[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 24 (Tuesday, February 7, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H1348-H1357]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       A TRIBUTE TO RONALD REAGAN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 4, 1995, the gentleman from New York, [Mr. Solomon] is 
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
  Mr. SOLOMON. Mr. Speaker, I take this special order tonight to pay 
tribute to a great American, the greatest American that I have ever 
known, and that is President Ronald Reagan. As you know, I had intended 
to hold this event last night as a birthday present for the former 
President, but the House was occupied on an even better birthday 
present, passage of the line item veto. And what better birthday 
present 
 [[Page H1349]] could be offered to the President and to Mrs. Reagan 
than to complete the unfinished business of the Reagan revolution?
  I know I speak for every Member of this House, Mr. Speaker, and 
virtually all Americans in offering President Reagan and his beloved 
First Lady, Nancy, our prayers and our very best wishes on this very 
wonderful occasion.
  Mr. Speaker, what do you get for the man who has everything, so that 
saying goes? Well, Mr. Speaker, as we observe President Reagan's 
birthday, a better question is how do we appropriately honor a man who 
has done so much for us, for our country and for the cause of freedom 
around the world? Our tribute this evening should extend beyond the 
President's accomplishments in office, although they are numerous, too 
numerous to mention here tonight.
  Let us examine Ronald Reagan's record with the benefit of historical 
reflections. The story has been told that during his darkest hours, 
President Nixon was reassured by those around him that history would 
treat him well. Ever sharp and skeptical, President Nixon shot back, 
``That depends on who is writing the history.'' In the case of Ronald 
Reagan, Mr. Speaker, most of those writing the history of his 
Presidency have done everything in their power to turn light into 
darkness, achievement into failure and hope into despair.
  Those of us who stood shoulder to shoulder with Ronald Reagan from 
the very beginning are here today on the occasion of his 84th birthday 
to say that we are not going to let them get away with it anymore.
  Ronald Reagan's views now occupy the center, the main street, of 
American politics. Look at some recent House votes, the balanced budget 
amendment passed this House by 300 to 132; unfunded mandates reform to 
implement the new federalism Ronald Reagan espoused passed this House 
by a vote of 360 to 74, and the line item veto just the other day, 294 
yeses to only 134 noes. All of these measures passed with substantial 
Democratic support from the other side of the aisle as well, good 
conservative Democrats voting for the Ronald Reagan programs that we 
were unable to deliver a number of years ago.
  And, yes, Mr. Speaker, throughout the proceedings of the 104th 
Congress and, indeed, through the election of 1996, coming up, a 
history debate has been resolved in favor of the ideals articulated by 
President Reagan and his remarkable vision.
  Over the last 15 years, President Reagan's goals were subject to the 
most robust scrutiny that our system of democracy has to offer. During 
the 1994 election, some liberal Democrats even campaigned against the 
Contract With America on the basis that the contract was a continuation 
of what, of the Reagan legacy. Can you imagine?
  Well, Mr. Speaker, the actions of this Congress are evidence that 
President Reagan's legacy has not
 just endured that test of scrutiny and criticism but that it 
flourishes today to the benefit of all Americans.

  It is useful to look back, however, in order to more fully savor and 
appreciate President Reagan's vision. American morale in the 1970's, 
think back, could not have been lower. President Jimmy Carter declared 
us in a state of malaise. Ronald Reagan's Presidency was what turned 
things around. Ronald Reagan's economic policies triggered the largest 
and longest peacetime extension of our economy in the history of the 
this Nation.
  Nineteen million new jobs were created. Incomes grew at all levels 
and new industries and technologies flourished and exports exploded. 
Why? Because President Reagan, he cut taxes, he slowed the growth of 
domestic spending and regulation, and he restored faith in what he 
liked to call the magic of the marketplace.
  That magic then caught on all around the globe. Remember, my 
colleagues, the world in 1980 was a very different place than it is 
today. The Soviet Union was continuing a massive arms buildup, 
bolstering the formidable number of missiles already pointed at the 
West, and at cities right here in the United States of America. Soviet 
troops were marching literally through Afghanistan. Do you remember 
that? Eastern Europe suffered under the boot of totalitarian regimes, 
and the Berlin Wall scarred the face of Europe.
  The United States military was described back in those days as a 
hollow force, and our citizens were held hostage by thugs in a place 
called Iran. Do you remember that?
  Our world today contains pockets of instability, but the simple fact 
is that democratic tide that has swept this globe in the last 5 years 
is a direct result of Ronald Reagan's Presidency. The man and his 
policies were essential to freedom's march across this globe. It was 
Ronald Reagan who faced down the nuclear freezeniks in this Congress 
and in Western Europe by deploying the Pershing II in West Germany.
  Eventually this deployment and a policy called Peace Through 
Strength, Mr. Speaker, that you and I helped to formulate, forced the 
Soviets to the bargaining table. The result in 1987 was the IMF Treaty, 
the first agreement to eliminate an entire class of weapons. Ronald 
Reagan turned out to be right on that issue.
  It was Ronald Reagan who armed freedom fighters in Afghanistan and in 
Nicaragua, allowing those nations to determine the course of their own 
destiny. Ronald Reagan was right.
  It was Ronald Reagan who said this country had a moral obligation to 
defend its citizens from nuclear attack, and that we had to strive for 
something better than that and the same policy of mutually assured 
destruction with weapons aimed at every city in America. He said we 
must work for the day when nuclear missiles were no longer pointed at 
American cities.
  But the experts laughed, and they ridiculed. ``This is nothing more 
than a naive daydream of a silly old man.'' Do you remember reading 
those headlines by the liberal press in this country? But you know 
what, again, Ronald Reagan was right. President Reagan pointed out from 
the start that the Soviet system was morally and financially bankrupt. 
Such a system, he argued, could not bear the cost of occupying Eastern 
Europe.
  What was the ultimate result of Ronald Reagan's Peace Through 
Strength policies? Well, as Ronald Reagan used to say, the Soviet Union 
collapsed and captured nations all around this world were freed from 
the atheistic tyranny of the tentacles of communism.
  Once again, Ronald Reagan was right.
  It was Ronald Reagan who stood under the shadow of the Berlin Wall, 
which you all remember, and said, ``Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this 
wall.'' I will never forget his saying that. The experts laughed again, 
and decried his plea as a public relations stunt. Do you remember that? 
But Ronald Reagan was right again as he always was. Ronald Reagan 
encouraged us to maintain a strong defense in case the United States 
was forced to defend its interests in any remote corner of the globe, 
and after all, that is the reason this Republic of States was formed, 
to provide for a common defense, to protect America's interests around 
the world.
  Given this, should anyone really be surprised that our Armed Forces 
performed so well during the Persian Gulf war? President Bush and 
General Schwartzkopf were able to lead our troops magnificently and to 
bring them home with astonishingly low casualties. Do you remember 
that? Once again, Ronald Reagan was right. Those of us who served in 
the House at the time and fought President Reagan's fights right here 
on this floor were so proud to do so.
  I was honored that President Reagan signed my legislation to create 
the Department of Veterans Affairs so that we could guarantee that, 
with an all-volunteer military, it would work.
                              {time}  2030

