[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 16 (Thursday, February 3, 2011)]
[Senate]
[Pages S509-S527]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  REMEMBERING PRESIDENT RONALD REAGAN

  Mr. McCAIN. Madam President, there are many of us who will come to 
the floor this afternoon to pay tribute to one of the great Presidents 
in American history. Many of us will recollect times and experiences 
and contacts we had with President Reagan and the way he inspired us 
personally as well as a nation.
  When I was a prisoner of war in North Vietnam, the Vietnamese went to 
great lengths to restrict the news from home to the statements and 
activities of prominent opponents of the war in Vietnam. They wanted us 
to believe America had forgotten us. They never mentioned Ronald Reagan 
to us or played his speeches over the camp loud speakers. No matter. We 
knew about him. New additions to our ranks told us how the Governor and 
Mrs. Reagan were committed to our liberation and our cause.
  When we came home, all of us were eager to meet the Reagans, to thank 
them for their concern. But more than gratitude drew us to them. We 
were drawn to them because they were among the few prominent Americans 
who did not subscribe to the then-fashionable notion that America had 
entered her inevitable decline.
  We prisoners of war came home to a country that had lost a war and 
the best sense of itself, a country beset by social and economic 
problems. Assassinations, riots, scandals, contempt for political, 
religious, and educational institutions gave the appearance that we had 
become a dysfunctional society. Patriotism was sneered at, the military 
scorned. The world anticipated the collapse of our global influence. 
The great, robust, confident Republic that had given its name to the 
last century seemed exhausted.
  Ronald Reagan believed differently. He possessed an unshakable faith 
in America's greatness, past and future, that proved more durable than 
the prevailing political sentiments of the time. His confidence was a 
tonic to men who had come home eager to put the war behind us and for 
the country to do likewise.
  Our country has a long and honorable history. A lost war or any other 
calamity should not destroy our confidence or weaken our purpose. We 
were a good nation before Vietnam, and we are a good nation after 
Vietnam. In all of history, you cannot find a better one. Of that, 
Ronald Reagan was supremely confident, and he became President to prove 
it.
  His was a faith that shouted at tyrants to ``tear down this wall.'' 
Such faith, such patriotism requires a great deal of love to profess, 
and I will always revere him for it. When walls were all I had for a 
world, I learned about a man whose love of freedom gave me hope in a 
desolate place. His faith honored us, as it honored all Americans, as 
it honored all freedom-loving people.
  Let us honor his memory especially today by holding his faith as our 
own, and let us too tear down walls to freedom. That is what Americans 
do when they believe in themselves.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Coons). The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. President, I was honored to hear Senator McCain's 
comments on Ronald Reagan. This Sunday is indeed the 100th anniversary 
of his birth. It is an opportunity for the whole Nation to honor the 
memory of a man who honored us with his leadership.
  In the 1980s, we were a weakened country. Inflation and unemployment 
were in double digits. The hostage crisis in Iran dragged on, with no 
end in sight. Our standing abroad was waning

[[Page S510]]

and so too was our military strength. Challenges at home were answered 
with one failed Washington program after another. We had lost 
confidence in our future and really in the principles that made us 
exceptional.
  Ronald Reagan changed that. Part of that change began with 12 simple, 
crucial words:

       Government is not the solution to our problem; government 
     is the problem.

  It is a big part of our problem.
  He stirred the passions of our country, revitalizing not only our 
economy but our identity and confidence as free people. What some have 
called the Reagan revolution he called the great rediscovery. He 
instilled us with a new confidence in our future and in America's role 
as the last best hope of mankind.
  His achievements are well known, but they bear repeating.
  Working with Paul Volcker, Chairman of the Federal Reserve, he tamed 
the inflation which was robbing Americans of their life's work and 
savings. It was a tough course, a tough road, but he saw it through. He 
stayed on the course, and we were stronger as a result. We need to get 
on a tough road and stay the course today.
  He lowered taxes dramatically, including a reduction in the top rate 
from nearly 70 percent, and he reined in a runaway bureaucracy that had 
trapped innovation and productivity in a labyrinth of regulation and 
redtape.
  His faith in the free market was not misplaced. It rewarded us. He 
created 20 million new jobs, grew our gross national product by 26 
percent, and began the longest peacetime boom in our history. 
Conditions improved for Americans in every walk of life. The net worth 
of families earning between $20,000 and $50,000 rose by 27 percent.
  Reagan's stunning success debunked every myth of those who believe a 
bigger government is more compassionate and can do more for more 
people. The growth and potential productivity of the private sector is 
what has made America the most prosperous Nation.
  This success at home was matched by his success abroad. He defended 
our principles and our way of life with clarity, confidence, and vigor. 
His policies brought down the Soviet Empire. ``Mr. Gorbachev, tear down 
this wall'' still resonates in our minds, and it liberated untold 
millions.
  Today, more than 20 years after President Reagan left office, we find 
ourselves facing many of the same challenges: a sagging economy, a 
growing government, and a diminished standing in the world. We would be 
wise to remember the lessons of that era: peace through strength, 
prosperity through freedom. He understood that our future greatness 
lies in the same place it always has--through our pioneering, restless, 
enterprising spirit that is filled with ambition and excitement, and a 
deep sense of honor and decency that defines who we are as a people and 
who we will be tomorrow.
  In President Reagan's farewell address, he issued a word of caution:

       If we forget what we did, we won't know who we are. I am 
     warning of an eradication of that--of the American memory 
     that could result, ultimately, in an erosion of the American 
     spirit.

  As we face daunting, defining challenges of our time, I hope we look 
back to the leadership he provided.
  On a personal note, I was tremendously honored to have been appointed 
a U.S. attorney in the Southern District of Alabama by President Reagan 
in 1981. It was an office in which I had served as an assistant a 
number of years before. To be able to come back and lead that office 
was such a personal thrill.
  The President did not give me any directions as to what we were to 
do, but I absolutely knew--and I have often said it is a great example 
of true leadership--I knew exactly what he wanted me to do. I gathered 
the staff, many of whom I had worked with years before, and used these 
words: President Reagan sent me here to prosecute criminals and protect 
the U.S. Treasury. I believe that is what he did. I believe that was 
implicit in his campaign, his consistent leadership, that he believed 
in law and order and efficiency, and he wanted us to fight corruption 
and try to help produce a more efficient government.
  I remember in those days we went to a U.S. attorneys conference. I 
attended with my good friend, recently the Deputy Attorney General of 
the United States, Larry Thompson. We would share rooms on the trips to 
save money because we knew and believed President Reagan wanted us to 
save money. Our spending was out of control, and we had a serious 
financial problem. Our budgets were frozen. But we worked harder and we 
produced more.
  That can be done today. This whining that we cannot reduce spending--
and many times, they define ``reducing spending'' as a reduction of the 
projected rate of growth. It is not even a reduction of current level 
spending.
  These kinds of things happened throughout the government. It 
increased productivity of our government. It reduced the take of the 
Federal Government of the private economy. The private economy grew, 
and the government sector became more efficient and more productive. 
That is what we need to return to.
  It was such a fabulous honor to have the opportunity to serve in that 
position. I hope I was faithful to the values of the President who 
appointed me. I have to say, I think I knew what they were, and I know 
I gave my best effort to be worthy of the trust he placed in me. That 
was true of many more people throughout the Federal Government.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, I rise for a moment to join my colleagues 
in paying tribute to the late Ronald Reagan, President of the United 
States--a great conservative leader of our country and an inspiration 
to many, many Americans.
  I want to dedicate my remarks to a lady named Kathie Miller. Kathie 
works for me here in Washington. She has loved Ronald Reagan since the 
day he came on the scene and can probably quote him verbatim much 
better than I can. He had a meaningful impact on her life, and so I 
dedicate these remarks to her today.
  My speech will be about two events I happened to attend where Ronald 
Reagan was speaking and the impact of those events not only on me but 
on everybody else who was there, and actually on the future of our 
country. One took place in 1975, when he was beginning his pursuit of 
the nomination for the Presidency of the United States. Gerald Ford was 
still President at that time and Ronald Reagan was running for the 
nomination for a full term.
  Ronald Reagan came to Cobb County, GA. Cobb County, GA, is where I 
live. It is a very Republican county right now, but in 1975 it was not 
a very Republican county. In fact, there was only one elected official 
in the entire county who was a Republican, out of literally 100 or more 
who were Democratic officials.
  Ronald Reagan came to the civic center in Cobb County, and an 
unanticipated thing happened, not by plan, certainly, not by the 
generation of politicians, but a crowd so large came to hear him that 
the fire marshals shut the building down. This is a very good-sized, 
4,000-seat auditorium. People came to hear a positive message about 
America.
  I was fortunate enough, because I had been in politics a little bit, 
to be able to get in that room and listen to his speech. In 1975, for 
America, it was not the most prosperous of times. In fact, a lot of the 
things we have been suffering through these last couple of years we 
went through in 1974 and 1975. We had a difficult housing market, 
higher interest rates, higher unemployment, and things of that nature.
  So this former actor came to Cobb County and he lit a fire under 
everybody, and not necessarily about him but about ourselves. He 
uplifted people who needed uplifting and he did it with a message of a 
belief in ourselves, a belief in our country, pride in America, and 
defense through strength. Those messages were so clearly Ronald Reagan. 
It inspired me. And it inspired me so much that I hoped he would get 
that nomination and be elected President of the United States. But he 
failed. He did not get the nomination. Ultimately, Gerald Ford got it, 
not

[[Page S511]]

Ronald Reagan. But Ronald Reagan didn't go home and pout. He did not 
stop participating. He didn't drop out. He set his sights on the 1980 
Republican nomination for President of the United States, and history 
reflects that he achieved it. He won it, and it was 8 great years for 
our country, 8 great years with a man who could inspire and who could 
lead.
  I have oftentimes said that two of the truly great Presidents we have 
had--John Kennedy and Ronald Reagan--had something in common. They were 
from different parties, but they could stand before a group of people 
and make a speech about a subject they didn't agree with and, by the 
time they finished, they got a standing ovation. So, first, they were 
great communicators. Second, they were committed to a safe and 
prosperous America. They were hawks on defense. They confronted our 
enemies straight up, as Kennedy did with Khrushchev and President 
Reagan did. Third, and most important, they reduced taxes and brought 
prosperity to the economy of the United States.
  The second occasion I met Ronald Reagan was an interesting one. It 
was in the Omni Coliseum in Atlanta, where professional basketball was 
played at the time. The coliseum seats 16,000 people. I was then the 
minority leader of the Georgia House of Representatives and was elected 
to be the MC of a program that featured Senator Mack Mattingly, running 
for reelection from Georgia, but the keynote speaker was Ronald Reagan. 
In fact, he flew from Washington to Atlanta to make that speech and 
then went to Reykjavik, Iceland where he confronted Gorbachev and 
Brezhnev and the Russians and he stood for peace through strength, and 
a strong buildup of forces in America so we could be a strong country 
that could defend ourselves, not a weak country subservient to anybody 
else.
  In that auditorium of 16,000 people, he stood up before them and did 
the same thing he did in the auditorium in 1975. He inspired them to 
believe in their country, inspired them to believe in what was right, 
and inspired them to believe in peace through strength. And when he 
left, everybody was uplifted.
  I think when Ronald Reagan left the Presidency in 1988, we would all 
agree our country was uplifted. It was a period of prosperity and a 
period of strength, and it was a renaissance of the American spirit. 
That is the test of true leadership. So I am honored and privileged to 
join many of my colleagues on the floor today to pay tribute to the 
memory and the commitment of Ronald Reagan, President of the United 
States.
  Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. WEBB. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the order for the 
quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. WEBB. Mr. President, I wish to join my other colleagues who have 
come to the floor at this time to speak in honor of our late President, 
Ronald Reagan, on the occasion of his 100th birthday. I wish to begin 
by giving my best wishes to Mrs. Reagan and wish her all the best for 
her continued health. Also, as someone who had three different 
positions in the Reagan administration, I am thinking of a lot of very 
fine people with whom I had the opportunity to serve, especially Cap 
Weinberger whom I met and worked with every day for about 4 years, who 
is one of the finest people I ever worked with, and also John 
Herrington, who was the Director of White House Personnel, who first 
brought me into the Reagan administration and later served our country 
as Secretary of Energy.
  As I mentioned, I had three different positions in the Reagan 
administration, first as a member of the National Advisory Committee, 
and then I spent 4 years to the day in the Pentagon as Assistant 
Secretary of Defense, and then as Secretary of the Navy. It was truly 
an inspiring time in my life, to have worked for an individual who had 
the leadership qualities Ronald Reagan demonstrated. He knew how to 
inspire our country. He knew how to bring strong personalities together 
to work toward the good of the country and for its future. He knew how 
to make decisions, he knew how to make hard decisions, and one of the 
great qualities he had was he was never afraid to take responsibility 
for the consequences of any of those decisions. That is something which 
I think motivated everyone who served in his administration.
  If we go back to that time period, those of us who were of age, 1980 
was a bad time in this country. Our country was in tremendous turmoil. 
We were demoralized in the wake of the fall of South Vietnam and the 
bitterness that had affected so many of us along class lines, 
particularly between those who opposed the Vietnam war and those who 
had fought it, and what we were going to do in terms of resolving those 
issues here in this country and then our reputation internationally. 
Inflation was rampant, sometimes in the high teens. People were saying 
that the Presidency was too big a job for any one person. Our military 
was overworked, underpaid, and dramatically underappreciated.
  I had friends with whom I had served or I had gone to the Naval 
Academy with, who had gone into the Navy, who were saying during this 
time period if you make commander you may as well get your divorce 
because you are going to go to sea for 4 years. The Navy had gone from 
930 combatant ships during the Vietnam war down to 479, precipitously, 
at the same time our country had assumed the obligations in the Indian 
Ocean and the Persian Gulf, obligations it didn't have before.
  The Soviet Union, it is hard to remember right now, was in a state of 
high activity, diplomatically and militarily. It had invaded 
Afghanistan, threatening instability in that part of the world. It had 
a massive naval buildup in the Pacific following our withdrawal from 
Vietnam. Our diplomatic and military personnel in Tehran had been taken 
hostage by the Iranian regime and were being taunted daily on TV. Our 
national self-image was in a crisis state. Who were we as a country? 
Did we really have a future?
  Ronald Reagan campaigned based on our national greatness and on the 
intrinsic good of our society and on restoring our place at the top of 
the world community. I can vividly remember in the summer of 1980 when 
Ronald Reagan made a speech at the Veterans of Foreign Wars Convention 
and mentioned, as he was so wont to do, with symbolic phrases that 
Vietnam had been a noble cause. He had the media following him around 
the country mocking the comment at this point, only 5 years after the 
fall of South Vietnam, but for those of us who had stepped forward and 
served in order to attempt to bring democracy to South Vietnam, that 
was a great moment of inspiration.
  Once he was elected, Ronald Reagan governed with the same sense of 
certainty about the greatness of our system and the goodness of our 
people. He convinced strong, talented people to join his 
administration. With George Shultz as Secretary of State and Cap 
Weinberger as Secretary of Defense, he brought two lions into his 
Cabinet who did not always agree--which was rather famous in Washington 
at the time--but who were able to combine fierce competitive intellects 
with decades of valuable experience.
  When Ronald Reagan left the White House, our military had been 
rebuilt, our people had regained their pride in our country and their 
optimism for its future. The United States was again recognized as the 
leading nation in the world community and the failed governmental 
concept that had produced the Soviet Union was on the verge of 
imploding, not because of external attack but soon to disappear at the 
hands of its own citizens, who could look to the West and see a better 
way of life. To paraphrase an old saying, ``You never know when you are 
making history. You only know when you did.''
  Ronald Reagan did make history and I was proud to be a small part of 
it.
  I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. KIRK. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the order for the 
quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

