[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 23 (Monday, February 6, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E276]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


               TRIBUTE TO FORMER PRESIDENT RONALD REAGAN

                                 ______


                        HON. ANDREA H. SEASTRAND

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Monday, February 6, 1995
  Mrs. SEASTRAND. Mr. Speaker, today is former President Ronald 
Reagan's 84th birthday and thus a fitting time to remember his striking 
record of accomplishment and his uniquely American life.
  Late last year, President Reagan once again tugged at the heart 
strings of our Nation by revealing he was in the early stages of 
Alzheimer's disease--an act of great courage. His intent was typically 
Reagan. It was not to gather sympathy, but to be an example and a 
beacon of hope for the millions of people who suffer from this disease.
  Today, as the Republican-controlled Congress tries to move the 
Contract With America through the House of Representatives, we are 
reminded of the first revolution--the Reagan revolution--that swept 
through Washington during the 1980's. Many of the things President 
Reagan championed throughout his Presidency have found a home and a new 
life in the Republican Contract. Welfare reform, real spending cuts, 
the balanced budget amendment, giving more flexibility to the States, 
and the line-item veto were all regular features of the Reagan program 
stifled by the Democrat Congress.
  President Reagan's list of accomplishments seems unending. On the 
economic front, Reaganomics--as it was derided by his opponents--
produced the longest peacetime economic expansion since World War II 
and blew holes right through the traditional and current Democrat 
appeals to class warfare. The Reagan tax cuts reduced the top marginal 
income tax rate from 70 percent to 28 percent and took many low-income 
people off the tax rolls altogether. The double-digit inflation and 
soaring interest rates of the Carter years crumbled to record lows. As 
Mr. Reagan himself has pointed out on many occasions, his only regret 
was an inability to get Congress to cut spending.
  In foreign policy, Mr. Reagan's steadfast commitment to peace through 
strength sent an important signal to the world that the United States 
would no longer stand back and watch an expansionist Soviet Union roll 
up more territory. From Afghanistan to Angola to Nicaragua, the Reagan 
doctrine put the United States firmly behind the freedom fighters who 
sought to throw off the oppressive Soviet yolk.
  Notwithstanding Time magazine's opinion, President Reagan was truly 
the man of the decade during the 1980's. There was no single figure 
more responsible for ending the cold war than Ronald Reagan. One 
sterling example was the 1986 Reykjavik summit. For 2 days the United 
States and the Soviets negotiated the most comprehensive arms-reduction 
treaty in history only to have Mikhail Gorbachev throw a big curve at 
the end--the United States would have to give up the strategic defense 
initiative. Ronald Reagan stood before Gorbachev and the world, held 
his ground, and said no deal. More than any single moment of his 
Presidency that was the nail right through the heart of the Soviet 
empire. As Gorbachev himself later admitted, when the Soviets realized 
that Reagan could not be bowled over, the game had changed and they did 
not have the resources to keep up.
  President Reagan's policy of peace through strength was a hands-down 
winner. It was a winner in spite of his critics. All during his 
Presidency Ronald Reagan withstood a vigorous assault from the left. 
But, through it all, he remained committed to restoring our Nation's 
defenses. There would be no further examples of American helicopters 
breaking down over foreign lands, no more fears of a hollow Army, and 
no lack of morale on the part of American serviceman. Having lived 
through four major wars in his lifetime, President Reagan was 
determined to make sure that our Armed Forces--those who would be asked 
to defend American interests at home and abroad at a moment's notice--
had the resources, the respect, and the commitment from their 
Government to do the job. As he so passionately and eloquently stated 
in perhaps his finest speech, the 40th anniversary of the allied 
invasion at Normandy: ``We will always remember. We will always be 
proud. We will always be prepared, so we may always be free.''
  Ronald Reagan was one of the finest President's in our Nation's 
distinguished history. Despite the arguments put forth by revisionist 
thinkers, President Reagan's place in history is secure. He stands next 
to the giants, Presidents like Roosevelt and Lincoln, who arrived at a 
time when the Nation desperately needed the passion and the leadership 
of a true believer. As he fights with courage, conviction, and that 
famous Reagan optimism against Alzheimer's, let us remember and pay 
tribute to a man who embodies the American Dream.


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