  As a member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. I was so, so 
proud to carry his water for a foreign policy respected around the 
world by friends and foe alike, and it was a privilege to join these 
battles, looking back at the enormous good that came of those policies. 
But, Mr. Speaker, more than any specific policy, we must salute Ronald 
Reagan's ability to bring out the best in us as a nation. He consoled 
us on the evening of the Challenger disaster. Do you remember that? It 
was a sad day in our history.
  And on the 40th anniversary of the D-Day landing, Mr. Speaker, 
President Reagan painted a vivid picture of the 
 [[Page H1350]] scene on that day and genuinely proposed that we, we 
dedicate ourselves to the cause for which those soldiers gave a last 
full measure of devotion.
  He never offended us with staged prayers or phony flag placements. 
His words and his gestures were all genuine, and, as proud as we should 
be of his many accomplishments, Mr. Speaker, it is a sad commentary 
that it took over 5 years longer, over 5 years longer, to tear down the 
wall of resistance to the line-item veto and the balanced budget 
amendment. It took 5 years longer than it did to tear down the Berlin 
Wall and the Iron Curtain.
  Ronald Reagan inspired a generation of young people to ignore the 
cynical bombardment of the media and hold dear the American heritage: 
``hopeful, big-hearted, idealistic, daring, decent and fair,'' as he 
described it during his second inaugural address.
  Mr. Speaker, last night 1,000 supporters turned out for a birthday 
party, including the former British Prime Minister Maggie Thatcher, 
that I attended along with many of you to pay tribute to this great 
President, Ronald Reagan. We were so fortunate to have him as our 
President during that period of time in the history of our country, and 
at this time I would yield to a Democrat, one of the finest Members of 
this House, the gentleman from California [Mr. Condit]. He is an 
outstanding Member.
  Mr. CONDIT. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from New York [Mr. 
Solomon] for yielding to me.
  Mr. Speaker, whether you are liberal or conservative, Democratic or 
Republican, from California or elsewhere in the country--you always 
knew where Ronald Reagan stood on any important issue.
  One of his greatest achievements was restoring to our people a sense 
of the greatness of America.
  He was honest, he was forthright, he did not quibble and he was bold. 
I have always been convinced our hostages were freed from Iran as 
Reagan took the oath of office because the President had described in 
great detail his contempt for the Ayatollah's regime. The Government of 
Iran knew, when Reagan described them as Barbarians, our new President 
would act if the hostages were not freed. They came home within hours 
of his oath of office.
  Reagan never suffered from a lack of ``the vision thing.'' In large 
measure, the end of the cold war is the result of his steadfastness and 
courage in difficult times. In a statement in 1976 on nuclear war, he 
articulated his goal for all of us: ``Those . . . a hundred years from 
now will know whether those missiles were fired. They will know whether 
we met our challenge. Whether they have the freedoms that we have known 
up until now will depend on what we do here.'' And, 100 years from now, 
the answer will be that we met those challenges and Ronald Reagan led 
us to that victory.
  Those of us in California perhaps know Reagan better than most other 
Americans. We embraced him in a special way. We got to vote for or 
against the former President on nine separate occasions. In California, 
a State known for its diverse communities, its fickle political 
loyalties, and its great passion over various ideological issues, 
Reagan was elected overwhelmingly, every one of those nine times.
  Mr. Speaker, I say to the gentleman from New York, Mr. Solomon, I'm 
delighted that you allowed me to stand here with you today to pay 
tribute to, salute and pay tribute to, a great citizen of the Golden 
State of California and a great American, Ronald Reagan.
  Mr. SOLOMON. Mr. Speaker, I certainly want to thank the gentleman 
from California [Mr. Condit], and he is a Member of the other political 
party. I used to belong to that political party many years ago myself, 
and I remember when, about the same time that Ronald Reagan saw the 
light, so did I, but I just want to thank the gentleman for his 
comments because certainly no President deserves more bipartisan 
remembrance and support than Ronald Reagan. I can just stand here all 
night and think of all the times that he has inspired me, but I can 
recall one time:
  As a matter of fact, I was over in Korea, and we had been over trying 
to arrange in Vietnam to bring home the remains of fallen soldiers, and 
we were socked in by bad weather. We could not get back, and it was for 
the State of the Union Message, and that was the night that Ronald 
Reagan picked up this heavy budget that was about so thick, and he 
brought it up, and he dropped it like that on the table, and his finger 
got caught underneath it, and he actually cracked the bone in his 
finger.
  But he was talking about the Federal Government and how it has grown 
into such huge bureaucratic proportions, and Ronald Reagan never really 
had the opportunity to make the corrections because he never really had 
a Congress that would back him up. In 1981 and 1982, Mr. Speaker, he 
accomplished more in the first 2 of his 8 years than in all the other 
time, and unfortunately, because we did what we are going to do this 
year, we made the cuts in the spending in this Congress that really 
need to be made to bring us back to fiscal sanity around here.
  We made those cuts, and unfortunately a lot of us got beat, and a lot 
of good Democrats as well, those conservative Democrats that sit in 
that corner right on that side of the aisle, and a lot of Republicans, 
and consequently Ronald Reagan in the next 6 years, was dealing from a 
point of compromise where he never could really finish the Reagan 
revolution, and I am going to be speaking about that as I close out my 
remarks in a few minutes, but right now I would like to yield to one of 
the outstanding Members of this body. He is from Miami, FL. He is now a 
member of the Committee on Rules with me, and we are so proud to have 
him there because he is my kind of a guy.
  He is like Ronald Reagan. He is a fighter, and he is a man of vision, 
and I yield to the gentleman from Miami, FL [Mr. Diaz-Balart].
  Mr. DIAZ-BALART. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman and say, 
as chairman of the Rules Committee, you were instrumental and really 
decisive in the fact that passage of the line-item veto was 
accomplished on President Reagan's birthday, and I think that that was 
so appropriate because, as you have mentioned, he fought so long for 
passage of that, that weapon in the arsenal that will be needed to 
balance the Federal budget, and what an appropriate birthday present it 
was for President Reagan.
  Mr. Speaker, at each moment in the history of the United States, when 
the Nation has been in danger, great leaders have risen to guide the 
Nation to safety.

                              {time}  2040

  I think, as Chairman Solomon pointed out so wisely, it is appropriate 
and really necessary to think back upon the condition of the Nation and 
the world at the time that Ronald Reagan became President, at the time 
that he was elected to the Presidency in 1980.
  I think it is important to think back a minute to that moment. The 
Soviets, as Chairman Solomon has mentioned, felt so emboldened, felt so 
unthreatened and so unchecked, that for the first time in history, even 
after so many instances and examples of aggression that they had 
committed, for the first time in history they rolled their own tanks 
directly into a nation not even in the Warsaw Pact, a nation that was 
not even a slave nation, a satellite nation of the Soviet Union, into 
Afghanistan. They just directly rolled their tanks in there and 
surrounded, as you will recall, the Presidential palace, and they 
blasted away, killed the President and first family there in 
Afghanistan, and they just felt that they were completely unchecked.
  That is along with the capture of our Embassy in Iran by those thugs, 
as you so well mentioned, I think
that illustrates where we were at that point, the lack of respect with 
which the United States was held in the world, and internally what was 
reflected, creating that lack of respect, the era of malaise, as 
  Chairman Solomon pointed out.We saw in that era also how, for 
example, just a few years before the Soviets felt so unchecked that 
they moved into Africa through the Cuban Castro surrogates, in 
violation of an agreement after so many years of struggle, for example, 
in Angola, between the--against the colonial forces, the three 
different groups there had an arrangement. Yet the communist group, the 
MPLA, felt so unchecked, unthreatened, that they broke the 
arrangement and called in the Soviets and Cubans, and they were taking 
over Angola.
  [[Page H1351]] Of course, we saw what happened in Ethiopia, Somalia, 
and you mentioned El Salvador and Nicaragua.
  In fact, I recall, at the time that President Reagan took office, an 
analysis about El Salvador that pointed out the collapse of El Salvador 
was imminent. There was nothing we could do. And in Nicaragua, of 
course, the communists had already taken over. In Grenada, here in the 
Caribbean as well, the communists had taken over. And then Ronald 
Reagan became President. And he called the Soviet Union what it was.
  I remember like you described him, Mr. Chairman, the experts, when 
they laughed at President Reagan for calling the Soviet Union what it 
was, the evil empire.
  Now, if you ask the people of Russia or the other captive nations at 
that time whether the Soviet Union was the evil empire, they certainly 
knew the answer. But a lot of the so-called experts laughed at 
President Reagan when he called the Soviet Union what it was. And he 
worked in such a close alliance with that other figure, as we were 
speaking before at the beginning of this special order, the other 
instrumental figure in world history in this century, Pope John Paul 
II. And he worked in close concert, in such a close relationship with 
the Pope. And I remember reading a report after the Reagan Presidency 
about how he put the intelligence community and every instrument of 
American power that he could at the service of the Pope. And he said:

       You listen to the Pope, because the Pope knows what is 
     going on in Eastern Europe and he knows how to deal with 
     those Communists. Listen to him.