[[Page S512]]

  Mr. KIRK. Mr. President, as the junior Senator representing the State 
of Illinois, and one who will lead a celebration of President Reagan's 
life in Chicago Saturday night, for Sunday, the 100th birthday of our 
native Illinoisan, our 40th President, Ronald Reagan, I want to talk 
for a moment about his life and what he has meant to the United States, 
now on the 100th anniversary of President Reagan's birth.
  On February 6, 1911, in Tampico, IL, with a population of 820, John 
and Nelle Reagan welcomed a child who would one day change the 
direction not just of our country but the world. According to the 
Reagan family lore, when he first gazed upon his son, John Reagan 
prophetically quipped: ``He looks like a fat little Dutchman. But who 
knows, he might grow up to be President someday.''
  His father was a strong believer in the American dream and Nelle 
Reagan passed on to her son her penchant to always look for the good in 
people, regardless of their current position.
  It was those early lessons in perseverance and faith that would 
inspire Ronald Reagan to pursue his dream of becoming a Hollywood 
actor. He signed his first professional acting contract in 1935 and 
went on to enjoy a successful career on the silver screen. But by 1946, 
after serving 3 years in the Army Air Force Intelligence Corps during 
the height of World War II, he began to have ambitions beyond 
Hollywood. A 5-year stint as the president of the Screen Actors Guild 
laid the foundation for Ronald Reagan's political career. During the 
turmoil of the Hollywood communism craze, Reagan proved himself to be a 
skilled dealmaker and an influential leader as he successfully 
navigated the upheaval in the Hollywood community.
  In 1964, Ronald Reagan was thrust into the national spotlight as he 
gave his televised speech entitled, ``A Time for Choosing,'' in support 
of the Presidential nominee Barry Goldwater.
  Following his speech, a group of influential citizens became 
convinced that Ronald Reagan should become the next Governor of 
California. After winning in the primary and enduring a very hard-
fought campaign, Ronald Reagan unseated the two-time Governor of 
California, Pat Brown, to become the 33rd Governor in California's 
history.
  During his 2 terms as Governor, Californians enjoyed a smaller, less 
costly, and more efficient State government. Governor Reagan returned 
$5 billion to the taxpayers and used his line-item veto authority 943 
times to ensure that the State's budget matched its priorities.
  Ronald Reagan had once again proved himself a determined and capable 
leader in difficult times, but soon the American people would learn 
that his best days were very much ahead of him. After an unsuccessful 
Republican Presidential attempt in 1976, he knew that he wanted to be 
President but would only enter the race if the people of the United 
States actually wanted him to run. In the years following the 1976 
primary, Ronald Reagan became increasingly concerned about the 
direction the country was headed, especially in the areas of national 
security, unemployment, and the economy. More than anything, Reagan 
sensed that Americans had lost their sense of confidence, not just in 
themselves but also in the country.
  Interestingly, the concerns Mr. Reagan felt as he weighed the 
decision to run for President are not unlike many of the challenges we 
face today.
  Ronald Reagan was confident that he was the man who could lead the 
country out of a dark recession and into the light of a new prosperity 
and national pride. After winning a landslide election in November, 
Ronald Reagan was sworn in as our 40th President on January 20, 1981. 
He immediately went to work on repairing a broken economy by enacting 
the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981, with his solid belief being that 
if people had more money in their pockets and confidence to invest, the 
country would get back on a sound financial footing. During his first 
months in office, Reagan was as much to thank for the new found 
economic stability as he was for a heightened sense of optimism that 
was returning to the United States after very hard times.
  He thoughtfully guided the country through a series of national 
tragedies and terrorist attacks on our military forces abroad. Yet 
through it all, President Reagan's resolve never wavered, his 
confidence that the American people would meet the myriad challenges 
they faced never faltered. This was a man who, after surviving an 
assassination attempt, continued to meet with congressional leaders in 
his hospital room as he recovered because he believed it in the best 
interest of the American people that he continue working to the extent 
his body would allow. It was that type of steadfast determination that 
allowed the negotiations with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to move 
forward and eventually led to the tearing down of the Berlin Wall, the 
signing of the I.N.F. Treaty and eventually the end of Soviet 
oppression in Eastern Europe. The issue that got him into politics, 
ending the spread of communism, became the crowning achievement of his 
Presidency.
  His constant refrain throughout his time in the White House was that 
government was becoming too big, too inefficient, too unresponsive and 
too wasteful. As Governor, Reagan demonstrated the ability to exercise 
fiscal restraint and he urged leaders in Congress to do the same thing. 
I think it appropriate that we are celebrating Reagan's 100th birthday 
at a time when national debt and the deficit are at an all-time high. 
While we know that Reagan possessed the willingness to tackle such 
issues, I believe the lesson we can learn most from his Presidency is 
the endlessly optimistic attitude he had that the United States and its 
people would meet challenges of the day and emerge stronger because of 
the struggle to overcome.
  His assertion that America was ``the shining city on a hill'' guided 
him, as it should us. A hard-nosed, gritty politician, Reagan would 
have jumped at the chance to take on the responsibility of leading this 
country out of this recession, just as he did in 1981. So as we 
celebrate Ronald Reagan's 100th birthday, let us take a moment to 
reflect upon the life of a man who, as President, always did what was 
necessary to move the country forward in the way he felt was most 
beneficial to those who mattered most, the people.
  I know his legacy is most associated with the people of California, 
but as the junior Senator for Illinois, we will claim our right to note 
his birth in Tampico, his childhood in Dixon, and his college years at 
Eureka College. We will be very happy to mark the 100th birthday on 
Saturday in Chicagoland and through celebrations in other parts of the 
State, one of our great Presidents who very much changed the course and 
direction of this country and this world for the better.
  I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. LIEBERMAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. LIEBERMAN. Mr. President, in 3 days' time, across our country, 
from the North Country of New Hampshire to his final resting place in 
Simi Valley, CA, Americans will celebrate the legacy of President 
Ronald Reagan. It will be the occasion of the 100th anniversary of his 
birth. I am very honored to rise today to join other colleagues of both 
parties and others throughout the United States and, I am sure, the 
world in paying tribute to America's 40th President.
  I cannot speak as personally about President Reagan as some in this 
Chamber can. I met him only a few times when, as a visiting State 
attorney general during the eighties, I was at the White House. He was 
always gracious, always responsive to us. But I did have one meeting 
that I might call a virtual meeting with President Reagan that reminds 
me of his enduring importance for our country today.
  Twenty-two years ago, on January 4, 1989, as President Reagan was 
departing the White House, having completed his second term, I had just 
arrived in Washington as a freshman Senator from Connecticut. President 
Reagan was set to give his final weekly radio address on that brisk 
Saturday morning, and then-Senate majority leader George Mitchell had 
honored me by

[[Page S513]]

asking me if I would give the Democratic response. It was a real honor, 
although a daunting one, for me to be asked to do that on that 
occasion.
  Looking back, I believe President Reagan's 331st and final radio 
address on that January morning was among the most masterful and moving 
of his career. In it, he captured the very essence of the American 
spirit. He said:

       Whether we seek it or not, whether we like it or not, we 
     Americans are keepers of the miracles. We are asked to be 
     guardians of a place to come to, a place to start again, a 
     place to live in the dignity God meant for his children. May 
     it ever be so.

  President Reagan concluded that morning. Needless to say, President 
Reagan's final radio address was quite literally a tough act to follow. 
In my remarks, I praised him for his love of country, for his fervent 
devotion to freedom, and for his commitment to the values of faith, 
flag, and family. I was, as I put it then, inspired and encouraged by 
his patriotism, and I urged all Americans to ``work on our unfinished 
business and the challenges ahead with the spirit of purpose and 
confidence that is the legacy of the Reagan years.''
  Today, 22 years later, I continue to feel deeply honored that I was 
able to deliver those remarks and evermore confident of the importance 
of Ronald Reagan's legacy to us and the generations of Americans to 
come. The optimism, moral clarity, and confidence President Reagan 
radiated inspired a generation, and they are precisely the ideals we 
need today to rekindle and reinspire the current generation of 
Americans and others, frankly, living without freedom around the world.
  I didn't always agree with President Reagan. That is a matter of 
public record. But I always understood the enduring value and strength 
and sincerity of his faith in America's values and America's destiny. 
In 1980, Ronald Reagan promised to make America great again. And he 
did. He expressed with total confidence that those who would challenge 
our hard-won freedoms would collapse. And they did.
  He led our country and the free world to victory in the Cold War 
against Soviet communism, and he never doubted for a moment that 
America and our cause could and would prevail. When in 1977 Ronald 
Reagan was asked about his vision for the end of the Cold War--
remember, he was not yet President--he responded with characteristic 
and refreshing directness. He said:

       My idea of American policy toward the Soviet Union is 
     simple, and some would say simplistic. It is this: We win and 
     they lose.

  Well, President Reagan's understanding of world affairs was far from 
simplistic. He was an optimist without illusions, who guided by and, 
frankly, expressed moral judgments about what was right and what was 
wrong. We do not see that enough today. There is a kind of relativism 
afoot. But some things are just plain wrong, and some things, thank 
God, are just plain right.
  President Reagan had the moral clarity to make distinctions between 
good and evil and the moral courage to speak the truth of those 
distinctions unambiguously and to support them unwaveringly.
  When he addressed an audience of veterans and world leaders 
commemorating the 40th anniversary of D-day, standing as he spoke on 
the windswept coast of northern France, the very clifftop in Normandy 
where courageous allied soldiers fought to liberate Europe from the 
yoke of Nazi tyranny, President Reagan magnificently, masterfully, 
compellingly revealed again his moral clarity, and I am honored to 
quote these words today on this floor.

       The men of Normandy had faith that what they were doing was 
     right, faith that they fought for all humanity, faith that a 
     just God would grant them mercy on this beachhead, or on the 
     next. It was the deep knowledge--and pray God we have not 
     lost it--that there is a profound moral difference between 
     the use of force for liberation and the use of force for 
     conquest. You were here--

  He said to the veterans--

     to liberate, not to conquer, and so you and those others did 
     not doubt your cause. And you were right not to doubt. You 
     all knew that some things are worth dying for. One's country 
     is worth dying for, and democracy is worth dying for, because 
     it's the most deeply honorable form of government ever 
     devised by man. All of you loved liberty. All of you were 
     willing to fight tyranny, and you knew the people of your 
     countries were behind you.

  It is thrilling just to read those words again. Yet President Reagan 
never spoke about America's enemies belligerently; rather, he spoke 
firmly and frankly about the deep divide between our morality and that 
of the Soviet Union. In doing so, I think he reawakened in all of us 
the belief that every human being has the potential to change history 
because history, as Reagan knew, was not by abstract inexorable forces, 
but by real live men and women.
  It was President Ronald Reagan who came to the defense of the 
dissidents in their fight against the Soviet Union and reminded the 
world that a single courageous human face, a single courageous voice 
can tear down the faceless inhumanity of a massive repressive system 
such as the Soviet Union.
  The great Soviet dissident and later Israeli leader and human rights 
activist Natan Sharansky once shared with me his memory of the moment 
he first learned of President Reagan's 1982 speech before the British 
Parliament, the speech in which Reagan described the Soviet Union as an 
evil empire.

  There were some in this country who thought that was much too stark 
and disrespectful. But Sharansky, who was a prisoner for nearly a 
decade in the Soviet gulag, described to me how word of Reagan's speech 
spread through that heartless prison and he and his fellow dissidents 
tapped on walls and talked through pipes and even toilets to 
communicate the extraordinary news that the leader of the free world 
had spoken the truth, a truth, as Sharansky put it, ``that burned 
inside the heart of each and every one of us.''
  Indeed, President Reagan was willing to expose an inconvenient truth 
about the Soviet Union that unsettled and unnerved some of his 
contemporaries who feared his undiplomatic words were a threat to 
stability. The truth is, they were. President Reagan refused to accept 
the stability of an authoritarian status quo that consigned millions of 
people to live under perpetual tyranny. So he did challenge the 
stability of the Berlin Wall and the gulag as the Stasi. In doing so, 
his moral courage helped inspire the men and women who brought down the 
Iron Curtain and expanded the frontiers of freedom.
  In his approach to foreign policy, President Reagan embodied that 
quintessentially American combination of idealism and pragmatism. He 
understood what America was about, which is freedom and opportunity. He 
fought to extend those great values here at home and throughout the 
world.
  In his final words to the Nation as our President, in a radio address 
on that January morning 22 years ago, President Reagan shared a story 
about a meeting Winston Churchill had with a group of American 
journalists in 1952. It was a time when many doubted whether the West 
could meet the challenges of the Cold War and prevail.
  Churchill asked the reporters:

       What other nation in history, when it became supremely 
     powerful, has had no thought of territorial aggrandizement, 
     no ambition but to use its resources for the good of the 
     world? I marvel at America's altruism, her sublime 
     disinterestedness.

  Churchill's friend and physician, Lord Moran, described the Prime 
Minister's demeanor as he spoke:

       All at once I realized Winston was in tears. His eyes were 
     red. His voice faltered. He was deeply moved.

