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Ronald Reagan
By 1982, Ronald Reagan had severly overspent the United States federal budget by building and piling up nuclear weapons. While he defiantly refused to cut back on defense spending, persisting inflation and increasing unemployment became the hallmark of Reaganomics.
Video courtesy: PBS
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Video courtesy: PBS
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Jun 7, 2008 9:52 AM
Re: Ronald Reagan
The first thing you do when you buy a new house is replace the locks. You pay taxes to insure police protection, fire protection, and plans for disaster, both natural and man-made. You put burgler alarms on your doors and windows. You make sure that you and your family are safe. Then, and only then, after this "defense spending" can you begin to feel to live your life.
Remember: the best defense is a good offence.
Remember: the best defense is a good offence.
By: OregonMike
Re: Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan's "overspending" won the Cold War. The entire concept of mutually assured destruction and the rest of the foreign policy proceeding Reagan held off nuclear war but did not do anything to halt the stalemate. He knew that by forcing the Soviets to keep up with our defense spending he would bankrupt them before we would run out of money. Say what you want about Reganomics, Voodoo economics, or whatever you want to call it, the fact is that we made it out of the Reagan years and the Soviet Union did not.
By: rickhatman1984
Re: Ronald Reagan
Did Reagan know that he would bankrupt the Soviet Union with the Star Wars Project? The Soviet Union's economy would have probably failed anyway, it would have taken a bit longer but it would have happened. If Reagan spent on purpose, it was a good move. If not, he could have caused an even worse recession. Also, he sold weapons to Iran who gave them to the Contras. That has proven to be a great national security move.
By: TheNextDylan
Re: Ronald Reagan
I think that the most important item in the series of events that killed the Soviet Union, more significant than Glasnost and Perestroika, was the Chernobyl disaster.
Chernobyl was a direct result of the neglect and even incompetence of Leonid Brezhnev's government. And who can forget the Afghanistan quagmire, also a legacy of Brezhnev?
Chernobyl was a direct result of the neglect and even incompetence of Leonid Brezhnev's government. And who can forget the Afghanistan quagmire, also a legacy of Brezhnev?
By: niktemadur
Re: Ronald Reagan
Mr. Reagan was a man whom im proud to call my president. i voted twice for him, served under him, and wish to god we still had.
By: wildancrazy159
Re: Ronald Reagan
Reagan was the worst president we've ever had....um,no wait, he's a close second to the current Bush. Both are out of touch idealogues. God how I hate them both.
By: kemchan
Re: Ronald Reagan
You guys need to brush up on your history - Reagan didn't win the Cold War - the Russians lost it. It was primarily to do with the Communist ideology wearing real thin with people who could not get the most basic of necessities they were promised would be abundant. You try getting your citizenry to be behind you when almost 70% of food fails to make it to end consumers because it rots on the way. You know the Reagan-as-winner view is flawed when even staunch Republican Neo-Cons like Fukuyama revise their views on what caused the Cold War to end!
By: tycho100
Reagan's legacy.
If we're going to buy so much stuff that the Soviet Union goes bankrupt trying to keep up, could we maybe, you know, buy some stuff that we actually want?
So instead of some kind of health care, leisure time, and education race, we're left with a bifurcated society and hundreds of military bases worldwide, and tens of thousands of nuclear weapons, many of which have gone loose from their side in the chaos of the collapse. Great job, Ron. Oh, and that whole arms to Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan, and the crack cocaine to Los Angeles idea seems a little ill-conceived to me. But maybe that's just hindsight.
So instead of some kind of health care, leisure time, and education race, we're left with a bifurcated society and hundreds of military bases worldwide, and tens of thousands of nuclear weapons, many of which have gone loose from their side in the chaos of the collapse. Great job, Ron. Oh, and that whole arms to Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan, and the crack cocaine to Los Angeles idea seems a little ill-conceived to me. But maybe that's just hindsight.
By: loqi
Re: Reagan's legacy.
This comment is virtually the only one that speaks the truth to Reagan's actual "legacy."
Reagan descimated the middle class, turned the mentally handicapped and insane into street people (for the rest of us to now deal with), and was the head of an arms race that is no longer sustainable by the American economy.
Reagan didn't win the Cold War. That's corporate media propaganda that we've heard so often we simply repeat it as fact.
Instead we now *need* to be at war at all times or else our military-based economy will bring us to another Depression. And if the rest of our industrial infrastructure has been destroyed by corporate supply-side economics - as it has been - then even the military industry will leave the US just as Haliburton who has moved its operations to the Middle East.
It's not about the USA any more. It's about corporations who are multinational. They don't need us.
Thus Reagan's true legacy is to leave the US a long-term empty husk of a nation where all families require two earners yet give billions in tax dollars to oil companies but precious few to invest in our children.
Oh, but the corporations...the corporations are doing just fine.
