Newsgroups: alt.politics.elections
Subject: Lets not blame reagan for
Date: 12 Sep 92  16:15:00 EST

-> in our history. If we wish to blame anyone for:
-> 1-Our high debt- blame ourselves for NOT kicking the tax/spend bums
-> out of
->                the Democratic Congress The federal deficit, at the end of Carter's tenure at the White House, was $78,936,000,000 (fiscal year 1981, the last Carter Budget).  The federal deficit, for each of the Reagan years, was as follows:

         Year                Deficit (millions of dollars)
         ====                =============================
         1982                $127,940
         1983                $207,764
         1984                $185,364
         1985                $212,260
         1986                $221,140
         1987                $149,661
         1988                $155,141
         1989                $153,319

Who was responsible for these monster deficits?  The "liberal, Democratic Congress"?  Not entirely.  Don't forget the pipe-dream of a 600 fleet navy, the monster defense buildup under the Gipper, and the $600 hammers bought by the Pentagon, in addition to those '82 tax cuts for the wealthy. For these deficits, and the rampant and sometimes wasteful spending of the Reagan defense apparatus, I say, loud and clear,       >>>THANK YOU RON!<<<

-> 2-Our recession- recessions/expansions are part of the natural cycle.
-> This               one is more difficult because we all splurged in
-> the 1980s.
Yep, we all splurged in the 1980s.  Except, of course, for the government when it came to education, health care, and infrastructure. But, I think you forget a few things that have deepened this recession and have threatened the American business climate in the long run, such as deep tax cuts for the wealthy that fueled the jump in the deficit, shifting of the tax burden to the middle class, the runaway corporate debt that spurred the boom in plant closings in the late '80s, and the ever popular leveraged 
buyouts that helped give the corporations more of a debt headache and the '80s a reputation for greed.  For all this, I say, in part, Thank you, Ivan Boesky, Michael Milken, Carl Icahn, and fellow Raiders, but also a big thanks to the man who set the tempo:
        >>>THANK YOU RON!<<<

-> 3-The end of the Cold War - Thank you Ron. My son will grow up in a
-> SAFER world
Did Reagan singlehandedly win the Cold War?  I DON'T THINK SO!  The Cold War would have ended even if Dan Quayle were President.  Maybe the world is safer, but give credit where it's due: to the people who marched in the streets of Moscow, Prague, Cracow, Warsaw, and other Eastern European cities.  Give credit to some of the leaders of the opposition to Communism: Andrei Sakharov, Lech Walesa, Vaclav Havel, Alexander Dubcek, and others who suffered for their convictions.  And give credit to the man who was
 smart enough to see the writing on the wall: Mikhail S. Gorbachev.

-> 4-The advance of Democracy - Thank you Ron. Let's see.  The support, until 1986, of Ferdinand Marcos.  Support of dictatorial regimes in Guatemala and Honduras, among other "friendly dictators".  And, at home?  Opposition to renewal of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.  The presence of Ed Meese as White House counsel and, later, attorney general, a man who insisted that suspects are *automatically* guilty of crimes.  Support for the Religious Right at home.  For these demonstrations of "the advance of demo
cracy", I say, loud and clear,

          >>>THANK YOU RON!!!<<<

-> Lets not forget the expansionist Soviet Empire during the 60s and
-> 70s, or our Hostages in Iran (How many Americans are hostage now? far
-> fewer).
Let's not forget, either, selling arms to Iran, a nation, by Reagan's OWN estimation, that sponsored terrorism.  Along with, of course, the perversion of the democratic process that was perpetrated by Oliver North and company.

            >>>>THANKS AGAIN, RON!<<<

-> Sure he made mistakes - we all do. But Ronald Reagan did many
-> brilliant things for us. The list is endless.... The "endless" list applies more to the mistakes than the accomplishments.  Here you have a man who said, "Facts are stupid things."  What's more, he evidently believed what he said.  Ketchup as a vegetable, killer trees, missiles that can be recalled, the list goes on and on.  For a verbal acuity matched only by your favorite Veep and Mine, J. Danforth Quayle III, I say, one more time:
           >>>A BIG, HEARTY THANK YOU, RON!<<<

And to think we didn't even go into the Gipper's civil rights record, including supporting tax exemption for Bob Jones University, a South Carolina fundamentalist institution that practices segregation...

Pax,

<<<Tom Cavender>>>

 * Origin: Aether (1:112/2020)

Newsgroups: alt.politics.elections