  President Reagan was drawn to that story in his final radio address 
to the Nation 22 years ago because he understood that in that moment 
Churchill understood and acknowledged the greatness of the American 
spirit. Imperfect though we are as human beings, it is the spirit that 
explains who we are and expresses all we aspire to be. He saw America's 
devotion to a cause that has defined us for over two centuries, a cause 
greater than our own individual self-interest or even national self-
interest very often and that has given an enduring purpose to our 
national destiny. That is the cause of human dignity and human freedom.
  At a time when we face many challenges both at home and abroad and 
when it has, unfortunately, become fashionable to suggest that our best 
days as a nation are behind us, President Reagan's optimism and his 
abiding faith in America are more important to remember than ever 
before. They are as wise as they are true. Our shared national destiny 
has always inspired us as Americans and propelled

[[Page S514]]

us forward together. It is the spirit that Ronald Reagan reinspired in 
America at a time of great peril. It is spirit, at this time of peril 
here at home and around the world, that can carry us forward and 
continue to make us the greatest Nation on Earth and the last best hope 
of mankind.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Sanders). The Senator from Tennessee.
  Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, I appreciate the remarks of the Senator 
from Connecticut. I am glad I had the opportunity to hear them.
  I, too, am here to celebrate Ronald Reagan's life, born 100 years 
ago, but also his nearly 50 years of influence on American public 
policy. I begin in this way. A few years ago when he was President, 
President Reagan attended one of the many Washington press dinners held 
here. I think it was the Gridiron dinner. It was well known to 90 
percent of the people in the audience that members of the press had a 
different point of view on politics than he did, but they liked him 
anyway, and they respected him, just as he respected them. I remember 
that evening that he strode into the Gridiron dinner smiling and 
looking like a million bucks. The press rose and smiled back and 
applauded him. President Reagan stood in front of the media until the 
applause subsided and then he said:

       Thank you very much. I know how hard it is to clap with 
     your fingers crossed.

  The media laughed. They had a wonderful time with President Reagan.
  The first thing we think about, those of us who had a chance to know 
him--and that was a great many of us--is that Ronald Reagan was a very 
friendly, congenial man, an easy person to know, the kind of person one 
would enjoy spending time with. He was very comfortable, as we say, in 
his own skin. What we saw in private was what everybody else saw in 
public.
  Ronald Reagan was about more than being friendly and congenial. Each 
of us has a personal story of his or her connection to President 
Reagan. I have mine, and I wish this as an example.
  Sixteen years ago this month I stood, as a great many Members of this 
body have, on the front porch of my hometown courthouse. In my case, it 
was in Maryville, TN. There I announced my candidacy for President of 
the United States. It was an offer the people of the United States did 
not accept. My preacher brother-in-law said I should consider that 
defeat as a reverse calling. I have, and I have gone on to other 
things.
  As an example of the influence President Reagan had on my generation 
and others, let me read an example of what I said in 1995, 16 years 
ago:

       Thirty years ago Ronald Reagan, before he was elected to 
     any public office, made an address called ``A Time For 
     Choosing.'' He said that in America freedom is our greatest 
     value, and that then there were two great threats: communism 
     abroad and big government at home.
       Looking back over those last 30 years, I suppose we could 
     say, one down and one to go. Communism, the evil empire, has 
     virtually disappeared. But big government at home has become 
     an arrogant empire, obnoxious and increasingly irrelevant in 
     a telecommunications age. In every neighborhood in America, 
     the government in Washington is stepping on the promise of 
     American Life. The New American Revolution is about lifting 
     that yoke from the backs of American teachers, farmers, 
     business men and women, college presidents, and homeless 
     shelter directors and giving us the freedom to make decisions 
     for ourselves.
       Ronald Reagan put it this way in 1964: ``This is the issue 
     of the election. Whether we believe in our capacity for self 
     government or whether we abandon the American Revolution and 
     confess that a little intellectual elite in a far distant 
     capital can plan our lives for us better than we can plan 
     ourselves.''
       That was also the issue of the election in 1994. It will be 
     the issue of 1996, and for years to come. It took 30 years of 
     unfashionable principled leadership by the last Republican 
     Washington outsider who became President to help collapse the 
     evil empire. Now is a good time to give another Republican 
     Washington outsider the opportunity to help put some humility 
     into the arrogant empire in Washington, D.C.

  So we see that the issues of 1964, the issues of 1994, the issues of 
2010, and most likely the issues of 2012 and 2016 and beyond have a lot 
of similarities.
  Over that half century, Ronald Reagan was the finest spokesman for 
that point of view, the finest and the most persuasive.
  We Americans say anything is possible. Nothing symbolizes that more 
than the American Presidency. We see it in President Obama today, we 
saw it in President Lincoln, we saw it in President Truman, we saw it 
in President Eisenhower, and we saw it in Ronald Reagan. No President 
symbolized that more in the last half century than President Reagan 
did, though. He reminded us of what it means to be an American. He 
lifted our spirits, he made us proud, he strengthened our character, 
and he taught us a great many lessons. We celebrate the centennial of 
his birth and the half century of his influence in public life.
  I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record Ronald Reagan's 
speech ``A Time for Choosing,'' given on October 27, 1964, which 
launched him into public debate in the United States.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                 Ronald Reagan--``A Time for Choosing''

                           (October 27, 1964)

       Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you and good evening. 
     The sponsor has been identified, but unlike most television 
     programs, the performer hasn't been provided with a script. 
     As a matter of fact, I have been permitted to choose my own 
     words and discuss my own ideas regarding the choice that we 
     face in the next few weeks.
       I have spent most of my life as a Democrat. I recently have 
     seen fit to follow another course. I believe that the issues 
     confronting us cross party lines. Now, one side in this 
     campaign has been telling us that the issues of this election 
     are the maintenance of peace and prosperity. The line has 
     been used, ``We've never had it so good.''
       But I have an uncomfortable feeling that this prosperity 
     isn't something on which we can base our hopes for the 
     future. No nation in history has ever survived a tax burden 
     that reached a third of its national income. Today, 37 cents 
     out of every dollar earned in this country is the tax 
     collector's share, and yet our government continues to spend 
     17 million dollars a day more than the government takes in. 
     We haven't balanced our budget 28 out of the last 34 years. 
     We've raised our debt limit three times in the last twelve 
     months, and now our national debt is one and a half times 
     bigger than all the combined debts of all the nations of the 
     world. We have 15 billion dollars in gold in our treasury; we 
     don't own an ounce. Foreign dollar claims are 27.3 billion 
     dollars. And we've just had announced that the dollar of 1939 
     will now purchase 45 cents in its total value.
       As for the peace that we would preserve, I wonder who among 
     us would like to approach the wife or mother whose husband or 
     son has died in South Vietnam and ask them if they think this 
     is a peace that should be maintained indefinitely. Do they 
     mean peace, or do they mean we just want to be left in peace? 
     There can be no real peace while one American is dying some 
     place in the world for the rest of us. We're at war with the 
     most dangerous enemy that has ever faced mankind in his long 
     climb from the swamp to the stars, and it's been said if we 
     lose that war, and in so doing lose this way of freedom of 
     ours, history will record with the greatest astonishment that 
     those who had the most to lose did the least to prevent its 
     happening. Well I think it's time we ask ourselves if we 
     still know the freedoms that were intended for us by the 
     Founding Fathers.
       Not too long ago, two friends of mine were talking to a 
     Cuban refugee, a businessman who had escaped from Castro, and 
     in the midst of his story one of my friends turned to the 
     other and said, ``We don't know how lucky we are.'' And the 
     Cuban stopped and said, ``How lucky you are? I had someplace 
     to escape to.'' And in that sentence he told us the entire 
     story. If we lose freedom here, there's no place to escape 
     to. This is the last stand on earth.
       And this idea that government is beholden to the people, 
     that it has no other source of power except the sovereign 
     people, is still the newest and the most unique idea in all 
     the long history of man's relation to man.
       This is the issue of this election: Whether we believe in 
     our capacity for self-government or whether we abandon the 
     American revolution and confess that a little intellectual 
     elite in a far-distant capitol can plan our lives for us 
     better than we can plan them ourselves.
       You and I are told increasingly we have to choose between a 
     left or right. Well I'd like to suggest there is no such 
     thing as a left or right. There's only an up or down--[up] 
     man's old--old-aged dream, the ultimate in individual freedom 
     consistent with law and order, or down to the ant heap of 
     totalitarianism. And regardless of their sincerity, their 
     humanitarian motives, those who would trade our freedom for 
     security have embarked on this downward course.
       In this vote-harvesting time, they use terms like the 
     ``Great Society,'' or as we were told a few days ago by the 
     President, we must accept a greater government activity in 
     the affairs of the people. But they've been a little more 
     explicit in the past and among themselves; and all of the 
     things I now will quote have appeared in print. These are not 
     Republican accusations. For example, they have voices that 
     say, ``The cold war

[[Page S515]]

     will end through our acceptance of a not undemocratic 
     socialism.'' Another voice says, ``The profit motive has 
     become outmoded. It must be replaced by the incentives of the 
     welfare state.'' Or, ``Our traditional system of individual 
     freedom is incapable of solving the complex problems of the 
     20th century.'' Senator Fullbright has said at Stanford 
     University that the Constitution is outmoded. He referred to 
     the President as ``our moral teacher and our leader,'' and he 
     says he is ``hobbled in his task by the restrictions of power 
     imposed on him by this antiquated document.'' He must ``be 
     freed,'' so that he ``can do for us'' what he knows ``is 
     best.'' And Senator Clark of Pennsylvania, another articulate 
     spokesman, defines liberalism as ``meeting the material needs 
     of the masses through the full power of centralized 
     government.''
       Well, I, for one, resent it when a representative of the 
     people refers to you and me, the free men and women of this 
     country, as ``the masses.'' This is a term we haven't applied 
     to ourselves in America. But beyond that, ``the full power of 
     centralized government''--this was the very thing the 
     Founding Fathers sought to minimize. They knew that 
     governments don't control things. A government can't control 
     the economy without controlling people. And they know when a 
     government sets out to do that, it must use force and 
     coercion to achieve its purpose. They also knew, those 
     Founding Fathers, that outside of its legitimate functions, 
     government does nothing as well or as economically as the 
     private sector of the economy.
       Now, we have no better example of this than government's 
     involvement in the farm economy over the last 30 years. Since 
     1955, the cost of this program has nearly doubled. One-fourth 
     of farming in America is responsible for 85 percent of the 
     farm surplus. Three-fourths of farming is out on the free 
     market and has known a 21 percent increase in the per capita 
     consumption of all its produce. You see, that one-fourth of 
     farming--that's regulated and controlled by the federal 
     government. In the last three years we've spent 43 dollars in 
     the feed grain program for every dollar bushel of corn we 
     don't grow.
       Senator Humphrey last week charged that Barry Goldwater, as 
     President, would seek to eliminate farmers. He should do his 
     homework a little better, because he'll find out that we've 
     had a decline of 5 million in the farm population under these 
     government programs. He'll also find that the Democratic 
     administration has sought to get from Congress [an] extension 
     of the farm program to include that three-fourths that is now 
     free. He'll find that they've also asked for the right to 
     imprison farmers who wouldn't keep books as prescribed by the 
     federal government. The Secretary of Agriculture asked for 
     the right to seize farms through condemnation and resell them 
     to other individuals. And contained in that same program was 
     a provision that would have allowed the federal government to 
     remove 2 million farmers from the soil.
       At the same time, there's been an increase in the 
     Department of Agriculture employees. There's now one for 
     every 30 farms in the United States, and still they can't 
     tell us how 66 shiploads of grain headed for Austria 
     disappeared without a trace and Billie Sol Estes never left 
     shore.
       Every responsible farmer and farm organization has 
     repeatedly asked the government to free the farm economy, but 
     how--who are farmers to know what's best for them? The wheat 
     farmers voted against a wheat program. The government passed 
     it anyway. Now the price of bread goes up; the price of wheat 
     to the farmer goes down.
       Meanwhile, back in the city, under urban renewal the 
     assault on freedom carries on. Private property rights [are] 
     so diluted that public interest is almost anything a few 
     government planners decide it should be. In a program that 
     takes from the needy and gives to the greedy, we see such 
     spectacles as in Cleveland, Ohio, a million-and-a-half-dollar 
     building completed only three years ago must be destroyed to 
     make way for what government officials call a ``more 
     compatible use of the land.'' The President tells us he's now 
     going to start building public housing units in the 
     thousands, where heretofore we've only built them in the 
     hundreds. But FHA [Federal Housing Authority] and the 
     Veterans Administration tell us they have 120,000 housing 
     units they've taken back through mortgage foreclosure. For 
     three decades, we've sought to solve the problems of 
     unemployment through government planning, and the more the 
     plans fail, the more the planners plan. The latest is the 
     Area Redevelopment Agency.
       They've just declared Rice County, Kansas, a depressed 
     area. Rice County, Kansas, has two hundred oil wells, and the 
     14,000 people there have over 30 million dollars on deposit 
     in personal savings in their banks. And when the government 
     tells you you're depressed, lie down and be depressed.
       We have so many people who can't see a fat man standing 
     beside a thin one without coming to the conclusion the fat 
     man got that way by taking advantage of the thin one. So 
     they're going to solve all the problems of human misery 
     through government and government planning. Well, now, if 
     government planning and welfare had the answer--and they've 
     had almost 30 years of it--shouldn't we expect government to 
     read the score to us once in a while? Shouldn't they be 
     telling us about the decline each year in the number of 
     people needing help? The reduction in the need for public 
     housing?
       But the reverse is true. Each year the need grows greater; 
     the program grows greater. We were told four years ago that 
     17 million people went to bed hungry each night. Well that 
     was probably true. They were all on a diet. But now we're 
     told that 9.3 million families in this country are poverty-
     stricken on the basis of earning less than 3,000 dollars a 
     year. Welfare spending [is] 10 times greater than in the dark 
     depths of the Depression. We're spending 45 billion dollars 
     on welfare. Now do a little arithmetic, and you'll find that 
     if we divided the 45 billion dollars up equally among those 9 
     million poor families, we'd be able to give each family 4,600 
     dollars a year. And this added to their present income should 
     eliminate poverty. Direct aid to the poor, however, is only 
     running only about 600 dollars per family. It would seem that 
     someplace there must be some overhead.
       Now--so now we declare ``war on poverty,'' or ``You, too, 
     can be a Bobby Baker.'' Now do they honestly expect us to 
     believe that if we add 1 billion dollars to the 45 billion 
     we're spending, one more program to the 30-odd we have--and 
     remember, this new program doesn't replace any, it just 
     duplicates existing programs--do they believe that poverty is 
     suddenly going to disappear by magic? Well, in all fairness I 
     should explain there is one part of the new program that 
     isn't duplicated. This is the youth feature. We're now going 
     to solve the dropout problem, juvenile delinquency, by 
     reinstituting something like the old CCC camps (Civilian 
     Conservation Corps), and we're going to put our young people 
     in these camps. But again we do some arithmetic, and we find 
     that we're going to spend each year just on room and board 
     for each young person we help 4,700 dollars a year. We can 
     send them to Harvard for 2,700! Course, don't get me wrong. 
     I'm not suggesting Harvard is the answer to juvenile 
     delinquency.
       But seriously, what are we doing to those we seek to help? 
     Not too long ago, a judge called me here in Los Angeles. He 
     told me of a young woman who'd come before him for a divorce. 
     She had six children, was pregnant with her seventh. Under 
     his questioning, she revealed her husband was a laborer 
     earning 250 dollars a month. She wanted a divorce to get an 
     80 dollar raise. She's eligible for 330 dollars a month in 
     the Aid to Dependent Children Program. She got the idea from 
     two women in her neighborhood who'd already done that very 
     thing.
       Yet anytime you and I question the schemes of the do-
     gooders, we're denounced as being against their humanitarian 
     goals. They say we're always ``against'' things--we're never 
     ``for'' anything.
       Well, the trouble with our liberal friends is not that 
     they're ignorant; it's just that they know so much that isn't 
     so.
       Now--we're for a provision that destitution should not 
     follow unemployment by reason of old age, and to that end 
     we've accepted Social Security as a step toward meeting the 
     problem.
       But we're against those entrusted with this program when 
     they practice deception regarding its fiscal shortcomings, 
     when they charge that any criticism of the program means that 
     we want to end payments to those people who depend on them 
     for a livelihood. They've called it ``insurance'' to us in a 
     hundred million pieces of literature. But then they appeared 
     before the Supreme Court and they testified it was a welfare 
     program. They only use the term ``insurance'' to sell it to 
     the people. And they said Social Security dues are a tax for 
     the general use of the government, and the government has 
     used that tax. There is no fund, because Robert Byers, the 
     actuarial head, appeared before a congressional committee and 
     admitted that Social Security as of this moment is 298 
     billion dollars in the hole. But he said there should be no 
     cause for worry because as long as they have the power to 
     tax, they could always take away from the people whatever 
     they needed to bail them out of trouble. And they're doing 
     just that.
       A young man, 21 years of age, working at an average 
     salary--his Social Security contribution would, in the open 
     market, buy him an insurance policy that would guarantee 220 
     dollars a month at age 65. The government promises 127. He 
     could live it up until he's 31 and then take out a policy 
     that would pay more than Social Security. Now are we so 
     lacking in business sense that we can't put this program on a 
     sound basis, so that people who do require those payments 
     will find they can get them when they're due--that the 
     cupboard isn't bare?
       Barry Goldwater thinks we can.
       At the same time, can't we introduce voluntary features 
     that would permit a citizen who can do better on his own to 
     be excused upon presentation of evidence that he had made 
     provision for the non-earning years? Should we not allow a 
     widow with children to work, and not lose the benefits 
     supposedly paid for by her deceased husband? Shouldn't you 
     and I be allowed to declare who our beneficiaries will be 
     under this program, which we cannot do? I think we're for 
     telling our senior citizens that no one in this country 
     should be denied medical care because of a lack of funds. But 
     I think we're against forcing all citizens, regardless of 
     need, into a compulsory government program, especially when 
     we have such examples, as was announced last week, when 
     France admitted that their Medicare program is now bankrupt. 
     They've come to the end of the road.
       In addition, was Barry Goldwater so irresponsible when he 
     suggested that our government give up its program of 
     deliberate, planned inflation, so that when you do get