That said, I'm only talking about the White House during the 80s - not specifically Unca Ronnie.
Nobody believes anymore that Reagan was the full-time president back then. Ol' George H. W. "not in the loop" Bush was his Dick Cheney running may aspects of the show behind the scenes while Ronnie looked good on TV.
Stuff like the CIA bringing cocaine into LA as part of Iran-contra.
And that assassination attempt on Ronnie? Bush.
John Hinckley, Jr? He's the son of one of George H.W. Bush's political and financial supporters in his 1980 presidential primary campaign against Ronald Reagan. Hinkley was an oil man who gave money to help Bush become president over Reagan. And then Hinkley's kid tried to shoot Reagan, for, um...for Jodie Foster?
Sure. Why not.
And John Hinckley Jr.'s elder brother, Scott Hinckley, and Vice President Bush's son Neil Bush were close friends during the assassination attempt.
But this is probably just all a whole big coincidence...
Reagan descimated the middle class, turned the mentally handicapped and insane into street people (for the rest of us to now deal with), and was the head of an arms race that is no longer sustainable by the American economy.
Reagan didn't win the Cold War. That's corporate media propaganda that we've heard so often we simply repeat it as fact.
Instead we now *need* to be at war at all times or else our military-based economy will bring us to another Depression. And if the rest of our industrial infrastructure has been destroyed by corporate supply-side economics - as it has been - then even the military industry will leave the US just as Haliburton who has moved its operations to the Middle East.
It's not about the USA any more. It's about corporations who are multinational. They don't need us.
Thus Reagan's true legacy is to leave the US a long-term empty husk of a nation where all families require two earners yet give billions in tax dollars to oil companies but precious few to invest in our children.
Oh, but the corporations...the corporations are doing just fine.
That said, I'm only talking about the White House during the 80s - not specifically Unca Ronnie.
Nobody believes anymore that Reagan was the full-time president back then. Ol' George H. W. "not in the loop" Bush was his Dick Cheney running may aspects of the show behind the scenes while Ronnie looked good on TV.
Stuff like the CIA bringing cocaine into LA as part of Iran-contra.
And that assassination attempt on Ronnie? Bush.
John Hinckley, Jr? He's the son of one of George H.W. Bush's political and financial supporters in his 1980 presidential primary campaign against Ronald Reagan. Hinkley was an oil man who gave money to help Bush become president over Reagan. And then Hinkley's kid tried to shoot Reagan, for, um...for Jodie Foster?
Sure. Why not.
And John Hinckley Jr.'s elder brother, Scott Hinckley, and Vice President Bush's son Neil Bush were close friends during the assassination attempt.
But this is probably just all a whole big coincidence...
By: buckinghamgreen
Re: Reagan's legacy.
I am so happy to read this comment.
Ronnie wasn't the great communicator. He was the guy who sold out everyone's right to the American dream. Unless, of course, you were a millionaire back then.
And yet every Republican and Libertarian is rushing to go name every Little League baseball field after him because he was so "great".
Blech!
Ronnie wasn't the great communicator. He was the guy who sold out everyone's right to the American dream. Unless, of course, you were a millionaire back then.
And yet every Republican and Libertarian is rushing to go name every Little League baseball field after him because he was so "great".
Blech!
By: spam_vigilante
Re: Reagan's legacy.
The great communicator. Funny how the corporate media got millions upon millions of people to believe that crap tag and adopt it as their own. There were often clips in the news of Reagan being answering impromptu reporters' questions, in a quick witted fashion, making him look real sharp, with a mind like a whip. In fact those moments were all scripted. Reagan was a b-movie actor and senator McCarthy's man inside Hollywood.
In this light then, when he supposedly told Nancy in the hospital "Honey, I forgot to duck", there's no recorded evidence of it. I don't believe for a second he said it. I'm pretty sure it was a line fed to the news media, and in a moment of deep concern, everybody took the bait.
In this light then, when he supposedly told Nancy in the hospital "Honey, I forgot to duck", there's no recorded evidence of it. I don't believe for a second he said it. I'm pretty sure it was a line fed to the news media, and in a moment of deep concern, everybody took the bait.
By: niktemadur
Re: Reagan's legacy.
He was basically a doddering old man with failing mental faculties who was trotted out in front of the cameras from time to time. He was never really in charge, he just had a decent charisma in front of the camera. He actually beleived you could launch ICBMs and then change your mind mid-flight. That seems like a pretty significant detail to have straight as Commander in Chief.
I'm sure he was a kindly old grandpa figure one-on-one, but not quite all there for most of his presidency. Kinda like G.W.Bush, except for the charisma and age part.
I'm sure he was a kindly old grandpa figure one-on-one, but not quite all there for most of his presidency. Kinda like G.W.Bush, except for the charisma and age part.
By: loqi
