Word
Gems
What is a
man but the sum of his thoughts?
the
Legacy of President Ronald Reagan:
Michael Reagan on his Father
On the day he was inaugurated, my father placed
his hand on his mother's well-worn Bible and took the presidential oath of office. His
hand rested on 2 Chronicles 7:14: "If My people who are called by My name will humble
themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear
from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land."
America certainly needed healing that day. We had endured a long
national nightmare: the Iranian hostage crisis, double-digit inflation, and entrenched
pessimism. Our economy was in ruins. Our hollow military seemed no match for the Soviet
power that threatened the globe.
But the next eight years changed all that.
Ronald Reagan had long known what he intended to do in office. In 1976,
he wrote a newspaper column, "Tax Cuts and Increased Revenue," that foreshadowed
supply-side Reaganomics. He predicted that cutting tax rates would increase, not shrink
federal tax revenues. In 1981, he signed those tax cuts into law-and tax revenue rose
dramatically, from $599 billion in 1981 to $991 billion in 1989.
He predicted that Soviet communism was headed for the ash heap of
history. Liberal pundits snickered-but Ronald Reagan had the last laugh. The fall of the
Soviet Union was no accident of history, but was methodically planned and executed within
the Reagan White House.
Ronald Reagan restored America's military and respect for American
leadership around the world. He restored the American dream and defended the American
family. He brought our economy roaring back to life again. He re-ignited American
confidence and optimism.
At the end of his presidency, Dad voiced only one
regret: the deficit. As president, he couldn't cut the deficit because he lacked
the line-item veto. When he became governor of California in 1966, the state was $1
billion in debt and spending $1 million more per day than it took in. Over the next eight
years, he used the line-item veto 943 times to limit the spending of a
Democratic-controlled legislature. He not only made California solvent again, he also gave
taxpayers four tax rebates totaling $5 billion! With the line-item veto, he could have
performed the same miracles in Washington.
Although my father is the one afflicted with Alzheimer's disease, I
sometimes think the Republicans are suffering a much greater memory loss. They have
forgotten Ronald Reagan's accomplishments-and that is why we have lost so many of them.
The tax burden on American families is greater today that at any other
time in our history. This year Tax Freedom Day (the day on which our paychecks in effect
have finally covered our taxes for the year and we start keeping what we earn) fell on May
9-the latest Tax Freedom Day in history. But while the American family groans under the
tax burden, the Republican leadership announced that significant tax cuts were "off
the table" and there would be no Republican agenda before the election of 2000. And
what about the military, once restored by Reagan? The post-Cold War world is still a
dangerous place-yet Republicans have struck a budget deal with Bill Clinton that guts
defense, leaving our military forces weaker than at any time since Pearl Harbor.
It's time for conservatives to rediscover Ronald Reagan's vision of
America as a "Shining City on a Hill." It's a vision of lower taxes, stronger
families, limited government, and peace through strength. Ronald Reagan embodied all that
was best in the American character: optimism, conviction, compassion, courage, and an
unshakable faith in the power of freedom-free people, free markets, and freedom of
opportunity.
Michael Reagan, the son of Ronald Reagan and Jane
Wyman, is an author and the host of a nationally syndicated radio talk show.
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