[[Page S516]]

     your Social Security pension, a dollar will buy a dollar's 
     worth, and not 45 cents worth?
       I think we're for an international organization, where the 
     nations of the world can seek peace. But I think we're 
     against subordinating American interests to an organization 
     that has become so structurally unsound that today you can 
     muster a two-thirds vote on the floor of the General Assembly 
     among nations that represent less than 10 percent of the 
     world's population. I think we're against the hypocrisy of 
     assailing our allies because here and there they cling to a 
     colony, while we engage in a conspiracy of silence and never 
     open our mouths about the millions of people enslaved in the 
     Soviet colonies in the satellite nations.
       I think we're for aiding our allies by sharing of our 
     material blessings with those nations which share in our 
     fundamental beliefs, but we're against doling out money 
     government to government, creating bureaucracy, if not 
     socialism, all over the world. We set out to help 19 
     countries. We're helping 107. We've spent 146 billion 
     dollars. With that money, we bought a 2 million dollar yacht 
     for Haile Selassie. We bought dress suits for Greek 
     undertakers, extra wives for Kenya[n] government officials. 
     We bought a thousand TV sets for a place where they have no 
     electricity. In the last six years, 52 nations have bought 7 
     billion dollars worth of our gold, and all 52 are receiving 
     foreign aid from this country.
       No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. So 
     governments' programs, once launched, never disappear.
       Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to 
     eternal life we'll ever see on this earth.
       Federal employees--federal employees number two and a half 
     million; and federal, state, and local, one out of six of the 
     nation's work force employed by government. These 
     proliferating bureaus with their thousands of regulations 
     have cost us many of our constitutional safeguards. How many 
     of us realize that today federal agents can invade a man's 
     property without a warrant? They can impose a fine without a 
     formal hearing, let alone a trial by jury? And they can seize 
     and sell his property at auction to enforce the payment of 
     that fine. In Chico County, Arkansas, James Wier over-planted 
     his rice allotment. The government obtained a 17,000 dollar 
     judgment. And a U.S. marshal sold his 960-acre farm at 
     auction. The government said it was necessary as a warning to 
     others to make the system work.
       Last February 19th at the University of Minnesota, Norman 
     Thomas, six-times candidate for President on the Socialist 
     Party ticket, said, ``If Barry Goldwater became President, he 
     would stop the advance of socialism in the United States.'' I 
     think that's exactly what he will do.
       But as a former Democrat, I can tell you Norman Thomas 
     isn't the only man who has drawn this parallel to socialism 
     with the present administration, because back in 1936, Mr. 
     Democrat himself, Al Smith, the great American, came before 
     the American people and charged that the leadership of his 
     Party was taking the Party of Jefferson, Jackson, and 
     Cleveland down the road under the banners of Marx, Lenin, and 
     Stalin. And he walked away from his Party, and he never 
     returned til the day he died--because to this day, the 
     leadership of that Party has been taking that Party, that 
     honorable Party, down the road in the image of the labor 
     Socialist Party of England.
       Now it doesn't require expropriation or confiscation of 
     private property or business to impose socialism on a people. 
     What does it mean whether you hold the deed to the--or the 
     title to your business or property if the government holds 
     the power of life and death over that business or property? 
     And such machinery already exists. The government can find 
     some charge to bring against any concern it chooses to 
     prosecute. Every businessman has his own tale of harassment. 
     Somewhere a perversion has taken place. Our natural, 
     unalienable rights are now considered to be a dispensation of 
     government, and freedom has never been so fragile, so close 
     to slipping from our grasp as it is at this moment.
       Our Democratic opponents seem unwilling to debate these 
     issues. They want to make you and I believe that this is a 
     contest between two men--that we're to choose just between 
     two personalities.
       Well what of this man that they would destroy--and in 
     destroying, they would destroy that which he represents, the 
     ideas that you and I hold dear? Is he the brash and shallow 
     and trigger-happy man they say he is? Well I've been 
     privileged to know him ``when.'' I knew him long before he 
     ever dreamed of trying for high office, and I can tell you 
     personally I've never known a man in my life I believed so 
     incapable of doing a dishonest or dishonorable thing.
       This is a man who, in his own business before he entered 
     politics, instituted a profit-sharing plan before unions had 
     ever thought of it. He put in health and medical insurance 
     for all his employees. He took 50 percent of the profits 
     before taxes and set up a retirement program, a pension plan 
     for all his employees. He sent monthly checks for life to an 
     employee who was ill and couldn't work. He provides nursing 
     care for the children of mothers who work in the stores. When 
     Mexico was ravaged by the floods in the Rio Grande, he 
     climbed in his airplane and flew medicine and supplies down 
     there.
       An ex-GI told me how he met him. It was the week before 
     Christmas during the Korean War, and he was at the Los 
     Angeles airport trying to get a ride home to Arizona 
     for Christmas. And he said that [there were] a lot of 
     servicemen there and no seats available on the planes. And 
     then a voice came over the loudspeaker and said, ``Any men 
     in uniform wanting a ride to Arizona, go to runway such-
     and-such,'' and they went down there, and there was a 
     fellow named Barry Goldwater sitting in his plane. Every 
     day in those weeks before Christmas, all day long, he'd 
     load up the plane, fly it to Arizona, fly them to their 
     homes, fly back over to get another load.
       During the hectic split-second timing of a campaign, this 
     is a man who took time out to sit beside an old friend who 
     was dying of cancer. His campaign managers were 
     understandably impatient, but he said, ``There aren't many 
     left who care what happens to her. I'd like her to know I 
     care.'' This is a man who said to his 19-year-old son, 
     ``There is no foundation like the rock of honesty and 
     fairness, and when you begin to build your life on that rock, 
     with the cement of the faith in God that you have, then you 
     have a real start.'' This is not a man who could carelessly 
     send other people's sons to war. And that is the issue of 
     this campaign that makes all the other problems I've 
     discussed academic, unless we realize we're in a war that 
     must be won.
       Those who would trade our freedom for the soup kitchen of 
     the welfare state have told us they have a utopian solution 
     of peace without victory. They call their policy 
     ``accommodation.'' And they say if we'll only avoid any 
     direct confrontation with the enemy, he'll forget his evil 
     ways and learn to love us. All who oppose them are indicted 
     as warmongers. They say we offer simple answers to complex 
     problems. Well, perhaps there is a simple answer--not an easy 
     answer--but simple: If you and I have the courage to tell our 
     elected officials that we want our national policy based on 
     what we know in our hearts is morally right.
       We cannot buy our security, our freedom from the threat of 
     the bomb by committing an immorality so great as saying to a 
     billion human beings now enslaved behind the Iron Curtain, 
     ``Give up your dreams of freedom because to save our own 
     skins, we're willing to make a deal with your slave 
     masters.'' Alexander Hamilton said, ``A nation which can 
     prefer disgrace to danger is prepared for a master, and 
     deserves one.'' Now let's set the record straight. There's no 
     argument over the choice between peace and war, but there's 
     only one guaranteed way you can have peace--and you can have 
     it in the next second--surrender.
       Admittedly, there's a risk in any course we follow other 
     than this, but every lesson of history tells us that the 
     greater risk lies in appeasement, and this is the specter our 
     well-meaning liberal friends refuse to face--that their 
     policy of accommodation is appeasement, and it gives no 
     choice between peace and war, only between fight or 
     surrender. If we continue to accommodate, continue to back 
     and retreat, eventually we have to face the final demand--the 
     ultimatum. And what then--when Nikita Khrushchev has told his 
     people he knows what our answer will be? He has told them 
     that we're retreating under the pressure of the Cold War, and 
     someday when the time comes to deliver the final ultimatum, 
     our surrender will be voluntary, because by that time we will 
     have been weakened from within spiritually, morally, and 
     economically. He believes this because from our side he's 
     heard voices pleading for ``peace at any price'' or ``better 
     Red than dead,'' or as one commentator put it, he'd rather 
     ``live on his knees than die on his feet.'' And therein lies 
     the road to war, because those voices don't speak for the 
     rest of us.
       You and I know and do not believe that life is so dear and 
     peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and 
     slavery. If nothing in life is worth dying for, when did this 
     begin--just in the face of this enemy? Or should Moses have 
     told the children of Israel to live in slavery under the 
     pharaohs? Should Christ have refused the cross? Should the 
     patriots at Concord Bridge have thrown down their guns and 
     refused to fire the shot heard 'round the world? The martyrs 
     of history were not fools, and our honored dead who gave 
     their lives to stop the advance of the Nazis didn't die in 
     vain. Where, then, is the road to peace? Well it's a simple 
     answer after all.
       You and I have the courage to say to our enemies, ``There 
     is a price we will not pay.'' ``There is a point beyond which 
     they must not advance.'' And this--this is the meaning in the 
     phrase of Barry Goldwater's ``peace through strength.'' 
     Winston Churchill said, ``The destiny of man is not measured 
     by material computations. When great forces are on the move 
     in the world, we learn we're spirits--not animals.'' And he 
     said, ``There's something going on in time and space, and 
     beyond time and space, which, whether we like it or not, 
     spells duty.''
       You and I have a rendezvous with destiny.
       We'll preserve for our children this, the last best hope of 
     man on earth, or we'll sentence them to take the last step 
     into a thousand years of darkness.
       We will keep in mind and remember that Barry Goldwater has 
     faith in us. He has faith that you and I have the ability and 
     the dignity and the right to make our own decisions and 
     determine our own destiny.
       Thank you very much.