  That relationship between Ronald Reagan and John Paul II was a 
decisive relationship in the history of the world, and we saw what 
happened. And he announced the strategic defense initiative. And the 
experts laughed at him again and said that is not possible. And we know 
now, just a few years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, that it 
was the Strategic Defense Initiative, along with the rest of the Reagan 
policies that directly led to the explosion that occurred, the collapse 
of the evil empire.
  And he liberated Grenada. I was not in Congress, but I know, Mr. 
Chairman, that you were, as was the Speaker and others, and how you had 
to put up, and I see Congressman Hunter here as well that was in 
Congress at that time, and how you had to put up defending at that time 
the liberation of Grenada that the President had accomplished, had 
carried out, against such ruthless attacks, ruthless attacks, from 
Members in this body as well as in the media who did not want to 
recognize the truth and the fact that Ronald Reagan was right, as 
Chairman Solomon stated so eloquently this evening.
  And he armed El Salvador, and he saved El Salvador; and he armed the 
Afghanistan people, and he saved Afghanistan, and he armed the Africans 
fighting against the Communists, and he saved them as well; and he 
armed the Nicaraguans against all the pressures, and forced even the 
Communists in Nicaragua to have elections there, the last thing that 
they would have ever wanted to do. A great man had risen to lead the 
greatest Nation on earth to safety, and to save the world. And the rest 
is history now.
  The year that Ronald Reagan left the Presidency, the Berlin Wall 
collapsed. And then the Soviet empire itself, the evil empire itself 
came tumbling down.
  Now, some will say that it was among the greatest miracles of all 
time, and it certainly was. Of course, the hand of providence was 
involved. But it would not have happened without the direct 
participation and the leadership of Ronald Reagan.
  Chairman Solomon and Mr. Speaker, he inspired me. President Reagan 
inspired me to become a Member of our party, as he inspired millions of 
Americans throughout our country in so many important ways. And I thank 
him from the bottom of my heart for all that he did for the United 
States of America, and for freedom and for our posterity. Thank you so 
much, Chairman Solomon.
  Mr. SOLOMON. Congressman Diaz-Balart, I just want to tell you those 
eloquent words mean so much to me, because I know you spoke them from 
your heart.
  You know, you mentioned Pope John Paul. There is another part of that 
triangle, and her name was Maggie Thatcher. Between the Pope and Maggie 
Thatcher and Ronald Reagan, they, more than any three people in this 
world, are the very reason that democracy is breaking out all over the 
world instead of the opposite, communism breaking out all over the 
world.
  It was the peace through strength movement that you spoke of that was 
supported by our free market economy, by this democracy that works, as 
opposed to a communist government. And because the Soviet Union could 
not keep pace with us, that is what bankrupted them. That is what 
brought them to their knees, and that is why democracy is breaking out 
all over this world.
  Let me recognize another part of the country, the State of Georgia, 
and an outstanding sophomore Member of this body, Jack Kingston.
  Mr. KINGSTON. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I certainly appreciate being 
part of this great special order on a great American, and have enjoyed 
listening
  to you and Mr. Diaz-Balart and Duncan Hunter.My wife and I actually 
met through College Republicans. We were so enthusiastic in 1979 with 
the Reagan campaign, when he won, and Libby would say to me on many 
occasions, ``Don't you just love this President? He's the first one in 
our life we can be absolutely enthusiastically thrilled over,'' and so 
forth, and she would go on and on and on about Ronald Reagan.
  I finally said, ``Libby, I think you love Ronald Reagan more than you 
love me.'' And she said, ``Yes, but I love you more than I love George 
Bush.'' So she put it in perspective for me.
  But as you have pointed out, it is absolutely true that Ronald Reagan 
defeated the Soviet Union without firing a shot. And I think today that 
the freedom that we have and the democracy that they are getting is 
simply because of that war. It was the coldest of wars, and yet it was 
so important. And as people look back and criticize the military 
buildup during that period of time, that maybe they would prefer to 
have a deficit than they would to have the deaths of young Americans 
that would have happened had we continued on the road that we were on.
  As you have pointed out, he did the same all over South America and 
all over the world, and restored America to being a true world leader. 
I have heard the saying many, many times that there shouldn't be a 
policeman of the world, but if there is one, let it be America. And 
that is what Ronald Reagan did. It was always peace through strength.
  In addition to that, there is so much domestically. Creating 18 
million jobs, the largest peacetime prosperity in the history of this 
Nation. Bringing down interest rates. Interest rates in the late 
seventies were 20 percent. When Libby and I went to buy our first house 
in 1979, the interest rates were 16 percent.

