While watching some of the events surrounding President Reagan's funeral, I reflected back on what I remember about his presidency and contrasted it to a certain other president.While watching some of the events surrounding President Reagan's funeral, I reflected back on what I remember about his presidency and contrasted it to a certain other president.
One of the bits of trivia I heard was that President Reagan respected the oval office to such a degree that he would not enter it without wearing a coat and tie. I have to contrast that with what Bill Clinton did in the oval office.
Most people except for hard core socialists credit President Reagan's tax policies for the economic boom that took place during the eighties and on into the nineties. "But wait!" the left whines. "What about the debt?" While it's true he didn't veto any of the excessive spending bills sent to him by the socialists in Congress, the tax revenue actually went up during those years as a result of the economic boom. The spending just went up at a higher rate.
"But the spending went went up because of the run-up in military spending!" the left carps. Not true. While military spending did increase, social program spending increases made up the bulk of the deficit spending.
During the sunset burial service, I watched Nancy Reagan pat the coffin and press her cheek against it. I certainly can't imagine Hillary doing the same for Bill unless she thought she could get some political mileage out of it.
I was about fourteen years old when President Reagan was shot. I remember the principal of my high school came on the intercom to make the announcement about the shooting. Several of my classmates clapped and cheered at the news. Now I don't remember being very political at that age. I certainly didn't have much of an opinion about President Reagan at that time, positive or negative, since he had only been in office for about six weeks. But I was appalled by the behavior of my classmates. How could someone cheer that an innocent man, the President at that, was gunned down in the street and verly likely could have died?
I fear that Ronald Reagan was one of the last of the Goldwater republicans. While I have a lot of respect for George W. Bush, he is certainly not a Goldwater republican that seeks to limit the size of government.