  Mr. ALEXANDER. I ask unanimous consent to print in the Record as well 
remarks I made in Orange County, CA,

[[Page S517]]

on October 28, 1994, on the 30th anniversary of the speech ``A Time for 
Choosing.''
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

              30th Anniversary of Ronald Reagan Revolution

                  (By Lamar Alexander, Oct. 28, 1994)

       I don't think Ronald Reagan would mind if before we get 
     down to business, I told you one Minnie Pearl story. They are 
     pretty good friends. Most people who have run for governor of 
     Tennessee in the past 30-40 years have done so in order to 
     live next door to Minnie Pearl. Her house is next door to the 
     governor's mansion. And, you learn very quickly living next 
     door to Minnie that you don't try to tell a better story than 
     she can; because, she'll one up you.
       I was telling her after I left office about how people 
     would look at me, but they could not remember why they knew 
     they had seen me before. One man up in the mountains walked 
     up and stared me in the face and said, ``Ain't you 
     Alexander?'' I said, ``Yes, sir.'' He stared a while longer 
     and said, ``Well, you sure don't favor yourself.''
       Minnie said, ``Well, let me tell you what happened to me. . 
     . . I was in the elevator in Opryland Hotel, minding my own 
     business, and this tourist from California gets on and looks 
     me up and down and says, `I'll bet a lot of people tell you 
     that you look like Minnie Pearl.' '' She said, ``and I said 
     very sweetly, `Yes, sir, they do,' and, he looked me down a 
     while longer and said, `And, I'll bet it makes you mad, don't 
     it?' ''
       It was reported that several Goldwater aides warned against 
     letting Ronald Reagan make a speech this summer. He'll be 
     inflammatory, they said. Sen. Goldwater intervened and made 
     sure he didn't. And, Ronald Reagan didn't disappoint those 
     aides. He began in this way, ``I am going to speak of 
     controversial things and I make no apologies for this.'' The 
     speech that we saw has made a landmark. It defines the things 
     we Americans value most, our freedom. And, what most menaced 
     that freedom, communists abroad and big government at home. 
     It became a call to arms for conservatives, a rallying point, 
     a promise of hope for the future.
       We are here tonight less than two weeks before another 
     election, one that has taken on all the characteristics of a 
     presidential election. It's become a referendum on the 
     direction of our country. I would like to talk tonight for a 
     few minutes about what the speech, ``A Time for Choosing,'' 
     has meant to America during the last thirty years and what 
     lessons we might learn for the next thirty.
       If I had to put it in one sentence, what we have learned 
     from the last thirty, that the principle threat to freedom 
     abroad has been defeated and the principle of threat at home 
     has gotten more menacing. The evil empire in the Kremlin has 
     collapsed but the government in Washington has become an 
     arrogant empire; spreading its tentacles into our everyday 
     lives.
       I was a student at New York University on October 27, 1964. 
     And, to tell you the truth, I wasn't paying much attention to 
     politics. So, I was struck when I read what we just saw, what 
     Ronald Reagan said about the 1964 campaign. He said, ``This 
     is the issue of the election whether we believe in our 
     capacity for self-government or whether we abandon the 
     American Revolution and confess that a little intellectual 
     elite in a far distant Capitol can plan our lives better than 
     we can plan our lives ourselves.''
       Replace the words ``little intellectual elite'' with an 
     arrogant empire and you have the issue of this election, the 
     one in 10 days, as well. In 1964, Ronald Reagan's talk of 
     peace overseas could have just as easily applied to the 
     dangers of the approaching encroachments of Washington, DC, 
     into our everyday lives at home. He said it. ``Every lesson 
     of history teaches us that the greater risk lies in people. 
     There is a price we will not pay. There is a point beyond 
     which our enemies must not advance. You and I have a 
     rendezvous with destiny. We will preserve for our children 
     this, the last best hope of man on earth that we will 
     sentence them to take the last step into a thousand years of 
     darkness.''
       Those were dramatic words, but these are dramatic events 
     with dramatic consequences. Sometimes we forget just how 
     unproven Ronald Reagan's thinking generally was. Even after 
     he was president. At Westminster, he predicted that the 
     Soviet Union would wind up in the ash heap of history. No 
     other world leader would say anything like that.
       I remember one Sunday in 1984, when I was sitting in a 
     church in Amsterdam, our family had just left Anne Frank's 
     house and were remembering the stories how on another Sunday 
     morning the German tanks had unexpectedly arrived in 1940. 
     I was listening to the minister in that church in 
     Amsterdam denounce the cold war policies, as he said, of 
     Reagan and Begin and Hitler.
       In 1987, when Pres. Reagan was preparing for his speech at 
     the Brandenburg gate, some nervous aides wanted to eliminate 
     the phrase, ``Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.'' They were 
     afraid it was so unlikely that it would seem un-presidential. 
     Pres. Reagan told Martin Anderson, not long ago, that, ``When 
     I called them the evil empire I did it on purpose. I wanted 
     them to know that we saw them for what they were.''
       The evil empires collapsed; the Berlin Wall has come down. 
     And we should never forget that Germany would not be united, 
     that we and the Russians would not be dismantling weapons of 
     mass destruction, that Arafat and Rapine would not have 
     shaken hands, if the Cold War hadn't ended, and the Cold War 
     would not have ended unless President Reagan had persisted in 
     that bold and unfashionable thinking that he outlined in his 
     speech in 1964.
       Unfortunately, the second great menace that Ronald Reagan 
     pointed to in 1964 is if anything more menacing. He said in 
     '64, ``Our government continues to spend $17 million a day 
     more than our government takes in.'' 30 years later our 
     government spends $643 million a day more than our government 
     takes in. Ronald Reagan said in 1964, we haven't balanced our 
     budget for 28 out of the last 34 years. Well, that is still 
     true today, except it is 57 out of the last 64.
       But we don't need statistics to prove that, we see that in 
     our everyday lives. I saw it this summer. Between the 4th of 
     July and Labor Day when I did something many Americans do, I 
     drove across the country. I came to Orange County on that 
     drive. I spent many of the nights on that drive with families 
     I had never met before; eating supper; staying up late 
     talking.
       Driving across America, there are several ways to take the 
     temperature of the country. Bumper stickers, for example. One 
     of them on Interstate 10 in Louisiana said, ``Make welfare as 
     hard to get as a building permit.'' Another one, in Florida 
     said, ``I love my country but I fear my government!' But, as 
     I drove along, I found a better way to take the temperature 
     of the country. And that was by asking a question of the 
     families with whom I stayed, and tonight I would like to ask 
     you to ask yourselves that question, and it is this: 
     ``Looking ahead 30 years, do you believe your children and 
     your grandchildren will have more opportunities growing up in 
     this country than you have had?''
       When I asked that question this summer, I got a lot of long 
     pauses and most people were afraid to say yes. This 
     ambivalence about our future, if it is allowed to persist, 
     will destroy what is special about this country. Namely, our 
     almost irrational belief in the unlimited future of America 
     and that every one of us, no matter where we come from, no 
     matter what our station in life is, has a chance to have a 
     piece of that future. On my drive, I was reminded that we 
     Americans know exactly what is causing that loss of optimism. 
     It is, first, the government in Washington, and it is, 
     second, our drift away from standards and principles and 
     values that have made this such a remarkable country in the 
     first place.
       This is not something that I just heard at Republicans 
     dinners. Father Jerry Hill, for example, runs a homeless 
     shelter in Dallas, Texas. He won't take a federal grant 
     anymore because he has grown tired of filling out forms all 
     day Friday to justify what he has done Monday through 
     Thursday. He says federal grants have made a nation of liars 
     of us; applying for money that we don't need to spend for 
     things we do need. And he is absolutely outraged that the 
     government in Washington is paying $446 a month in Social 
     Security disability benefits to drug addicts. He says, ``I 
     can't help it when they have that kind of support for their 
     addiction.''
       Whether it is a school board member, whether it is a small 
     business man or woman, a teacher, a hospital director, a 
     housing project director, a former Cherokee Indian Chief--I 
     have visited them all and they have had it up to here. They 
     have had it up to here, and they can hardly say in civil 
     terms how much they resent, not just the meddling, but the 
     arrogance of the government in Washington, DC.
       Let me give you an example close to home. Many of you are 
     candidates for the school boards of Orange County. I salute 
     you. I cannot think of anything more important, but, let me 
     ask you this in very blunt terms: Do you really believe that 
     you are too stupid to set the weapons policy for the schools 
     of Orange County? Well, your United States Senator does and 
     most of the Congress agrees with her.
       In fact, the entire Congress passed a thousand-page 
     education bill that takes a great many decisions from you, if 
     you should be elected: The decision about what to say in a 
     parent/teacher conference. The decision about how much 
     school choice could be granted to parents. A definition of 
     what a family is. The decision about whether text books 
     should be replaced with new textbooks that focus on gender 
     equity as defined by the new Assistant Secretary of 
     Education. That all passed in the last week of this 
     session of this Congress. Congress decided all of it and 
     established in addition a sort of national school board, 
     and they are not even embarrassed about it.
       President Clinton and Senator Feinstein held a press 
     conference here in California to say, in effect, that they 
     were proud of the fact that they had taken away the freedom 
     of a thousand California school boards to assign a weapons 
     policy for 7,100 schools and more than 5 million children. 
     Senator Kennedy and President Clinton held a press conference 
     of their own in Massachusetts. And for what? To pat 
     themselves on the back for taking away your freedoms to make 
     decisions in your own neighborhoods in your own schools about 
     how to educate your own children.
       Here is the most powerful lesson of ``A Time for Choosing'' 
     in the last 30 years. With the evil empire, President Reagan 
     did exactly what a president ought to do. He solved

[[Page S518]]

     the menace to freedom. He put aside less important issues. He 
     developed a strategy. He persuaded at least half the people 
     he was right. He persisted. He threw himself unfashionably 
     into it until he wore everyone else out, and then he 
     succeeded.
       Now we must do the same at home. We should train our sights 
     on the arrogant empire in Washington, DC. That is the issue 
     of this election, and it will be issue of 1996 as well.
       In 1992, Bill Clinton had a wonderful opportunity. This 
     country was ready for a new generation of leadership; it 
     wanted to look outside Washington for its answers. President 
     Clinton gave us five minutes of hope and then proceeded to 
     lead us in exactly the wrong direction. Washington taxes, 
     Washington healthcare, a national school board, reinventing 
     everything in Washington, DC. He has help in 2 years to 
     create an even more arrogant empire. Which is why in 
     California, and why in this country, we will be having a 
     Republican sweep in 10 days.
       Whether that dream comes, something else will have been 
     created which is an opportunity a mile wide for the 
     Republican Party. Because the voters will then turn around to 
     us and say, ``Well, what are you guys for?'' And we should 
     not kid ourselves. The voters are not going to be expecting 
     too much from us because our Republican agenda has either 
     been non-existent, or too tempered, so much so that it sounds 
     like usually that about all we can do is be against what the 
     Democrats are for.
       So let us remember Ronald Reagan's example and his boldness 
     and train our sights on the menace of freedom at home in the 
     same way he trained his sights on the mask of freedom abroad. 
     For example, instead of congressional reform at the margins, 
     I say we should cut their pay and send them home. I mean by 
     that that the United States Congress should spend six months 
     in Washington; six months at home and have half as much pay. 
     Let them take a real job, live alongside the rest of us. If 
     you want a Congress of citizens who's more responsive to you 
     than to the lobbyist in Washington, this is the way to do it. 
     The eleven states with the lowest taxes have a legislature 
     that is limited to meeting for 90 days. That would be one 
     thing.
       Instead of reforming welfare in Washington, DC; let's end 
     welfare in Washington, DC. Send them home and send the tax 
     base with them back to the states. Send most of elementary 
     and secondary education and jobs-related there as well. Send 
     some of the departments and agencies, too. No more 
     entitlements, period. Not one more law that imposes an 
     unfunded mandate on a state government or a federal 
     government. Term limits; balanced budget; line-item veto; a 
     wholesale review of the federal rule making authority and an 
     education bill that would free local schools from Washington 
     control; privatize all public housing. All of this will 
     increase our freedoms at home by preventing someone in 
     Washington, DC, from making those decisions for us.
       An agenda like this will catch plenty of flak. Remember 
     Reagan and Begin and Hitler. Already the Washington 
     establishment has said it can't imagine a dumber idea than a 
     citizen Congress. I cannot count the number of nights that I 
     have been in editorial board meetings and been accused of 
     trying to destroy public schools because I suggested that at 
     least poor children ought to have more of the same choices of 
     the best schools--the ones that the members of the editorial 
     board send their children to.
       Approved thinking is not always right thinking. We'll be 
     accused of turning and taking America back to the dark ages. 
     We have already been accused by the Democrats in this 
     election of going as far back as the days of Ronald Reagan. 
     If that is an issue on Election Day, I think I know how the 
     referendum will come out. But, eventually, we will be seen 
     for what we are. Painters of a picture of America's future 
     based on freedom and opportunity.
       I have this prediction to make. The arrogant empire at home 
     will also be consigned to the ash heap. It will for a while 
     be unfashionable to say this and it will seem overly dramatic 
     to suggest that calling a halt to this ``too big for its 
     britches'' government in Washington, DC, is a rendezvous with 
     destiny for this generation but I believe that it is so. And, 
     just as the collapse of the Soviet Union didn't solve all of 
     our problems abroad--in fact it created a much more uncertain 
     and unstable world that we have yet to learn how to grapple 
     with--the devolution of responsibility from Washington, DC, 
     to families, to churches, neighborhoods and schools will put 
     plenty of problems in your hands; the problems that trouble 
     us the most every day. But that is where the responsibility 
     ought to be.
       I was reminded every day, on that drive across America, 
     that we know exactly what to do in this country to put our 
     nation back on track. We will have to do it community by 
     community; family by family; school board by school board. In 
     Murfreesboro, TN, families now have choices of schools 12 
     hours a day; all day, every year at no extra cost to the 
     taxpayer. Reuben Greenberg, the police chief of Charleston, 
     SC, has made even the housing projects as safe as any part of 
     Charleston now that the government lets him kick criminals 
     out of the housing projects. Reverend Henry Delaney has 
     cleaned up the crack houses on 32nd street in Savannah and he 
     knows what to do about welfare if someone in Washington will 
     stop reinventing it long enough to ask him. And, Dan 
     Biederman is taking whole blocks of New York City and with a 
     private company making those blocks safe and clean and free 
     from homeless. My own answer to the question, ``Looking ahead 
     30 years, do you believe your children and grandchildren will 
     have more opportunity growing up in this country than you 
     have had?'' is absolutely yes, because I am going to do 
     everything in my power to see that they do, because that was 
     done for me.
       When I was appointed Secretary of Education, the New York 
     Times felt obligated to write that, Mr. Alexander grew up in 
     a lower-middle class family in the mountains of Eastern 
     Tennessee. That was alright with me, but not, I discovered, 
     when I called home the next week, alright with my mother, who 
     was literally reading Thessalonians to gain strength for how 
     to deal with this slur on the family. ``We never thought of 
     ourselves that way,'' she said. ``You had a library card from 
     the day you were three and music lessons from the day you 
     were four; you had everything you needed that was 
     important.''
       And, I also had a grandfather who ran away from home when 
     he was eight; somehow got to Oklahoma and became a railroad 
     engineer and finally retired back to the mountains just in 
     time to instruct us growing up in Maryville, ``Aim for the 
     top there's more room there.'' So we grew up thinking we 
     could be the railroad engineer, or the English teacher, or 
     the school board member, or the principal or the governor or 
     even the President of the United States.
       If some president had come on the radio offering me and my 
     friends growing up a government credit card with benefits for 
     the rest of my life, my grandfather would have thrown his 
     boot through the radio because that was not his idea of 
     America's future. When I was 5 years old, I visited my 
     grandfather who was then a switch engineer in Newton, Kansas, 
     a division point of the Santa Fe Railway. His job was to push 
     and pull those huge belching steam engines into the round 
     house put them on the turntable, turn them around and head 
     them in the right direction.
       Our country today is like one of those steam engines. It is 
     headed in exactly the wrong direction, and in the election 10 
     days from now, we have to slow it down and get it on the 
     turntable and turn it around and, at least by 1996, get it 
     headed in the right direction. That is the challenge for our 
     party and for our country.
       I couldn't conclude this evening without acknowledging the 
     magic of Ronald Reagan. The storyteller in this case was at 
     least as important as the story. The speech would have just 
     been a speech in anyone else's hands. He made sure he had his 
     feet planted firmly on the ground before he entered public 
     life and he kept them there. He knew and we knew where he 
     stood. He assumed no false importance.
       He seemed to know his job was not to change everyone's mind 
     but to speak the mind of the voters, of the citizens, and not 
     be swayed by elites who told ordinary people they were too 
     stupid to know what to do. He was firm and civil and eloquent 
     and optimistic in his presidency. He appealed to the best of 
     us. He knew and knows the value of a good story. And he knew, 
     as President, that with the right purpose in that office, if 
     he threw everything he had into it, he could wear everybody 
     else out. That is how he helped to defeat the evil empire 
     that threatened freedom in his generation and that is how in 
     this generation that we, standing on Ronald Reagan's 
     shoulders, can finish his work and expand our freedoms by 
     dismantling the arrogant empire at home.
       Thank you.

  Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to print in the 
Record remarks I made in tribute to President Reagan in June of 2004.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

    Senate Floor Remarks of Sen. Lamar Alexander--Tribute to Former 
                        President Ronald Reagan

                             (June 7, 2004)

       Mr. President, a few years ago when Ronald Reagan was 
     President of the United States, he attended one of the many 
     press dinners which are held. I think it was the Gridiron 
     Dinner. I think it is well known that maybe 90 percent of the 
     press corps in Washington had a different point of view on 
     issues than Pres. Reagan did, but they liked him anyway, and 
     they respected him and he had fun with them, just as they did 
     with him.
       I remember on that evening he strode into the Gridiron 
     Dinner looking like a million dollars, smiling big. The press 
     rose, smiling back, applauding. Pres. Reagan stood in front 
     of them until it subsided, and then he said to his 
     adversaries in the media, ``Thank you very much--I know how 
     hard it is to clap with your fingers crossed.'' And they 
     laughed, and they had a wonderful time with Pres. Reagan.
       The first thing we think about, those of us who had any 
     opportunity to get to know him--a great many of us--was that 
     Ronald Reagan was a very friendly man. He was a congenial 
     person, an easy person to know, the kind of person you want 
     to spend a lot of time with, if you had the opportunity, and 
     that what you saw in private was what everyone else saw in 
     public.
       Howard Baker, the former majority leader of the Senate when 
     Ronald Reagan was president, got to know him especially well. 
     And

[[Page S519]]

     then in 1987, Pres. Reagan invited former Sen. Baker to come 
     to be his chief of staff, which he was for nearly two years.
       I remember Sen. Baker telling me that, to his surprise, 
     when his 9 a.m. meetings came every morning with Pres. 
     Reagan, he discovered that Mr. Reagan had a funny little 
     story to tell to Sen. Baker, his chief of staff. What 
     surprised Sen. Baker even more was Pres. Reagan expected Sen. 
     Baker to have a funny little story to tell back. So for that 
     two years, virtually every morning at 9 a.m., when the 
     president of the United States and the chief of staff of the 
     White House met, they swapped funny little stories. It is 
     very reassuring to me that two men who have maybe the two 
     biggest jobs in the world were comfortable enough with 
     themselves, each other, and their responsibilities to begin 
     the day in that sort of easy way. That is the part of Ronald 
     Reagan we think more about.
       Another part of Ronald Reagan which I think is often 
     overlooked is that he was a man of big ideas. I would say 
     intellectual, although I guess there is a little difference 
     between being devoted to ideals and being intellectual but 
     not much difference.
       Unlike most people who are candidates for president of the 
     United States, Ronald Reagan wrote many of his own speeches. 
     When he had a few minutes, he would sit in the back of a 
     campaign airplane and make notes on cards in the shorthand 
     that he had. His former aide, Marty Anderson, has written a 
     book about that and told that, to a great extent, Ronald 
     Reagan's words were his own words, ideas he expressed or 
     ideas he gathered himself and ideas he had thought through 
     and wanted to promulgate.
       Maybe that is partly why he seemed so comfortable with 
     himself when he finally entered public life. He came to it 
     late in life. He was age 55 when he became governor of 
     California, so by then he knew what he thought, and he had a 
     sense of purpose, and he knew what he wanted to do.
       I got an idea of that kind of big thinking when I went to 
     see Pres. Reagan in my third year as governor, his first year 
     as president in 1981. I talked to him about a big swap which 
     I thought would help our country.
       I suggested, the Federal Government take over all of 
     Medicaid and let the State and local governments take over 
     all responsibility for kindergarten through 12th grade. That 
     would make it clear, I said, where the responsibility lies. 
     You cannot fix schools from Washington, and it would make 
     more efficient our health care system if we did things that 
     way. He liked the idea. It fit his unconventional brand of 
     thinking. He advocated it. It was a little too revolutionary 
     for most people in Washington in the early 1980s.
       He had the same sort of unconventional attitude toward 
     national defense policy. Many people overlooked the fact that 
     Ronald Reagan did not just want us to have as many nuclear 
     weapons as the Soviet empire did; he wanted to get rid of 
     nuclear weapons. He saw them as wrong, as bad, and he wanted 
     a world without nuclear weapons. Instead of mutual assured 
     destruction, which was the doctrine at the time, he built up 
     our strength so we could begin to reduce nuclear weapons and 
     then unilaterally begin to do it before the Soviets did, 
     hoping they would then follow. We can see the results.
       At the time, some people said Ronald Reagan was naive to 
     think we could transfer power from Washington, from an 
     arrogant empire at home or naive to think we could face down 
     an evil empire abroad. And especially naive to think our 
     policy should be based upon getting rid of nuclear weapons. 
     It turned out Ronald Reagan saw further than most of those 
     critics did.
       Perhaps his most famous speech, not my favorite speech--my 
     favorite speech is the one we heard a lot about this weekend, 
     20 years ago at Normandy, which moved the whole world to 
     tears and reminded Americans why we are Americans and what we 
     fought for--but his most famous speech may be the one in 1987 
     at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin where he said, ``Mr. 
     Gorbachev, tear down this wall.''
       Earlier this year, I visited Berlin with John Kornblum who 
     at the time was U.S. minister and deputy commandant in the 
     American sector of West Berlin where tanks challenged tanks 
     and white crosses marked grave sites of those who were killed 
     trying to escape over the wall from East Berlin. Mr. Kornblum 
     talked about the development of that speech that Ronald 
     Reagan gave that day. Those words, or the thought, ``tear 
     down this wall,'' went into the speech at an early stage. 
     Some fought to keep it in. Many fought to take it out. Those 
     who had thought Ronald Reagan was wrong to say the Soviet 
     Union was an evil empire were not anxious for him to say, 
     ``tear down this wall.''
       Some suggested that Pres. Reagan try his hand at German as 
     Pres. Kennedy had in a memorable speech at the Berlin Wall in 
     the early 1960s. Some suggested that the speech should not be 
     made at the Brandenburg Gate. That was too provocative, Mr. 
     Kornblum remembers. But the speech was made at the 
     Brandenburg Gate, and Mr. Reagan did keep his words in that 
     speech. He did make his point, and his point was clear, ``Mr. 
     Gorbachev, tear down this wall.''
       For those of us who had a chance to see the new countries 
     of Eastern Europe and their enthusiasm for freedom and for a 
     free market system, we can see the legacy of Ronald Reagan 
     and his unconventional thinking.
       I think it is important for us to remember that this genial 
     president was a man of ideas, of all the presidents I have 
     worked with, as much a man of ideas as any one of those 
     presidents.
       Ronald Reagan also taught us something about leadership. I 
     recall in 1980 when he and Mrs. Reagan visited the Tennessee 
     governor's mansion during the presidential campaign. I had 
     not known him very well. He had served as governor. He was 
     several years older. He was from the west. It was really my 
     first chance to meet him. After one hour or an hour-and-a-
     half of breakfast with him the next morning, I remember going 
     away thinking this man has a better concept of the presidency 
     than anyone I have ever been privileged to meet.
       Ronald Reagan understood what George Reedy said in his 
     book, ``The Twilight of the Presidency,'' is the definition 
     of presidential leadership: First, see an urgent need; 
     second, develop a strategy to meet the need; and, third, 
     persuade at least half the people that you are right. Ronald 
     Reagan was as good as anyone at persuading at least half the 
     people that he was right. He taught that and he also taught 
     us the importance of proceeding from principles.
       Sometimes we are described in Washington these days as 
     being too ideological, too uncompromising, too partisan. 
     Pres. Reagan was a principled man. He operated from 
     principles in all of his decisions, insofar as I knew. He 
     advocated his principles as far as he could take them, but he 
     recognized that the great decisions that we make here are 
     often conflicts between principles on which all of us agree. 
     It might be equal opportunity versus the rule of law. And 
     once we have argued our principle and the solution, and 
     strategy has been taken as far as it could go, if we get, as 
     he said 75, 80, or 85 percent of what we advocated, well, 
     then that is a pretty good job.
       So, he was very successful because he argued from 
     principles. He argued strenuously. He was good at persuading 
     at least half the people he was right. Then he was willing to 
     accept a conclusion because most of our politics is about the 
     conflict of principles.
       There is another lesson that he taught us, and that was to 
     respect the military. Now, that seems unnecessary to say in 
     the year 2004 where we have a volunteer military that is 
     better than any military we have ever had in our history; 
     when we have witnessed the thousands of acts of courage, 
     charity, kindness, and ingenuity in Iraq and Afghanistan 
     recently; when the men and women of our National Guard and 
     reserves are also being called up. We have a lot of respect 
     for our military.
       In 1980, we were showing a lot less respect for the men and 
     women of our military. I remember riding with Pres. Reagan in 
     a car in Knoxville during the 1980 campaign. As we pulled out 
     of the airport by the National Guard unit, there were a 
     number of the soldiers waving at him, understanding and 
     sensing that he respected them. He turned to me and said 
     something like this: I wish we could think of some way to 
     honor these men and women more. He said we used to do that in 
     the movies in the 1930s and 1940s. We would make movies 
     honoring men and women in the military and that is how we 
     showed our respect for them.
       Well, he did find a way to honor them during his presidency 
     in the 1980s, and by the time he left at the end of that 
     decade, there was no question that the American people 
     remembered to honor the men and women in the military.
       There is one other aspect of Pres. Reagan's leadership that 
     I would like to mention, which is probably the most important 
     aspect of the American character, and that is the belief that 
     anything is possible. The idea that we uniquely believe in 
     this country, and people all around the world think we are a 
     little odd for believing it, is that no matter where you come 
     from, no matter what race you are, no matter what color your 
     skin, if you come here and work hard, anything is possible.
       That is why we subscribe to ideals such as all men are 
     created equal, even though we know achieving that goal will 
     always be a work in progress, and we may never reach it. That 
     is why we say we will ``pay any price, bear any burden,'' as 
     Pres. Kennedy said, to defend peace, even though we know that 
     is a work in progress, and we may never reach it.
       That is why we say more recently we want to leave no child 
     behind when it comes to learning to read. We know that is a 
     work in progress, and we may not reach it, but that is our 
     goal.
       We Americans say that anything is possible, and nothing 
     symbolizes that more than the American presidency. And no 
     president has symbolized that more in the last century than 
     Ronald Reagan. He has reminded us of what it means to be an 
     American. He lifted our spirits, he made us proud, he 
     strengthened our character, and he taught us a great many 
     lessons.

  Mr. ALEXANDER. I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from South Dakota.
  Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I rise to join with my colleagues. I 
appreciate what the Senator from Tennessee had to say about our former 
President, as we look upon his 100th birthday coming up this weekend 
and all of us pay tribute to the legacy he gave this country and the 
tremendous contributions he made during his time in office.
  We all have different remembrances of his Presidency. I was a 
sophomore in college when he was elected to his first term as 
President. It was the first election in which I had the opportunity to

[[Page S520]]