                              {time}  2050

  How many young couples can get on their feet with paying 16 percent 
interest? It is very difficult to do. Inflation, 12 percent when he 
took office. And he brought it down to the extent that now it is hardly 
even a campaign discussion.
  The Iranian hostage situation, remember now depressing that got to 
Americans and how we were told, well, we just cannot go in there and 
play cowboy anymore. Ronald Reagan did not have to. All he had do was 
put on his uniform and then the Ayatollah got the message.
  The great thing about Ronald Reagan, I would say, beyond those 
accomplishments was that intangible American spirit that we have within 
all of us that he reached in our heart of hearts and made us pull out. 
The other night at this alumni dinner, there were so many people there 
from all over the country who had returned to Washington to celebrate 
Reagan's 84th birthday. There were many, many people there from all 
over the country. One man who was not there is a constituent of mine, 
Joe Tribble who was a Reagan appointee in the Department of Energy.
  But like Joe Tribble, the people who were there the other night were 
there not because they served in the Reagan administration. That was a 
job and it 
 [[Page H1352]] was good times. It is because they were part of 
something they believed in. And they were all there to say, here was a 
guy who was a clear-cut thinker, a great American.
  If you look at the PATCO situation, there would be so many Presidents 
who would waffle on the air traffic controller strike. So many 
Presidents and politicians in general who would say, I am not sure, 
maybe they should have a right. Reagan said, they took an oath of 
office that they would not strike. They struck. They are fired. It was 
clear cut. You might not have always agreed with Ronald Reagan, but he 
told you how he thought. He told you what he was going to do. And he 
did it. And that was a strength that made him such a great American 
leader and world leader, because at the time we had forgotten those 
sort of things.
  I had the great opportunity to meet him one time, Libby and I. I was 
not serving in Congress with some of you guys, but Libby and I had an 
opportunity to meet him in Savannah, GA, and had a chance to talk to 
him, one on one.
  What struck both of us is that he was a very sincere and very gentle 
and very graceful man. He would be the kind of guy you would describe 
as the last one to leave the foxhole, but the first one to open the 
door for a lady or senior citizen. Absolutely had the touch.
  You will remember the debate with Jimmy Carter, the famous ``there 
you go again,'' just the graceful way of saying, you know, we have had 
it, we have heard it.
  In 1984, I was going door to door, running for the Georgia 
Legislature. And I represented a very solid middle-class district and 
still have the honor of representing most of those people in my 
congressional or the congressional district that I represent. And I 
would go to the door and people would say, are you Republican or 
Democrat? And I would say, I am Republican. And they would say, I am 
going to vote for you because I have had enough. And I was the first 
Republican elected to the Georgia General Assembly from the 125th House 
seat, but I can say clearly, it was because of Ronald Reagan.
  Fortunately, I had the picture that Libby and I had with Ronald 
Reagan, and we put it in a big ad in the paper that said, ``Reagan-
Kingston, let's face it, we need conservatives on all levels of 
government.''
  A good friend of mine who was working for my opponent at the time 
told me, he said that ad sealed our fate. We knew that if you kept 
running a picture of you and Ronald Reagan in there, even though you 
were running for the State legislature, that would do us in.
  So I would say, I will yield the floor because I know that the 
gentleman from California [Mr. Hunter] wants to say a word or two. But 
just a great American, somebody that you are happy to be on the ballot 
with and happy to say, that is my President.
  Mr. SOLOMON. The gentleman from Georgia [Mr. Kingston] is just such a 
great addition to this body, ever since he got here. We just appreciate 
those words on behalf of Ronald Reagan.
  Let me say that the next speaker, the gentleman from California [Mr. 
Hunter] never is a man of one or two words.
  He is a man of many words. All of what he says always makes sense. He 
is one of the most valuable Members of this body. He has served on the 
Committee on Armed Services since he arrived here. And when I was on 
the Foreign Affairs Committee, we were pretty good tandem in carrying 
the water for Ronald Reagan.
  Mr. Speaker, I am proud to yield to the gentleman from California 
[Mr. Hunter].
  Mr. HUNTER. I thank the gentleman from New York [Mr. Solomon] for 
yielding.
  I have to say that you were my leader in the Reagan revolution on the 
House floor and did a wonderful job. The gentleman from Georgia, who 
has mentioned all the great accomplishments of Ronald Reagan, he 
himself standing here obviously is part of that Reagan record of 
accomplishment, because it was the great conservative message that he 
exuded that helped to bring the gentleman from Georgia [Mr. Kingston] 
to this place and myself.
  Mr. KINGSTON. I know my time is up, but the thing that Ronald Reagan 
did, as much as anything, was let you believe in the American dream 
again. And one of my dreams, my mother was a Republican Party leader 
for many years, when I was a small boy, one of my dreams was to be a 
Member of Congress. And I think Ronald Reagan assured me that the 
American dream was alive and well. And so you are correct on a very 
personal level.
  Mr. HUNTER. I thank the gentleman. I know we may be out of time 
shortly. I just would advise my friends, I am going to take an hour and 
we can continue for a few minutes, if my friends have some other things 
to say.
  But you mentioned about the freeing of the world, a great part of the 
world under Ronald Reagan. The interesting thing is even though his 
adversaries classified him as a friend of the rich and the Republican 
fat cats and all of those derogatory things that they said, he really 
was a man of the people and not just a man of the average people in 
America, the middle class in America, but around the world.
  Because of his policies of peace through strength and pushing the 
Russian bear back and refusing to allow our allies to be intimidated by 
the Soviet Union and finally breaking down the Soviet Union, he created 
a situation in which literally millions of families around the world no 
longer had to sit huddled at their dinner table waiting for that knock 
on the door from a representative of their police state involving 
themselves in that family's affairs, taking off members of that family 
to the gulags, to the jails, to the prisons, because of their beliefs, 
because of their religious beliefs, their desire for freedom or their 
desire simply not to be ruled by a particular
  dictatorship or proletarian state.So Ronald Reagan freed literally 
tens of millions, hundreds of millions of people around this world who 
had very little relationship to the United States.
  And he did that, I might say, by rebuilding America's defense budget.
  I think it is appropriate that on his birthday, we reflect on the 
great things that he did in rebuilding national defense from that level 
in the 1970's, when we had 1,000 petty officers every month leaving the 
Navy because they could not support their families on what the Carter 
administration was paying them.
  I remember he brought us from that period when we had about 50 
percent of our combat aircraft that were not fully mission capable 
because we had been cannibalizing those aircraft to get spare parts. 
And it is fitting and proper that we should talk about him today when 
President Clinton has dropped his defense budget on this Congress, 
because President Clinton's defense budget, I think, takes us back to 
those Carter days or starts us back to those Carter days. It is 
literally $100 billion in real terms, approximately $100 billion less 
than the budgets that we had in the middle of the Reagan 
administration.
  In fact, most of President Clinton's cuts that he gives great 
ballyhoo to have been taken from national security, taken from national 
defense.
  What did Ronald Reagan do? I can remember when the Soviet Union very 
aggressively in the mid-1980's was ringing our neighbors in western 
Europe with their SS-20 missiles. And they were greatly intimidating 
our neighbors. And Ronald Reagan moved forward against the advice of 
all the liberal Members of Congress and liberal pundits and liberal 
defense experts. He moved forward to put our own ground-launched cruise 
missiles and Pershing missiles in Europe. That is, he stood up to the 
Soviet Union, and an apocalyptic situation was predicted by those on 
the left.
  They said, now you can have it. You are going to bring the country 
down. We are going to have a conflict with the Soviet Union. Yet a few 
days later, Mr. Gorbachev was on the phone and wanted to talk.
  Those talks blossomed into arms control treaties, real arms control 
treaties in which we trusted but verified. And they brought peace to a 
great deal of the world and ultimately resulted in our defense budgets 
coming down, although I think this President has taken them far below 
where they should prudently be.
  Ronald Reagan saved a ton of defense money by being strong at the 
right time.
                       [[Page H1353]] {time}  2100

  I thank the gentleman for yielding.
  Mr. SOLOMON. The gentleman from California is so right. Even when we 
attempted to rescue the hostages being held in Iran, as the gentleman 
mentioned, we had to actually cannibalize about seven helicopter 
gunships to get five that would work. Three of those failed and so did 
the mission. That was typical of what was happening when we were losing 
back in those days all of our noncommissioned officers and officers 
because they could not afford to stay in the military. They were on 
food stamps.
  That is where the peace through strength movement came in. We rebuilt 
our military, we funded it properly, and that is what brought freedom 
throughout this world.
  Mr. Speaker, there is another Member here who is a new Member of this 
body. He has only been here for 5 weeks, but I can tell you, there are 
73 new Republicans in this House. This one I really appreciate. He 
replaced a Democrat named Tim Penny. Tim Penny worked with me in 
sponsoring a lot of legislation to try to get this sea of red ink under 
control that is in this budget here today, presented
 by President Clinton.

  I would like to recognize him now for a few minutes, the gentleman 
from Minnesota [Mr. Gutknecht].
  Mr. GUTKNECHT. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from New York, [Mr. 
Solomon] so much.
  I am so excited and proud to be part of this discussion tonight, 
because I think I speak on behalf of an awful lot of the freshman class 
this year, that Ronald Reagan was such a leader and such a symbol and 
such an inspiration to all of us.
  In fact, I must tell you in our own family one of our most cherished 
possessions is an autographed picture that we have of Ronald Reagan, 
and it is prominently displayed. My wife, Mary, really is one of Ronald 
Reagan's biggest fans.
  I am just so happy to be here to talk a little bit about some of the 
things that I remember most about President Reagan, both before he 
became President, and listening to the gentleman from California [Mr. 
Hunter] earlier tell the story about the national defense.
  I will never forget, I was just thinking about getting into politics 
in a serious way in 1979. Former Congressman Vin Weber hosted an event 
up in Minnesota. One of the people who was invited to speak was a 
gentleman by the name of John Lehman. This was before President Reagan 
became President.
  I will never forget what he talked about. He literally laid out the 
Reagan defense doctrine that day. It became really the cornerstone, I 
think, of the Reagan foreign policy. What he said was that it was time 
that we look the Soviets in the eye, eyeball to eyeball, and say simply 
this: If it is an arms race that you want, it is an arms race you will 
get. It is an arms race you cannot win, and it is an arms race which 
ultimately will bankrupt your economy.
  That was, in a sense, I believe, the cornerstone of the Reagan 
foreign policy and the cornerstone of the Reagan defense buildup. I 
think now that we have seen, and many would have never guessed that we 
would see the day when, as we did a few years ago on Christmas Day, 
when the red flag came down for the last time over the Kremlin, that we 
would see the death of communism in our lifetime.
  However, it is largely because President Reagan had the vision and 
the foresight to enunciate that policy and to stick by it, even when 
some of his own advisors had encouraged him to abandon, for example, 
SDI, or what some would call Star Wars.
  Another memory that I have of President Reagan, I remember, again 
before I entered the political arena and ran for the legislature, in 
1980, in January, I was in Nuone, MN. Some of you were probably here 
for the inaugural. I will never forget that inaugural address. I pulled 
the car off by the side of the road and listened on the radio to the 
inaugural address.
  I will never forget how he closed that inaugural address. I think we 
ought to remind ourselves of it often, because I think it typified 
President Reagan, his beliefs, his values, and I think he spoke so 
clearly to the American people when he told the story of the young man 
from Wisconsin who had written on his diary during World War I, that he 
was going to work and he was going to fight and he was going to serve 
as if the entire outcome of the long and bloody battle depended upon 
him and him alone.
  Then President Reagan closed, and I think this is a direct quote, I 
had this committed to memory, I may not have it exactly right, but I 
believe the words were these. He said:

       Our problems do not require that kind of sacrifice. They 
     do, however, require our best
      effort, and our willingness to believe in ourselves, to 
     believe in our capacity to perform great deeds; that 
     together, with God's help, we can resolve the problems 
     which confront us now. And after all, why shouldn't we 
     believe that? We are Americans.

