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Hidden with code "Submitted as Feature"
Commentary :: Political-Economy
The Legacy of the Reagan Years Current rating: 0
08 Jun 2004
Modified: 12:37:33 PM
The Legacy of the Reagan Years reported in the media in recent days is not how many remember his administration.
 
The legacy of President Reagan's Administration is still with us today.  There are those who feel that the seeds of many of today's problems were planted during his administration.  The recent sentimental reviews of his political accomplishments have not covered the many bad policies and the illegal activity of Iran-Contra; several of members the Reagan Administration were found guilty and spent time in jail.  Below are quotes and links to information from the Reagan years many remember:
 
 
Reagan and Iraq: 
 
A picture is worth a thousand words:  http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/nsa/publications/iraqgate/igpic.html
A sample of our exports to Iraq during his administration:  http://cns.miis.edu/research/wmdme/flow/iraq/seed.htm
 

Reagan and Osama bin Laden: 
 
http://www.nyu.edu/globalbeat/syndicate/feffer022502.html
http://www.public-i.org/dtaweb/report.asp?ReportID=23&L1=10&L2=70&L3=10&L4=0&L5=0
 
Reagan and the environment: 
 
http://www.sierraclub.org/planet/199407/takings.asp
 
http://multinationalmonitor.org/hyper/issues/1994/09/mm0994_11.html
 
10 May 1980 Presidential candidate Ronald Reagan is quoted in the Chicago Tribune as saying:

"Trains are not any more energy efficient than the average automobile, with both getting about 48 passenger miles to the gallon."

10 Sep 1980 Presidential candidate Ronald Reagan is quoted in Sierra magazine as saying:

"Approximately 80% of our air pollution stems from hydrocarbons released by vegetation. So let's not go overboard in setting and enforcing tough emissions standards from man-made sources."

9 Oct 1980 Ronald Reagan is quoted in the Los Angeles Times as saying:

"Growing and decaying vegetation in this land are responsible for 93% of the oxides of nitrogen."

 
Reagan and public education:
 
http://www.issues2000.org/Celeb/Ronald_Reagan_Education.htm
 
(Remember when catsup was going to be counted as a vegetable in children's school lunches?)

 
Reagan opposed the Voting Rights Act:
 
http://www.issues2000.org/Celeb/Ronald_Reagan_Civil_Rights.htm
 
21 Sep 1983 Ronald Reagan's Secretary of the Interior, James Watt, describes his staff's racial diversity to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce:

"We have every mixture you can have. I have a black, a woman, two Jews and a cripple. And we have talent." Watt is forced to resign 18 days later over these comments. 


Reagan and the AIDS crisis:
 
http://www.issues2000.org/Celeb/Ronald_Reagan_Health_Care.htm
 
May 1987 According to his authorized biography (published in 2000), Reagan wonders aloud about the AIDS pandemic:

"Maybe the Lord brought down this plague... [because] illicit sex is against the Ten Commandments." [Dutch, p. 458]
 
Reagan and the mentally ill: 
 
http://www.sociology.org/content/vol003.004/thomas.html

 
Iran-Contra:
 
http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsPackageArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=525034§ion=news


 Reagan gives us record deficits:
 
24 Oct 1980 During a nationally-televised campaign speech, Presidential candidate Ronald Reagan declares:

"Mr. Carter is acting as if he hasn't been in charge for the past three and a half years; as if someone else was responsible for the largest deficit in American history."
(Carter's total deficit: $252 billion; Reagan's: $1.4 trillion)

 
A quote from his days as Gov. of California:
 
15 May 1969 Regarding the ongoing student protests at UC Berkeley, California governor Ronald Reagan is quoted in the San Francisco Chronicle as saying:

"If there has to be a bloodbath, then let's get it over with."

 
A favorite quotes from the campaign:
 
1979 Ronald Reagan:

"The American Petroleum Institute filed suit against the EPA [and] charged that the agency was suppressing a scientific study for fear it might be misinterpreted... The suppressed study reveals that 80 percent of air pollution comes not from chimneys and auto exhaust pipes, but from plants and trees."

 
But there was humor:
 
7 Jun 1982 President Ronald Reagan falls asleep during a meeting with Pope John Paul II.
 
6 Mar 1984 Former President Jimmy Carter observes:

"President Reagan doesn't always check the facts before he makes statements, and the press accepts this as kind of amusing."

11 Aug 1984 Not realizing that his weekly radio address is already on the air, President Ronald Reagan quips into his live microphone:

"My fellow Americans, I'm pleased to tell you today that I've signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes."

21 Mar 1986 In an interview with the New York Times, President Ronald Reagan repeats his long-debunked claim:

"In England, if a criminal carried a gun, even though he didn't use it, he was tried for first-degree murder and hung if he was found guilty."

The legacy lives on. 
 

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