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalisation, come here to this gate ... open this gate ... tear down this wall."
At the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, addressing a speech to Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, June 1987

"She's the best man in England."
On former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher

"I now begin the journey that will lead me into the sunset of my life. I know that for America there will always be a bright dawn ahead."
Announcing his Alzheimer's disease, 5 November, 1994

Motown Bronco Wrote:Some bad, mostly good:
<a href='http://www.heritage.org/Research/Taxes/BG1414.cfm' target='_blank'>Reagan's Economic Policies Analyzed</a>

Yeah, the Heritage Foundation.

That's mainstream.

this started off as a nice thread... its a shame its going to end up in the spin room

Schadenfreude Wrote:

Motown Bronco Wrote:Some bad, mostly good:
<a href='http://www.heritage.org/Research/Taxes/BG1414.cfm' target='_blank'>Reagan's Economic Policies Analyzed</a>

Yeah, the Heritage Foundation.

That's mainstream.

OK, I'll break down what I thought were good and bad from Reagan's policies...

The Good

Tax cuts were implemented, unemployment was lowered to 6%, sky-high interest rates were brought down, and there were more deregulation. Then there were the intangibles: Reagan was a charismatic leader and had a good speaking style that seemed to resonate confidence.

The Bad

The bad, of course, was the increase in federal spending. Although in 1988, the federal deficit was 2.6 trillion, while in 1997 it was 5.4 trillion. So, much of that "legacy" you pointed out occurred after Reagan left office. The deficit held steady in the late 1990s, prompted by good fiscal behavior by the Clinton-Gingrich gubment gridlock (another reason why I think a Kerry with a GOP Congress may not be such a bad thing).

Reagan's spending spree was almost exclusively defense spending. Not a great thing to see, but Reagan had the tough task of tiptoe-ing the line separating tough-guy bravado and weak-knee capitulation in the face of heightened Soviet rhetoric and an arms race. Reagan mixed the right amout of "to hell with the Evil Empire" talk with embracing any and all treaty meetings with Mikhail Gorbachev. Reagan approached the Soviet Union with a 'don't screw with me, but I'm willing to sit and talk' dual-edged diplomacy that both Clinton and Bush II had/have trouble adapting.

So was the national defense spending-spree worth it? Was plunking down missile silos in Western Europe (angering some populaces) the right thing to do? I don't know. Possibly. We have a large deficit with a big piece of it from the 80s, but it could've been instrumental in forcing the Soviets to sit down and conclude that discussion was the way to go.

Bush has also increased spending (although only half of that of Reagan)... but he's increased it everywhere across the board. Non-defense discretionary spending under GWB was not paralleled by Reagan. Check out the table below (I hope the Source is 'mainstream' enough).



In addition, Reagan vetoed 22 spending bills in office. Bush? None. Reagan, even in the height of the Cold War, never enacted something akin to the Patriot Act. Bush? Yes.

Despite his rhetoric, Reagan had some big government tactics and questionable foreign adventurism that I may not fully agree with. But - personal opinion of course - the good outweighed the bad.

The national debt:

When Carter left office: $930.2 billion
After eight years of Reagan*: $2.86 trillion (208 percent increase of $1.93 trillion)
After four years of Bush I*: $4,41 trillion (54 percent increase of $1.55 trillion)
After eight years of Clinton*: $5,81 trillion (31 percent increase of $1.4 trillion)
After three years of Bush II: $7.19 trillion (23.8 percent increase of $1.38 trillion)

----
* I've used as benchmarks the end of the fiscal year that began when each of these presidents were in office, on the theory that each of these guys signed those budgets into law. So $2.86 trillion was the debt on Sept. 29, 1989. Reagan was gone at that point, but it was the end of his last budget).

Thanks for the data, Schad. If we were to go one step further and look at that on a per year basis, it's amazing the increase of national debt acheived by Bush Sr. and Jr, compared to the Reagan and Clinton administrations.

I do want to point out that I misspoke in the last paragraph of my previous post...

"...(although only half of that of Reagan)..." was incorrect. Bush's expenditure % increases were much more than that of Reagan at this point in his presidency.


Browsing around the net (I'm being lazy on this Sunday), I found a nice statement from Gorbachev.

Quote:"Reagan was a statesman who, despite all disagreements that existed between our countries at the time, displayed foresight and determination to meet our proposals halfway and change our relations for the better, stop the nuclear race, start scrapping nuclear weapons, and arrange normal relations between our countries," Gorbachev said.

"I do not know how other statesmen would have acted at that moment, because the situation was too difficult. Reagan, whom many considered extremely rightist, dared to make these steps, and this is his most important deed," the former Soviet leader was quoted as saying.

Other quotes:

Quote:"Hungary and Europe do not forget Ronald Reagan's help and his support for the former communist countries,'' Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, 41, told the Associated Press on Saturday.

Quote:"He is the one who allowed the breakup of the Soviet Union. May God rest his soul,'' said Bogdan Chireac, a foreign affairs analyst for the Romanian newspaper Adevarul.

Quote:"During his administration, U.S. citizens at all levels and of all walks of life - politicians, senators, journalists, academics - systematically and repeatedly were visiting Czechoslovakia and other communist countries, meeting the dissidents and the opposition,'' former Czech dissident Jiri Dienstbier told AP.

"Their open support was very important for our safety and for our position in society,'' he said.

Quote:"Mr. Reagan, along with Pope John Paul II, was one of the architects who dismantled communism in eastern Europe and stopped the expansion of the Soviet Union,'' said Ivo Samson, an analyst with the Slovak Foreign Policy Association.

Quote:"The fact that today Bulgaria is a member of NATO could happen only after the efforts of this great American president. His name will forever remain in history,'' said Petko Bocharov, a prominent Bulgarian journalist.

Quote:"For us, Reagan was important because we knew he was really anti-communist, emotionally anti-communist,'' said Zdenek Kosina, 65, a Czech computer specialist.

"For us, he was a symbol of the United States' genuine determination to bring communism to an end.''

Laurentiu Ivan, 35, a customs officer in the Romanian capital, struggled to describe Reagan's legacy and then said: "It is due to him that we are free.''