  I've got to tell you, those words burned in my ears and they burned 
in my consciousness. I think it is one of the reasons that I ultimately 
ran for the State legislature, and by the grace of God, ultimately ran 
for the United States Congress, and I am so proud to be here today.
  One of my favorite expressions from Ronald Reagan, and I use it 
often, if you talk to my staff, and we used it in the campaign, we use 
it around the office a lot, I believe originally came from Benjamin 
Franklin. President Reagan used it often. He said ``Facts are stubborn 
things. You know, we can ignore the facts, we can deny the facts, but 
ultimately facts are facts.''
  As he pursued his agenda, as he pursued the things that he wanted to 
do for this country, he stuck by the facts. I think, Mr. Speaker, many 
people called him the great communicator. He was a great communicator, 
but he was a great communicator principally because he stuck to the 
facts and he talked in simple terms that the American people can 
understand.
  As a matter of fact, another story that I always like to remind 
people of with President Reagan was when he went to Reykjavik and he 
negotiated with Mikhail Gorbachev. I remember the stumbling block was 
SDI. Again, the press was fond of using the term Star Wars. 
Essentially, we could have a large reduction in nuclear arms if only 
President Reagan were willing to give up on this misguided notion that 
he called Star Wars.
  Ultimately, the meeting broke down and they were not able to solve 
many of the big issues. I will never forget, the national press was 
saying, essentially, This old man was unwilling to give up on this 
crazy idea, Star Wars, and as a result, we didn't get that peace 
treaty, the press was having a field day, and they were trying to make 
light of all of what had happened, trying to make President Reagan look 
bad.
  The next night he came back and he spoke to the American people. He 
spoke in very simple terms. He said that the SDI, the Strategic Defense 
Initiative, was America's insurance policy against Soviet cheating. The 
interesting thing was, the next day all the polls were taken, the 
overnight polls, and about 85 percent of the American people understood 
exactly what the President meant and they agreed with him. Than all of 
the ballyhoo stopped.
  Facts are stubborn things. One of the real tragedies, I would say to 
the gentleman from New York [Mr. Solomon] about what is happening 
today, many people are trying to rewrite the facts. They are trying to 
rewrite the myths about what really happened in the eighties.
  The eighties was a very special time. I don't want to be redundant. I 
suspect some of the issues have been covered earlier. However, when we 
look at what really happened with the economy during the eighties, we 
continue to hear that it was the decade of greed, and during the 
eighties the rich got richer and the poor got poorer.
  The facts do not simply bear that out. The truth of the matter is 
that real per capita income during the eighties went up by 15.7 
percent, and average family income increased by more than $15,000. In 
fact, if you look at the poverty rate, it dropped from 13.7 to 12.1 
percent.
  The budget deficit, believe it or not, was only $152.5 billion during 
his last year. Now we are looking at $200 billion plus budget deficits, 
on to the end of this decade, and we are saying that it was because of 
the Reagan buildup.
  [[Page H1354]] When you talk about taxes, we keep hearing that the 
rich didn't pay their fair share during the decade of greed, but the 
average tax payment for the lowest 50 percent of earners fell by 26 
percent between 1981 and 1988, and we removed 6 million low-income 
families from the tax rolls during the eighties.
  The other myth is that social spending was slashed. We talk about all 
the Reagan cuts of social spending. Unfortunately, I would say, over 45 
percent of the $1.9 trillion in new expenditures during that period 
went to social spending.
  We hear the myth of charitable giving, that Americans were greedier 
in the eighties, but the truth of the matter is that charitable giving 
rose $48.7 billion during the eighties, a 55-percent increase.
  Mr. Speaker, it was a very special time. President Reagan was a very 
special President. In fact, one of my last memories I would like to 
share with you tonight, my wife and I talk about this often, was when 
he finally left office.
  I talked about when he was sworn in, but when he left the office for 
the last time, out here on the steps of the Capitol, he turned around 
and saluted. I remember saying to my wife at that time, I said ``Mary, 
you know, he was a long time coming. He will be a long time gone.''
  Mr. Speaker, if I could, I would like to close my remarks here with a 
quote, and I would like to submit for the Congressional Record a column 
which was written by Jeff Bell, because he said more in a few words 
about Ronald Reagan and he said it better than I can say it. I would 
like to submit for the record this column.
  However, I would like to close, if I could, with the last paragraph, 
because I think it says so much about President Reagan: 
``Unfashionable, misunderstood, or held in contempt by political elites 
of all stripes, never respected by the press, patronized privately, 
even by his own aides, Mr. Reagan soldiered on with his populist vision 
and unexpected moves, essentially alone at the top, for eight years of 
the most pivotal years in world history. This was more than enough.''
  Thank you, Mr. Speaker; thank you, I would say to the gentleman from 
New York; and thank you, President Reagan.
  The article referred to is as follows:
             [From the Wall Street Journal, Dec. 27, 1989]

                 Man of the Decade? Man of the Century!

                           (By Jeffrey Bell)

       As European communism collapses, it would seem logical that 
     credit would be given to the man who led the winning side 
     during the decisive period. This shows no sign of happening.
       Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt died just before the 
     end of the great struggles they won. Ronald Reagan has lived 
     to see not just ideological victory over communism, but what 
     increasingly appears to be a vindication of his seemingly 
     most outlandish hopes for a democratic world. Yet few people 
     give Mr. Reagan himself much credit.
       Perhaps this shouldn't be so surprising. In one way, the 
     treatment of his presidency in the year since it ended is a 
     continuation of the pattern of Mr. Reagan's entire political 
     career, which led his opponents (and a solid majority of his 
     allies) to underestimate him and his ability every step of 
     the way. The dynamic of underestimation is helped along by 
     the foibles of his wife, in particular the taste for luxury 
     embodied by the Reagans' recent multi-million dollar trip to 
     Japan, engineered by Mrs. Reagan and her long-time friend, 
     Charles Z. Wick. Harmful as this sort of thing to Mr. 
     Reagan's post-presidential image, in the long run it will be 
     relatively unimportant to the story of Mr. Reagan's 
     presidency.