vote. I guess I could say I was sort of coming of age at the time he 
was coming on the national political stage. He had run for President 4 
years earlier.
  I remember, as a young person, beginning to pay a little bit of 
attention to politics, at the time being so impressed with the 
attributes that characterized him personally and were primarily 
responsible for his tremendous success as President and for the great 
legacy he left behind.
  I was someone who grew up in a small town in South Dakota, and my 
father and mother had both come through the Great Depression. They were 
similar in terms of their remembrances of that period and could 
identify in many respects with some of the things President Reagan 
talked about.
  But he was a person of strong convictions. I think he had a strength 
of conviction that was really appealing to a lot of Americans. He was 
someone who believed in American exceptionalism. He understood that the 
greatness of this country was not in its government institutions but in 
its peoples and its ideals.
  He was someone who was willing to confront the threats we faced 
around the world. The way he took on the threat of communism and 
promoted freedom and democracy around the globe is something for which 
he will always be remembered, not only here at home but by other 
countries around the world.
  I think he possessed, in many respects, a lot of the qualities we 
value in the Midwest. He was a very humble person. I think his humility 
is something that really stood out. He was always referred to as 
``Dutch Reagan'' in his growing up, his formative years. I think the 
impact he had on this country was because he saw himself as just an 
ordinary American like every other American, and he was able to connect 
and identify with the challenges and the opportunities that were facing 
Americans across this country at the time.
  I think he also possessed, although he was the Governor of 
California, a midwestern sensibility that never left. He had, in many 
respects, values that, as I said before, many of us in the Midwest find 
really important--his belief that you ought to live within your means. 
His sort of midwestern bedrock values of individual responsibility were 
things he always touched upon, themes he referenced in his remarks. I 
think those were the types of qualities that really differentiated him 
on the national stage.
  I remember, too, as a young person being impressed with his sense of 
humor. Often today there are serious matters we deal with, matters of 
great gravity and great weight, and they need to be taken with the 
right level of seriousness. But he also was able to see the best in 
people and to use his sense of humor to connect with people about what 
was really distinctive and really unique about America.
  I remember the story that was told while we were fighting the Cold 
War about the guy in the Soviet Union who went in to buy a car, and he 
said: I want to buy a car.
  The guy at the transportation bureau said: Well, you can have your 
black sedan and you can pick it up 10 years from today.
  The guy thought about it for a minute, and he said: Will that be in 
the morning or in the afternoon?
  The guy at the transportation bureau said: What difference does it 
make? It is 10 years from now.
  And the guy said: Well, because I have the plumber coming in the 
morning.
  Ronald Reagan had a way of putting into very simple and 
understandable and sometimes humorous terms what was so distinctive and 
unique about the American experience. I think that is something that 
also really set him apart.
  When it came to the big issues of the day, he had a statement he made 
that I quote. He said: There are no easy answers, but there are simple 
answers. I think oftentimes we face these complex problems, and we 
overanalyze a little bit. And the truth is, in a lot of the challenges 
we face today, not unlike the times when he was President, there are 
not easy answers, but I believe there are simple answers. Those very 
basic, core principles and those values that helped shape his 
Presidency and the things he never lost sight of are what made him an 
effective President. I believe that is a lesson we can apply today. 
There are no easy answers, but there are simple answers.
  When we believe in the greatness of America, when we look at the 
foundation of this country--personal freedom, personal liberty, coupled 
with individual responsibility--he believed profoundly that you achieve 
peace through strength. He was willing to confront communism at a point 
in this Nation's history when it posed a great threat to freedom-loving 
countries around the world. I think those are the types of qualities 
for which President Reagan will be remembered.
  As, again, someone who was very impressionable at that time, he was a 
great inspiration to public service. I think he represented the very 
best of public service. He got into it for all the right reasons. He 
understood the importance of what he was doing, the issues with which 
he was dealing, but always had an eye toward making a difference and 
providing a better future for the next generation. That is a lesson 
that I think all of us need to remember: that sometimes we have a 
tendency to believe it is about us, it is about today. We always have 
to keep an eye on tomorrow, on the future, and what we are doing to 
build a better and brighter and more prosperous and stronger nation for 
future generations.
  When I think about and remember President Reagan as we come upon his 
100th birthday, those are the types of things that strike me as really 
standing out--his humility, his sense of humor, his belief in American 
exceptionalism. Those are what history has already written about him, 
but they certainly are permanently impressed upon my mind, my 
experience, in my time in public life--just the types of qualities I 
want to apply and bring to the work we do in the U.S. Senate.
  So I rise along with many of my colleagues today to pay tribute to 
our 40th President and to his family. Of course, we thank them for 
their great service and sacrifice too, because anybody who has been in 
this arena knows the sacrifice that comes with public service. But we 
are indeed grateful for his great service to our country, for the way 
he impacted so many, both here at home and around the world, and for 
the way he continues through his legacy to impact generations of 
Americans today.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant editor of the Daily Digest proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. BLUNT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. BLUNT. Mr. President, I wish to speak for a few minutes today 
about Ronald Reagan.
  Ronald Reagan inspired freedom and changed the world. Maybe nobody 
said that better than former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher 
in a prerecorded eulogy that was played at President Reagan's funeral 
at the National Cathedral. I would like to read just a little of that 
eulogy. It starts:

       We have lost a great president, a great American and a 
     great man. And--

  Mrs. Thatcher said--

       I have lost a dear friend.
       In his lifetime, Ronald Reagan was such a cheerful and 
     invigorating presence that it was easy to forget what 
     daunting historic tasks he set for himself. He sought to mend 
     America's wounded spirit, to restore the strength of the free 
     world and to free the slaves of communism. These were causes 
     hard to accomplish and heavy with risk.

  Mrs. Thatcher went on:

       Yet they were pursued with almost a lightness of spirit. 
     For Ronald Reagan also embodied another great cause--what 
     Arnold Bennett once called ``the great cause of cheering us 
     all up.'' His politics had a freshness and optimism that won 
     converts from every class and every nation--and ultimately 
     from the very heart of the evil empire.
       Yet his humor often had a purpose beyond humor. In the 
     terrible hours after the attempt on his life, his easy jokes 
     gave reassurance to an anxious world. They were evidence 
     that in the aftermath of terror and in the midst of 
     hysteria, one great heart at least remained sane and 
     jocular. They were truly grace under pressure.
       And perhaps they signified grace of a deeper kind.

  Mrs. Thatcher said:


[[Page S521]]


       Ronnie himself certainly believed that he had been given 
     back his life for a purpose. As he told a priest after his 
     recovery, ``Whatever time I've got left now belongs to the 
     Big Fella Upstairs.''
       And surely it is hard to deny that Ronald Reagan's life was 
     providential, when we look at what he achieved in the eight 
     years that followed.
       Others prophesied the decline of the West; he inspired 
     America and its allies with renewed faith in their mission of 
     freedom.
       Others saw only limits to growth; he transformed a stagnant 
     economy into an engine of opportunity.
       Others hoped, at best, for an uneasy cohabitation with the 
     Soviet Union; he won the Cold War--not only without firing a 
     shot, but also by inviting enemies out of their fortress and 
     turning them into friends.

  Mrs. Thatcher goes on to say:

       I cannot imagine how any diplomat, or any dramatist, could 
     improve on his words to Mikhail Gorbachev at the Geneva 
     summit--

  Quoting President Reagan--

       ``Let me tell you why it is we distrust you.''

  Mrs. Thatcher said:
       Those words are candid and tough and they cannot have been 
     easy to hear. But they are also a clear invitation to a new 
     beginning and a new relationship that would be rooted in 
     trust.

  Ronald Reagan's truly ``only in America'' life story began 100 years 
ago this weekend.
  During his lifetime, he was a Democrat and later a Republican, he was 
a liberal and then a conservative, he was a labor union president and 
then President of the United States. During his lifetime, he developed 
a philosophy of faith, life, and government that Americans understood.
  During his Presidency, the people of this country had an 
extraordinary understanding of what their President would think and how 
their President would react to events and circumstances. The strength 
of the certain trumpet, the strength of the clarion call is, I believe, 
impossible to overestimate. Knowing how your President, how your leader 
views the world and views the circumstances that may meet us in the 
world is an incredibly comforting feeling.
  In fact, there is an epic Greek fable, more often applied to 
President Lincoln, about the fox and the hedgehog. In the epic Greek 
fable of the fox and the hedgehog, the fox is wily, the fox is clever, 
the fox knows lots of little things, but the hedgehog knows one really 
big thing. In that fable and in reality, the fox can never defeat the 
hedgehog.
  Now, neither Lincoln--I am really not comfortable referring to either 
Lincoln or Reagan and characterizing them as a hedgehog, but I am 
comfortable characterizing them as men of big ideas, men who understood 
the big things, leaders who understood the big things. With President 
Lincoln, it was the Union. With President Reagan, it was a focus on the 
big things, with an understanding that you measured the circumstances 
and events that came up by your view of the big things that guide the 
country, that guide us individually, that guide lives and, in fact, 
guide the lives of a nation.
  President Reagan understood big things. He could quickly evaluate any 
issue or challenge through that prism and the prism of those core 
values.
  Ronald Reagan inspired freedom and changed the world. The centennial 
celebration of his birth that begins this week and officially begins 
this weekend gives us an opportunity to think about what it was that 
made this President great; what it was that puts this President on the 
cover of news magazines, in the decade before the centennial, in one 
recent cover arm in arm with the current President of the United 
States; and what it was that made this extraordinary man so 
extraordinary.
  I will just say again, Ronald Reagan inspired freedom and changed the 
world.
  Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant editor of the Daily Digest proceeded to call the roll.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from California.
  Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I rise today to pay tribute to one of 
California's own, President Ronald Reagan.
  It has been nearly 7 years since President Reagan passed away, but he 
is still fondly remembered by so many in California, across this 
country and across the globe.
  The first time I met President Reagan was right after I was elected 
to Congress in 1982. I was invited to the White House as part of a 
large Democratic freshman class, and I wondered how President Reagan 
would greet us. After all, he had campaigned hard for a Republican 
Congress. When we arrived at the White House, he and First Lady Nancy 
Reagan could not have been more warm and gracious to us. I still have 
the photo from that evening hanging in my home office.
  Ronald Reagan showed all of us that you can disagree without being 
disagreeable, and that even if you have sharply different views on some 
issues, you can still work to find common ground.
  President Reagan once said: ``I've always believed that a lot of the 
troubles of the world would disappear if we were talking to each other 
instead of about each other.''
  He believed if we were all respectful to each other, we could find 
those areas of agreement. We could get things done. That was an 
important lesson for me and for all of us that evening because, in the 
Senate, with the rules of the Senate, the only way to get things done 
for our constituents and for our country is by working together.
  I believe he had learned this lesson in California, where as a 
Republican Governor, he worked with a Democratic State legislature. He 
brought that same approach from Sacramento to the Nation's Capital.
  As Governor, in keeping with the values and wishes of most 
Californians, he helped to establish the Redwood National Park. He 
regulated auto emissions to reduce pollution. He opposed the State 
proposition that discriminated against teachers based on sexual 
orientation. He was willing to reach across party lines and find 
consensus.
  He continued these efforts to work across the aisle when he became 
President. Although there were serious disagreements on important 
issues, President Reagan worked closely with a Democratic House to 
ratify and sign important arms control agreements, increase investments 
in math and science education, and reauthorize the Superfund hazardous 
waste cleanup program.
  President Reagan was a conservative, but he was not an ideologue. He 
fulfilled his campaign promise to appoint the first woman to the 
Supreme Court, choosing Sandra Day O'Connor as the first female Justice 
of the U.S. Supreme Court, even though she was considered too moderate 
by many conservatives.
  Of course, there were many areas of disagreement--from offshore oil 
drilling to the role of the national government, to the fight against 
AIDS, to policies in Central America. Those disagreements were deep, 
but they were never taken personally by President Reagan. He and House 
Speaker Tip O'Neill were genuinely fond of each other. They often 
shared a drink after work, and they laughed after a day of locking 
horns. Their good nature was infectious. It raised the level of comity 
throughout the Nation's Capital.
  I believe that President Reagan will be remembered for his focus on 
freedom for the people behind the Iron Curtain. He saw in Soviet 
President Mikhail Gorbachev a leader he could successfully challenge to 
step to the plate. And when President Reagan said, tear down this wall, 
he said it directly to Mr. Gorbachev. He touched Mr. Gorbachev, he 
touched America, and he touched people all around the world.
  After President Reagan passed away, Mr. Gorbachev wrote in the New 
York Times: ``Reagan was a man of the right. But, while adhering to his 
convictions, with which one could agree or disagree, he was not 
dogmatic; he was looking for cooperation. And this was the most 
important thing to me: he had the trust of the American people.''
  As we honor President Reagan today, I believe the greatest tribute we 
can pay is to find a cure for the disease that took his life, took him 
away from his loved ones and from the world.
  Ten years before his death, Ronald Reagan knew he was battling 
Alzheimer's. He knew he was losing the battle. In an act of enormous 
courage

[[Page S522]]

and in a handwritten open letter, he told the American people he was 
suffering from the illness. He wrote: ``I now begin the journey that 
will lead me into the sunset of my life.''
  And he movingly wrote: ``I know that for America there will always be 
a bright dawn ahead.'' Even in his darkest hour, President Reagan's 
eternal optimism shone through.
  Nancy Reagan stood by her husband throughout his long ordeal and 
protected him in his most vulnerable time. She has become a leading 
champion for increased funding for medical research to fight 
Alzheimer's and other diseases. She has been brave and courageous in 
her advocacy.
  In memory of Ronald Reagan, in honor of Nancy Reagan and all of the 
families who have lost loved ones to Alzheimer's, we must continue to 
seek a brighter dawn for Alzheimer's victims and their families.
  As a California Senator, certainly Ronald Reagan is one of our most 
famous residents as Governor and then as President. I was in the House 
of Representatives while he was the President. Clearly, there were a 
lot of disagreements between President Reagan and many of those in 
Congress such as myself who didn't believe government was the problem, 
which was his definite belief at that time. We certainly had a loyal 
opposition, and we certainly worked together when we could.
  One of the things that was so interesting to me compared to working 
with other Presidents--because I have had the honor of serving for so 
long that actually President Obama is the fifth President I have had 
the honor of serving with. I went to every State of the Union Address, 
all of which were very impressive.
  I think the thing about Ronald Reagan that I grew to admire was, as 
hard as one might debate with him on his vision of what the priorities 
should be--what should we invest in, what was important--when those 
debates were over and a decision was made, regardless of who won the 
day, we just moved on to the next issue. We tried to find common 
ground, and if we didn't we had the respectful debate. It was never 
taken personally.
  Again, there were many things I disagreed with him about. I remember 
being a young Member of Congress at the time when the AIDS epidemic 
came out, and I remember I was so frustrated because President Reagan 
was very compassionate, but he didn't want to discuss the issue of 
AIDS. We had to work very hard with the Surgeon General at the time, 
and we finally made a little bit of progress.
  So, yes, there were many tough debates. Of course, his presence, his 
very sunny presence, his optimism about the country's future was very 
important to a Nation that had been torn asunder because of many tough 
issues that separated the generations.
  I add my voice on this day when we remember former President Ronald 
Reagan, someone whom California is very proud of and someone who has 
obviously gone down in history for the many things he accomplished, 
particularly his rapprochement with the Soviet Union at that time. It 
was a big contribution to the world.
  Thank you very much.
  I yield the floor, and I note the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant editor of the Daily Digest proceeded to call the roll.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Utah.
  Mr. HATCH. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. HATCH. Mr. President, just over 30 years ago, Ronald Reagan was 
inaugurated as the 40th President of the United States. It is hard to 
believe that three decades have passed since he stood in front of this 
Capitol, just yards away, and announced to this Nation and the world 
that America's moment had not passed. It is hard to think that we have 
been without him now for over 6 years. I think of him and his 
wonderful, lovely wife Nancy quite often. I knew them both very well. I 
know Nancy very well to this day. She is a terrific human being, as was 
he.
  One of my first campaign trips for Ronald Reagan was with Nancy, and 
I can tell my colleagues there never was a stronger advocate for her 
husband.
  As a man, he had the rare combination of good humor and a commitment 
to principle. As the leader of his party and as President, he reminded 
us of the need for constant recommitment to our constitutional ideas, 
and as a couple Ron and Nancy were a pair for the ages. If there was 
any doubt, my colleagues have confirmed today in their tributes to 
President Reagan on the centennial of his birth that Ronald Reagan 
might have passed on, but he is most certainly not forgotten--not by a 
long shot.
  When Reagan was President, he inspired great reactions from both 
parties. I can attest, particularly with respect to my colleagues on 
the other side of the aisle, that not all of those reactions were 
positive. Yet today's bipartisan celebration of President Reagan's 
legacy shows that he has become as much a part of the American story as 
his greatest predecessors in office.
  Like other great men before him, Ronald Reagan seemed to embody the 
times during which he lived. The man himself, his personal story, in 
many ways personified America's 20th century.
  Ronald Wilson Reagan was born in the Midwest and became a westerner, 
moving to California like so many other of his fellow Americans. The 
country he grew up in looked very different from our own today. As 
Michael Barone recently reminded us in an article in the Claremont 
Review of Books, when America entered the Second World War, one-quarter 
of Americans still lived on farms, and half of those were either 
without electricity or only recently acquired electricity.
  America's population was at the same time both more diffuse and more 
concentrated than it is today. America's nonrural population was 
clustered in a few great cities. Again, as Barone explained, at the 
outbreak of the Second World War, 2 percent of all Americans lived in 
Brooklyn, NY. America in the 20th century became a less rural, less 
agricultural nation. Yet instead of concentrating in existing urban 
centers, new communities grew and suburbs expanded.
  That was the story of Ronald Reagan, who was born in tiny Tampico, 
IL, population 772 as of the 2000 census, and came to the world's 
attention in California, home of suburban life and the American 
highway. He became a Californian through and through. He loved his 
ranch, and he loved being on the back of a horse. The large landscapes 
of California and of the entire West suggested the boundless 
opportunity that is afforded those who work hard in this country. It 
was there that Ronald Reagan found his professional and political 
success. It was where he met Nancy and raised his family, and it is 
where he was finally laid to rest.
  Ronald Reagan did not have it easy. As he put it, he did not grow up 
on the wrong side of the tracks. But he could hear the train. He lived 
through the Great Depression. Yet like countless Americans before and 
after him, with dogged determination and a good deal of pluck, he 
succeeded.
  At a time when college was a luxury, Ronald Reagan graduated from 
Eureka College. He went on to have a successful career in radio as a 
sportscaster. But that was not enough, so he moved to Hollywood where 
he became an actor. Of all the roles Ronald Reagan would play, we 
eventually identified him most closely with the character of George 
Gipp in ``Knute Rockne: All American.'' It should come as little 
surprise that we would associate a good Irishman such as Ronald Reagan 
with a movie about Notre Dame and the Fighting Irish.
  When George Gipp first appears on screen, Knute Rockne, the head 
coach of the Irish, is at his wit's end with his team. Seeing Gipp--who 
was not a member of the team--lying around, Rockne asked him if he 
could go in and run the ball against the varsity. Reagan's Gipp 
responded, with an Irish twinkle in his eye: How far? Naturally, he ran 
down the field, scored a touchdown, and took his place in Notre Dame 
lore.
  For Ronald Reagan, like George Gipp, there was no challenge too big. 
It is a good thing he thought that way because he faced plenty of 
obstacles. With the outbreak of World War II, his promising acting 
career was put on hold. Yet he would go on to serve as President of the 
Screen Actors Guild,