                         winner of the cold war

       Clare Boothe Luce once remarked that any great presidency 
     can be summed up in a sentence or so. Lincoln: He destroyed 
     slavery and saved the Union, thus preserving and enhancing 
     democracy's example to the world. Reagan: By making democracy 
     vigorous again--ideologically, economically, militarily--he 
     won the Cold War and ended the century-long era in which 
     socialism appealed to popular opinion.
       How did Mr. Reagan manage to do these things in his eight 
     years? Did he in fact do them at all, or did a combination of 
     circumstances cause these things to take shape during his 
     watch?
       Both of the above are true. Historic opportunities 
     presented themselves to Mr. Reagan--and he took advantage of 
     every single one of them. The result was a global revolution.
       Mr. Reagan cut the top personal tax rate in this country 
     from 70% to 28%. He ended inflation and achieved a seven-
     year-long expansion that created 20 million new jobs. He 
     asserted traditional values, unapolo- getically. He revived 
     patriotic sentiment and remade the Supreme Court. In the 
     Webster abortion decision, his appointees delivered a crucial 
     defeat to judicial elitism.
       In foreign policy, Mr. Reagan was frustrated in Lebanon and 
     Nicaragua, but ultimately nowhere else. He rolled back 
     communism in Grenada. His Strategic Defense Initiative set 
     technological limits on Soviet hopes for strategic dominance. 
     In Afghanistan, Angola and Cambodia, the Reagan Doctrine 
     served notice that Soviet advances were no longer 
     irreversible.
       In Mr. Reagan's first term, the Brezhnev-Andropov Soviet 
     regime showed a tendency to push matters in the direction of 
     global confrontation, particularly in its boastful reaction 
     to the Korean Airliner shootdown of 1983. In the face of this 
     frightening Soviet attitude, Mr. Reagan showed no inclination 
     to compromise on anything--SDI, the defense buildup, the 
     deployment of Pershing-IIs in Western Europe or the Reagan 
     Doctrine.
       But when Mikhail Gorbachev succeeded to the Soviet 
     leadership in March 1985. Mr. Reagan quickly discerned--
     before it was evident to almost anyone else--the possibility 
     of a profound change. His repeated assertion of this 
     possibility won him much ridicule through most of his second 
     term, from his natural allies most of all. Particularly after 
     Reykjavik. Mr. Reagan ran into much criticism in this country 
     and in Europe for his indulgent attitude toward the Soviet 
     leader.
       But Mr. Gorbachev, perhaps surprisingly, turned out to be 
     the sort of leader highly susceptible to praise and approval 
     from his antagonists. His growing willingness to unleash the 
     human forces in his empire will undoubtedly win him a major 
     place in history, whatever happens to him personally from now 
     on. But that same history will evaluate Mr. Reagan's handling 
     of Mr. Gorbachev as one of the masterpieces of 20th-century 
     diplomacy.
       Mr. Reagan's greatest foreign-policy failure was the Iran-
     Contra scandal, in particular his attempt to trade arms for 
     hostages. When Mr. Reagan tried to retrieve the situation, 
     with the Kuwaiti tanker reflagging of 1967, initially just 
     about everyone saw his efforts as absurd. The press did. The 
     allies did. The Democrats did. His fellow conservatives did. 
     Even the Navy Department did.
       But Mr. Reagan, who genially ignored his critics when he 
     was determined on a course of action, once again was right. 
     The operation was chaotic and seemed to have little 
     rationale, but its target succumbed. In agreeing in 1988 to a 
     cease-fire in the eight-year-old war against Iraq, the 
     Ayatoliah Khomeini likened the action to drinking a cup of 
     poison--a cup necessitated by Mr. Reagan's move into the 
     Gulf. This must be the closest thing in recent politics to an 
     international concession speech. This tribute from Mr. 
     Reagan's most implacable and resourceful enemy was a cut 
     above anything said on behalf of the policy at home.
       But that was always the way in the Reagan years. A radical 
     or unexpected Reagan initiative would be greeted with 
     reactions ranging from disbelief to ridicule. It was open 
     season during the execution of the policy, which, as is so 
     often the case with radical or counter- intuitive policies, 
     invariably ran into many hitches. Then, upon the success of 
     the policy, there fell a dead silence as to Mr. Reagan's 
     earlier role in it. Mr. Reagan liked to joke about how the 
     word ``Reaganomics'' suddenly disappeared as the magnitude of 
     the 1982-89 expansion became clear.
       Mr. Reagan was full of jokes and stories, and never seemed 
     to take anything said about him personally, but he was deadly 
     serious about his goals. He loved to talk politics and issues 
     almost all his adult life, but never sought office until he 
     was 55. He steadily developed and forwarded his agenda, with 
     many setbacks, until he was 69. Then he became the oldest man 
     ever to take office as president, and (despite a fearful 
     wound) served until he was nearly 78, as the most 
     consistently effective president since Lincoln.
       Still, Mr. Reagan the political leader has been 
     underestimated even by many who recognize his achievements. 
     They note his lack of interest in the details of policy, and 
     the role of talented aides in forcing through a number of his 
     programs. Yet how odd that Mr. Reagan's success continued 
     through a succession of four White House chiefs of staff and 
     six national security advisers who differed widely from each 
     other in knowledge, style and policy.
       Perhaps even more revealing is that in some of his most 
     distinctive policies--tax rate reduction, abortion, SDI, the 
     Reagan Doctrine, the Kuwaiti reflagging, the decision to 
     address human-rights activists during the Moscow summit, to 
     name a few--Mr. Reagan acted against the expressed opinions 
     of nearly all his close advisers. Historians may conclude 
     that Mr. Reagan's lack of interest in administrative details 
     masked a laser-like ability to separate the important from 
     the transitory, and to focus on the important.


                          the world his oyster

       Perhaps the greatest irony of all is that the one area 
     where virtually everybody thought him deficient--foreign 
     policy--may prove to be his most lasting success. In a moment 
     of bemusement a couple of years ago, the Washington Post 
     remarked in an editorial that when Mr. Reagan ventured 
     aboard, he found not just the nation but the world was his 
     oyster.
       [[Page H1355]] His successes at home and abroad were 
     intimately related. It was partly, of course, that domestic 
     revitalization fed into renewed American assertiveness on the 
     world scene. But it was also that, unlike nearly everyone 
     else in U.S. politics in the 1980s, Mr. Reagan thought 
     foreigners aspired to a fully democratic life just as much as 
     Americans did. His Wilsonian-FDR global populism, the element 
     of his ideology least shared by U.S. elites of both the right 
     and left, is what ties together the ``hawkish'' Reagan of the 
     first term and the ``naive'' Reagan of the second, and made 
     the two work toward the same end: the globalization of 
     democratic values.
       Unfashionable, misunderstood or held in contempt by 
     political elites of all stripes, never respected by the 
     press, patronized privately by most of his own aides, Mr. 
     Reagan soldiered on with his populist vision and unexpected 
     moves, essentially alone at the top. For eight of the most 
     pivotal years of world history, this was more than enough.
                              {time}  2110

  Mr. SOLOMON. I say to the gentleman from Minnesota [Mr. Gutknecht] I 
really want to thank you for those eloquent remarks.
  You know, I only regret that Ronald Reagan could not be in office 
here today with this new Republican majority backed up by 40 or 50 
conservative Democrats. Look what we have done in just 5 weeks, and 
think what we could do over the next several years if Ronald Reagan 
were still President.
  You know, the first week we were here, I will say this to the 
gentleman from Minnesota [Mr. Gutknecht] because it came with his help, 
we began to shrink the size and power of the Federal Government and 
started it with the Congress.
  The second week we were here we passed an accountability act which 
foists the same laws on the Congress that we foist on the American 
people. What a message that sent.
  The third week we did the impossible, we passed the balanced budget 
amendment, something Ronald Reagan wanted so much.
  And the fourth week we passed unfunded mandates, something that was 
impossible to pass before the new Republican majority took over.
  And look what happened on Ronald Reagan's birthday yesterday, that 
line item veto. You know, if we had Ronald Reagan here, think what we 
could do for the next 2 years, welfare reform, product liability 
reform, capital gains tax reductions, tort reform. We could go on and 
on and on.
  Since we are running out of time, Mr. Speaker, let me say in the 
epilog of Ronald Reagan's autobiography on American life, the President 
recalled his thoughts as he boarded the plane to California after 
George Bush's inauguration, and I have a picture of him saluting 
hanging on my wall with he and his wife Nancy boarding that helicopter. 
You know, he described a feeling of incompleteness, that there was 
still work to be done, a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution, 
and a line item veto for the President to cut out unnecessary spending.
  Well, Mr. Speaker, this House passed a balanced budget amendment on 
January 26, and as I said before, the line item veto passed yesterday.
  We have done President Reagan's unfinished business. We are just 
getting warmed up. Over the next several months and years we will 
finish the Reagan revolution of shrinking the size and the power of 
this Government and returning the power back to the States and local 
governments and letting the private sector run and work the way it 
should, you know.
  Mr. Speaker and Members, I would like to close with a quote from 
Ronald Reagan's first inaugural address and suggest it apply to this 
104th Congress as we continue the second Reagan revolution. I say to 
the gentleman from Minnesota [Mr. Gutknecht], here is the exact 
language, and you were not far off, he said, ``We have every right to 
dream heroic dreams, to believe in ourselves and to believe in our 
capacity to perform great deeds, to believe that together, with God's 
help, we can and we will resolve the problems which now confront us.''
  And after all, why should we not believe that? Because we are 
Americans.
  Mr. President, we wish you a very, very happy 84th anniversary, 
birthday. Thank you so much for what you have done for America. America 
will never forget you.
  Mr. QUILLEN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from New York for 
organizing this special order to pay tribute to one of the 20th 
century's greatest world leader's former President Ronald Reagan.
  Yesterday was President Reagan's 88th birthday and as we honor him, I 
want to express sincere thanks on behalf of myself and everyone in my 
congressional district for the visionary leadership that he gave to 
this Nation during the 8 years he was its Chief Executive.
  I had been in Congress for 2 years when Ronald Reagan formally 
entered the American political scene by giving his thrilling televised 
speech in support of Barry Goldwater in 1964. His heartfelt statement 
of his conservative political beliefs made likeminded conservatives 
like myself look up and see a standard bearer whom we would be able to 
rally behind in the future.
  I was already very familiar with his career as an actor and 
television spokesman, and I continued to follow his effortless switch 
to the public arena when he ran for governor of California in 1966. The 
astounding margin by which he upset an incumbent governor put everyone 
who watched on notice that a political force be reckoned with had 
arrived.
  After his 8 successful years as governor of our most populous state, 
Ronald Reagan devoted all of his considerable energies to seeking the 
Nation's highest office. In 1980, during a dark time for our Nation, he 
waged a successful campaign to set the ship of state on the proper 
course again.
  The Republican landslide that seized Washington in the wake of the 
Reagan victory created heady times for conservatives, and we waged many 
battles here on the floor of the House to bring about the changes that 
President Reagan spoke of in his revolutionary campaign. And although 
the President's party did not then control this chamber, for a brief 
period of time, his ideas did.
  During the President's first year of office, his leadership enabled 
us to set America on the course that would win the Cold War and turn 
loose the engine of economic freedom. The work that he did then made it 
possible for the new Republican majority here in the House to have the 
cohesive agenda for its first 100 days that is energizing this country.
  Mr. Speaker, as President Reagan battles illness at his California 
home, it is altogether proper that we gather to honor him and his 
legacy in this way. I know that all of my constituents join me in 
sending our heartiest congratulations on his birthday, and to this 
great American, we wish Godspeed.
  Mr. SHADEGG. Mr. Speaker, I am honored to be able to participate in 
this tribute to a great American--Ronald Reagan--and to his continuing 
legacy. Through my father's lifelong association with Senator Barry 
Goldwater, I first met then Governor Reagan in 1968 on my way to the 
Republican National Convention in Miami. He impressed me then and he 
impresses me today. There can be little doubt that it was his 
commitment to downsizing government, renewing federalism, restoring 
America's defenses and re-establishing our belief in ourselves that led 
to the tide that swept Republicans to victory on November 8 and put 
this House under the control of the Republican party for the first time 
in 40 years.
  As we debate the Contract with America, whose central features are 
intended to bring fiscal discipline to Congress and the country, I am 
absolutely confident that the Reagan record will stand the test of 
time. Under the policies of Ronald Reagan, America experienced the 
longest period of peacetime expansion in our history. This expansion 
created 19 million new jobs ad more than doubled the U.S. economy. 
Regardless of all attempts to rewrite the Reagan legacy, the central 
fact is that Ronald Reagan's policies benefited more people at every 
economic level than ever before.
  Had Congress had the discipline to rein in domestic spending during 
the Reagan years, not only would we have defeated the Evil Empire, but 
we also would have avoided the serious deficits and mounting debt which 
now threaten our security.
  Thanks to Ronald Reagan more of the world is free today than ever 
before and as a result, people who were once prisoners of tyranny and 
our enemies are now our trading partners. It was his vision for the 
Strategic Defense Initiative that is being pursued today to protect our 
troops on the battlefield; and it was his commitment to peace through 
strength that brought the cold war to an end.
  Ronald Reagan reminded us daily and by example what it means to be an 
American. He is still reminding us today.
  It is for all of these reasons and for all of the others that will be 
discussed in this tribute that the Goldwater Institute, a Phoenix-based 
public policy institute, will present to him their prestigious 
Goldwater Award. The award is presented to an individual whose efforts 
have significantly promoted the principles that Senator Goldwater 
championed through out his career: Limited government, economic freedom 
and individual responsibility.
  This year the award will be presented on April 21 and will be 
accepted by Former First 
 [[Page H1356]] Lady Nancy Reagan. The award ceremony will be a true 
celebration of the movement for limited government. Barry Goldwater, 
the man largely responsible for launching the movement, will honor 
President Reagan, who brought the movement to victory. And, the keynote 
address will be given by our Speaker, Newt Gingrich, the man whose task 
it is now to carry this movement into the future.
  Mr. WELLER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor former President 
Ronald Reagan. I am proud to have this opportunity to speak about our 
40th president who was born 84 years ago, in my home State of Illinois. 
At the age of 9 his family moved from Topica and settled in Dixon, IL 
where he played football and basketball, ran track, served as president 
of the student body, and first performed as an actor. Continuing his 
education in Illinois, Ronald Reagan graduated from Eureka College in 
1932 with a degree in economics and sociology.
  From humble beginnings, Ronald Wilson Reagan went on to become a 
sportscaster, actor, governor of California, and President of the 
United States.
  Sworn in at the age of 69, Ronald Reagan was the oldest President 
ever elected. As one of America's most popular Presidents, Reagan 
presided over a period of great fiscal growth as he revitalized the 
American economy. Through his efforts, the American people enjoyed 
great prosperity, while he steered the country through the delicate 
times of the cold war.
  Mr. Speaker, the state of Illinois is proud to have Ronald Wilson 
Reagan as a native Illinoisan. It is for this reason and all of his 
great services to the United States of America, that efforts are being 
made by the Illinois Senate to have Interstate Route 57 designated as 
the Ronald Reagan Highway. Stretching from the great city of Chicago, 
through the fields of middle America, to the beautiful scenic land of 
southern Illinois the Interstate offers a view of both the Land of 
Lincoln and the birthplace and early home of Ronald Reagan.
  I urge my former colleagues of the Illinois State House to pass the 
legislation honoring Ronald Reagan and name Interstate Highway 57 after 
him.
  Mr. ALLARD. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to join in this celebration of 
President Reagan's 84th birthday. Ronald Reagan's place in history is 
secure. With each passing year, his stature as a leader grows.
  President Reagan's most important contribution was the leadership he 
provided during the West's long struggle with totalitarian communism. 
When he called the Soviet Union an evil empire media pundits scorned 
him. Today, we all know that he was right. But President Reagan 
provided far more than rhetoric in the struggle against communism. In 
1980, America was dangerously weak and demoralized. President Reagan 
understood this and he directed the strengthening of all aspects of our 
military, coordinating our efforts with other members of the Western 
alliance.
  Following the end of World War II, country after country fell to 
communism. All of Eastern Europe fell, much of Asia fell, and inroads 
were even made in Africa and Latin America. the Iron Curtain went up, 
and freedom was on the defensive. This all ended in 1981. From the 
point when Ronald Reagan entered the White House, no additional 
territory fell to the Communists. From that point forward the tide 
began to turn. On all fronts, the Reagan administration backed the 
forces of freedom. Solidarity in Poland was helped, the Afghan freedom 
fighters were helped, Grenada was liberated, and democratic struggles 
throughout Latin America were supported. The Soviet Union was 
confronted by a Western alliance that had finally awaken to the dangers 
of appeasement. The alliance was greatly strengthened by the friendship 
and support of President Reagan's close friend and ally, British Prime 
Minister Margaret Thatcher. The west won the cold war, and Ronald 
Reagan deserves much of the credit.
  President Reagan's second great triumph was his economic plan. We was 
the first modern President to directly challenge the notion that more 
government was good. In his view, Government does not solve problems, 
it subsidizes them. While this view is widely held today, it was 
ridiculed throughout the 1960's and 1970's. During those years, Reagan 
was nearly alone in his struggle against the endless growth of 
government. But he never altered his message. Unlike other politicians, 
he stood firm, and gradually the country moved his way. That is what 
made him a leader.
  The Reagan program of lower taxes and less regulation was a 
tremendous success. In the early Reagan years all income taxes were cut 
across-the-board by 25 percent. The decade to follow witnessed the 
longest peacetime economic expansion in the history of our Nation. All 
income groups experienced significant income gains from 1980 to 1989. 
Twenty million new jobs were created, and the vast majority were high-
paying professional, production, and technical jobs.
  In the late 1970's inflation was as high as 18 percent, and interest 
rates rose to 21 percent. The Reagan economic program brought both of 
these down dramatically. The 1970's malaise brought on by high 
inflation, skyrocketing interest rates, high unemployment, and high 
taxes was replaced by an economy that fostered opportunity, growth, and 
optimism.
  President Reagan rallied our Nation. He reminded each of us of our 
proud history and heritage. He was never afraid to proclaim his love 
for America. Most important, he stood up for what he believed. He knew 
the importance of strength and resolve. The result was the most 
successful Presidency in decades. As Reagan himself reminded us:

       History comes and goes, but principles endure and inspire 
     future generations to defend liberty, not as a gift from 
     government, but a blessing from our creator.

  Happy birthday Mr. President.
  Mr. SOUDER. Mr. Speaker, I rise to pay tribute to the 40th President 
of the United States, Ronald Reagan. Many have called our new freshman 
class the children of the Reagan revolution or the real Reagan 
revolution.
  Ideologically, this is true. We are committed to the principles upon 
which Ronald Reagan was the chief spokesman: reduce the size of 
Government, cut taxes, rebuild not undermine our Nation's strong moral 
and family base, and stand for a strong America. In my case, it goes 
beyond the generalization. In 1964, just after my 15th birthday, I 
heard Ronald Reagan's famous speech for Barry Goldwater for President. 
Like many others, I was moved to action.
  First, I took $5 of my hard-earned ``pop-bottle sorting'' money I 
earned at our family's general store and sent it to Goldwater. Second, 
I was activated and never looked back. After Goldwater's shocking 
defeat--he did pretty well in my hometown of Grabill--I organized a 
Young Americans for Freedom chapter at Leo High School, one of the 
Nation's first high school YAF chapters.
  At our 1968 Leo High School commencement, as senior class president, 
I was asked to speak. In my draft remarks was a quote from then 
Governor of California Ronald Reagan, with the comment, ``who will 
someday make a great President of the United States.'' Our faculty 
advisor, Mrs. Mumma, said to delete it or I couldn't speak. It was 
deleted off my cards, but I ad-libbed it anyway, being a somewhat 
independent person.
  At the 1971 YAF national convention, I was part of a group of 
conservatives pushing Reagan to run in 1972. In 1976, I helped in his 
surprise victory in the Indiana Presidential primary for President. 
President Gerald Ford was respected in Indiana, as our neighbor from 
Michigan, but our hearts were with Reagan. A friend of mine, who had 
also been a Reagan backer since 1968, won the 4th Congressional 
District Republican primary in that same election. That Reagan fan went 
on to upset an incumbent member of Congress in the fall. I now hold my 
friend, and fellow Reaganite, Dan Quayle's old congressional seat.
  In 1980, Dan Quayle went on to defeat an incumbent U.S. Senator and 
another friend of Reagan won the 4th District Congressional seat. After 
Quayle was elected Vice-President, our friend Dan Coats moved up to the 
U.S. Senate.
  This is the Indiana version of the Reagan revolution. To those who 
thought the Reagan revolution was over, prepare yourselves. Dan Quayle 
is obviously still an important player and Dan Coats is in the Senate, 
and I am joined in the Indiana House delegation by my distinguished 
freshman colleague Dave McIntosh, who worked in the Reagan 
administration.
  After a short break, we are back. The legacy of Ronald Reagan will 
live on, led by the first State for Reagan--Indiana.
  Mrs. FOWLER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to former 
President Ronald Reagan, who celebrated his 84th birthday yesterday.
  President Reagan has always loomed larger-than-life on the political 
landscape of this Nation, and though he has retired from the spotlight, 
his many contributions to our Nation are still being felt today. His 
enlightened world-view and his commitment to our national security 
ultimately resulted in the end of the cold war and the spread of 
democracy around the world.
  And the conservative ideals upon which he based the Reagan revolution 
are experiencing a renaissance, as both citizens and lawmakers realize 
that the big-government, bureaucratic approach to problem-solving is 
not working.
  I know that this must be a bittersweet birthday for President Reagan, 
as he faces what is perhaps his greatest challenge. However, I am also 
sure that he derives a great deal of comfort from knowing that he has 
his devoted wife at his side, that he is remembered in the prayers of a 
grateful Nation, and that, once again, 
 [[Page H1357]] on the horizon of this great Nation, there is a glimmer 
of morning in America.
  Happy birthday, Mr. President, and thank you.
  Mr. CRANE. Mr. Speaker, Ronald Reagan's Presidency brought a fresh 
breath of renewed freedom to this country shackled by regulation, 
inflation, high interest rates, and higher taxes at the time of his 
first inauguration.
  It was the policies of Ronald Reagan which brought about the greatest 
national upset of the century--the collapse of the Soviet Union. Ronald 
Reagan toppled the reign of an evil empire which its own citizens 
sought but who were helpless to free themselves from--the dictatorship 
which Lenin and Stalin had set upon them.
  He kept his faith in America.
  Ronald Reagan gave this country its biggest tax cut in the first year 
of his presidency. The Reagan cut stimulated the dynamic growth of the 
decade that followed, an explosion which created 20 million jobs.
  Ronald Reagan adhered faithfully to traditional American family 
values. He was adamant against abortion.
  It was Ronald Reagan who touched off the debate on free trade. His 
leadership in this area brought about our first free-trade agreement 
with Canada. The NAFTA pact followed.
  I personally have been a Ronald Reagan supporter for over a quarter 
of a century. I battled in vain to gain him the Republican nomination 
for President in 1968 in Miami Beach, and in 1976 in Kansas City. When 
I withdrew from the presidential campaign in 1980, I threw all my 
support behind him.
  Ronald Reagan--a native of my own home State of Illinois--was ever 
the optimist who recognized that the United States still represents the 
world's best hope.
  Mr. FUNDERBURK. Mr. Speaker, I join with my colleagues in sending 
grateful happy birthday wishes to President Ronald Reagan.
  Mr. Speaker, there are a few figures in each century who transcend 
their times. Americans point to Washington and Jefferson, Britons to 
Winston Churchill. As we celebrate his eighty-fourth birthday, it is 
past time to add the name of Ronald Reagan to liberty's pantheon.
  It is hard to remember what it was like before Ronald Reagan came to 
Washington. The 1970's were a decade of disillusionment. Communism was 
on the march. Democratic government and the rule of law were in 
retreat. We were even questioning our purpose as Americans.
  Yet, there came a great wind of change in 1980 which left America and 
the globe transformed beyond all recognition. Ronald Reagan led the 
way. Like Churchill before him, he gave free people the voice they 
thought they had lost. His ideas produced an economic dynamism 
Americans had not seen for decades. He exuded confidence in the 
American spirit. He harbored no inhibitions about the use of American 
power and he stood guard as the iron curtain crumbled before our eyes.
  Mr. Speaker, Ronald Reagan mirrored the thoughts, desires, and faith 
of ordinary Americans. He recognized as they did, that America is ``the 
bright shining city on the hill.'' Happy birthday, Mr. President. May 
you have many more.
  Mr. PACKARD. Mr. Speaker, today we celebrate President Ronald 
Reagan's birthday. During his administration, President Reagan 
rekindled our Founding Fathers' guiding principles of limited 
government. In his inaugural speech President Reagan reminded Americans 
that ``we are a nation that has a government--not the other way 
around.''
  I began my congressional service under his administration. I came 
here sharing Reagan's vision of American renewal. Today, his insight 
continues to drive the work of the 104th Congress as we press for less 
spending, less taxes, and less regulation. His philosophy echoes in the 
mandate Americans sent Congress in November. His values provided the 
underpinnings for the Republican Contract With America.
  Under decades of liberal leadership, the Congress forced the American 
people to carry the weight of a bloated, wasteful government. Under 
Reagan's leadership the American people found relief from the liberal 
tax-and-spend machine and a sense of national renewal.
  During the 97th Congress, President Reagan initiated the line-item 
veto by choosing to hold the line on wasteful spending. He sent House 
Joint Resolution 357--the continuing resolution providing 
appropriations for fiscal year 1982--back to Congress. He courageously 
tried to protect the American taxpayer from unnecessary spending. 
Unfortunately, Mr. Speaker, the budget-busting liberal Congress chose 
to ignore his warnings and continued to produce wasteful, bloated 
budgets year after year.
  The Republican-controlled 104th Congress has the opportunity to roll 
back the big spenders in Congress. President Reagan showed us the way. 
Now we must take the lead and pass the line-item veto.
  Mr. Speaker, it is an honor to recognize President Reagan for his 
political and personal achievements. His freedom agenda, our Republican 
Contract With America, is alive within the walls of Congress. Happy 
birthday, President Reagan.


                          ____________________