[[Page S523]]

and later he worked in television as the host of ``General Electric 
Theater.'' It was that association with General Electric that sent 
Reagan on his path toward the Presidency.
  Going on what he called the ``mashed potato circuit,'' he spoke 
across the country to the thousands of GE employees, giving what would 
later be called ``The Speech.'' Giving these after dinner remarks, 
Reagan honed his thoughts about freedom, the size of government, and 
the Soviet menace.
  In 1964, on the eve of the Presidential election, he would deliver 
that speech to the Nation. Senator Barry Goldwater went on to lose that 
election in an epic landslide.
  Today we know that conservatives might have lost that battle, but 
they would ultimately win the war.
  A week before the election, Ronald Reagan delivered a taped address--
``A Time for Choosing''--on Goldwater's behalf. He spoke as a partisan 
for liberty, and he urged his fellow Americans to join him in that 
struggle. He concluded his remarks telling a national television 
audience:

       You and I have a rendezvous with destiny. We'll preserve 
     for our children this, the last best hope of man on earth.

  This speech resonated with the American people. It raised $8 million 
for Goldwater, an astronomical sum at the time. More importantly, it 
made Ronald Reagan a formidable presence on the political scene.
  I knew Barry Goldwater. I knew him well. When I ran for the Senate, 
he was one of two people I came to visit in Washington just to get some 
advice. I admired him so much, and it was a privilege to serve with 
him. The other one was Chuck Grassley who was then in the House, and I 
count him as one of my dearest friends on Earth.
  Against the odds and conventional wisdom, Ronald Reagan ran for 
Governor of California in 1966. The California establishment made the 
mistake of underestimating this actor from the Midwest, and he went on 
to beat his more liberal primary opponent and the popular incumbent 
Governor.
  Underestimating Reagan was a mistake that the Washington 
establishment would make time and again when he arrived there 14 years 
later. They never seemed to understand what was so obvious to President 
Reagan.
  For all of the superficial differences, Americans of his age were not 
so different than the generation that founded this Nation, fought the 
Civil War, worked through the Great Depression, and struggled for civil 
rights. In the end, Americans of today are committed to the same 
principles of liberty and equality that animated the authors of our 
Declaration of Independence and Constitution.
  This shared commitment to our founding principles served him well, 
because he took office at a time of great uncertainty, a time not 
unlike our own. A combination of factors seemed to be putting the 
aspirations of Americans out of reach.
  To be blunt, America was on its heels. The prime interest rate was 15 
percent. Inflation was 12\1/2\ percent. And civilian unemployment was 
at 7 percent. Government regulations and tax rates were smothering 
American innovation, and with it the American dream. And abroad the 
picture was just as grim. An imperialist Soviet Union had invaded 
Afghanistan, and was supporting revolutionary movements across the 
globe. The American hostages had not yet been freed from Iran.
  Yet when Ronald Reagan left office 8 years later, he had left his 
mark. According to his biographer, Lou Cannon, when he came into 
office, there were 4,414 individual tax returns with an adjusted gross 
income of more than $1 million. By 1987, fueled by tax cuts, the 
breaking of inflation, and explosive economic growth, there were 34,944 
such returns. When he entered the White House, only 1 in 6 Americans 
owned a microwave, and VCRs were a luxury for the wealthy. By the time 
he left office, these were common household goods. He helped to restore 
our understanding of a limited judiciary that respects the traditions 
of the American people and their elected representatives. And he 
restored faith in our men and women in uniform.
  Just before he left office, President Reagan reviewed the troops at 
Andrews Air Force Base one last time. During that visit, he said that 
serving as commander-in-chief was ``the most sacred, most important 
task of the presidency.''
  Barely five years after America left South Vietnam, Reagan spoke at 
the Veterans of Foreign Wars convention and reminded America that 
Vietnam had been a ``noble cause.'' The rush to ``blame America first'' 
in our conflict with totalitarian regimes, and the days of holding our 
military men and women in low esteem, came to an end with the Reagan 
Presidency. And though his greatest achievement--the collapse of the 
Soviet Empire--would occur on his successor's watch--the writing was on 
the wall by the time Ronald Reagan left office. His recommitment to 
freedom during our twilight struggle with what was truly an evil empire 
quite literally saved the world and liberated millions.
  It is no surprise that he will be honored in Prague, Budapest, and 
Krakow--the home of his great partner Pope John Paul II--later this 
summer for his role in exposing the great lie that was the Soviet 
Union.
  Ronald Reagan succeeded as president because he knew what he was 
about. In his farewell address from the Oval Office, he said, ``I went 
into politics in part to put up my hand and say, Stop. I was a citizen 
politician, and it seemed the right thing for a citizen to do. I think 
we have stopped a lot of what needed stopping. And I hope we have once 
again reminded the people that man is not free unless government is 
limited. There's a clear cause and effect here that is as neat and 
predictable as a law of physics: As government expands, liberty 
contracts.''
  I could not agree more.
  And that Reagan Revolution--the aspiration of citizens for greater 
freedom and greater futures for the generations that follow--continues. 
I am proud to be a part of that revolution.
  President Reagan took a flyer on me when I first ran for the Senate, 
supporting me in my primary. I have tried to do him proud. I remember 
well the blistering hot day in the Rose Garden when he signed the 
Hatch-Waxman legislation into law in 1984. In his signing statement, he 
joked that with this law ``[e]veryone wins, particularly our elderly 
Americans. Senior citizens require more medication than any other 
segment of our society. I speak with some authority on that.''
  In my opinion, that law typified the commitments of President Reagan. 
Since its passage it has saved the Federal Government and consumers 
hundreds of billions of dollars--some say trillions--and it essentially 
created the generic drug industry and incentives for the creation of 
the next generation of life saving drugs.
  I worked with him when he was in office. And as I work today for the 
citizens of Utah, his principled example is always on my mind. We still 
have work to do. Reagan understood the danger of what is today called 
progressivism, but was then called liberalism. It knows no bounds.
  As he put it, ``No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in 
size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a 
government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see 
on this Earth.''
  In some respects, Ronald Reagan belonged to a different age. He was 
governor during the student protests of the 1960s. He entered the 
national political consciousness during a presidential campaign where 
the possibility of global nuclear conflict was an imminent threat. When 
he became President, he was only a few years removed from widespread 
urban riots and the end of the Vietnam war. When he spoke at Pointe-du-
Hoc on the 40th anniversary of D-Day, he spoke to the men who actually 
scaled those cliffs and liberated a continent. Today, most of those 
veterans have passed on. But ultimately, Reagan remains one of us. I 
think that his advisor, David Gergen, got it wrong when he mused that 
Reagan's legacy was how much he changed our minds.
  In my view, Ronald Reagan was a success because he understood that 
the American people did not need to change their minds. Americans, in 
1980, had the same beliefs and hopes that we have always had. Ronald 
Reagan's genius was in giving voice to those hopes.
  Ronald Reagan was a big man, made for a big screen, and eventually 
the biggest stage. He played his part well. To borrow from Hollywood, 
he knew

[[Page S524]]

that even as time goes by . . . the fundamental things apply.
  Before leaving office, President Reagan addressed the Nation one last 
time. Speaking to the citizens of this shining city upon a hill, he 
told us, ``[w]e did it. We weren't just marking time. We made a 
difference. We made the city stronger. We made the city freer, and we 
left her in good hands. All in all, not bad, not bad at all.''
  Indeed.
  It has been said that Ronald Reagan had a love affair with the 
American people. He did. But it took two to tango. Ronald Reagan loved 
his country. But I think his country loved him more. That includes 
people on both sides of the aisle.

  Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, in early 1983, the Soviet dissident Natan 
Sharansky was in an 8-by-10 foot cell in a Siberian prison when jailers 
permitted him to read the latest issue of the official Communist Party 
newspaper.
  The front page was filled with global condemnations of American 
President Ronald Reagan for calling the Soviet Union an ``evil 
empire.'' Tapping on the walls and whispering through plumbing pipes, 
political prisoners spread the word. Rather than being demoralized by 
the criticisms, they were ecstatic. The leader of the free world had 
spoken the truth. There was hope.
  By the end of the decade, hope became freedom, freedom for the 
hundreds of thousands imprisoned in the Soviet gulag and for the 
hundreds of millions trapped behind the Iron Curtain. Countless men and 
women of courage and determination, their names lost to history, stood 
up to tyranny and won a great victory with a leader whose name will 
forever be remembered by history. Lech Walesa, the founder of the 
valiant Solidarity movement, said this of President Reagan: ``We in 
Poland . . . owe him our liberty.''
  In this centennial year, we are experiencing something rare. While 
many great figures of their time diminish over time, our regard for 
Ronald Reagan only grows. This cannot be explained by merely citing the 
qualities for which he was so well known: his confidence in America, 
his wit, and his optimism. It goes beyond his courage when attacked by 
an assassin's bullet or, at the end, a devastating disease or even his 
skills as the ``Great Communicator.'' Ronald Reagan looms ever larger 
because of his ideas and the enduring convictions that gave those ideas 
their power. ``History comes and goes,'' he said, ``but principles 
endure and inspire future generations to defend liberty, not as a gift 
from government, but a blessing from our Creator.''
  Ronald Reagan knew that liberty was not a blessing merely to enjoy 
but one that must always be defended. He expressed his faith in our 
ability to rise to its defense with these words: ``No weapon in the 
arsenals of the world is so formidable as the will and moral courage of 
free men and women.'' His optimism sprang from his belief in the 
nobility of the human spirit.
  The very ideas that are the foundation of this great Nation were the 
foundation of Ronald Reagan's character. He became President at a time 
when America had begun to question its place in the world and the 
values upon which this Nation was built. He tore down the wall of doubt 
and reminded us that our many blessings carried with them great 
obligations. Ronald Reagan was a great communicator because he had 
something great to communicate: the exceptionalism of the United States 
of America.
  The birthday of one who has passed from this life is always a 
bittersweet occasion as we remember what we had and reflect on what we 
have lost. I would like to extend my best wishes to President Reagan's 
beloved First Lady, Nancy, and to the entire Reagan family.
  Ronald Reagan was the right man for his time. He now belongs to the 
ages. He is missed, but his ideals will always be with us.
  Mr. ENZI. Mr. President, we will soon mark the 100th anniversary of 
the birth of Ronald Reagan, one of our greatest Presidents. In the days 
and months to come, in cities and towns all across this great Nation of 
ours, people will pause for a moment to reflect on the past and 
remember him, each in their own way, for the greatness in him that 
inspired a nation. I know he would be humbled by and greatly 
appreciative of our remembrance of his legacy of service and touched by 
the great admiration and affection with which we will always remember 
him.
  I don't think anyone is a better example of the American dream than 
Ronald Reagan. He was born in Illinois, the son of a shoe salesman. His 
mother loved to read and she encouraged him to do the same by reading 
to him. In books Reagan was able to tap into the wisdom of our Founding 
Fathers and many other great leaders of our past. What he learned from 
his reading would help to shape his character and ultimately mold his 
destiny.
  It wasn't long before Reagan's natural confidence and his 
determination to do something with his life began to show itself, first 
during his school years and later when he pursued a career as an actor. 
He proved to be a born leader and he took a leadership role at every 
stage of his life. While in college, he served as student body 
President. In his acting days he served as the president of the Screen 
Actors Guild. In between he worked hard and built a career as a 
successful actor in film and television as he became a familiar face in 
Hollywood.
  If that had been all he had done, he would be remembered for his 
talents and abilities as an actor. He would have earned his reputation 
for being unafraid of hard work and his life would have inspired others 
to follow his path just by his success in Hollywood. All of the fame 
and notoriety that came from his acting days would have been enough for 
most people, but not for Ronald Reagan. He was just getting warmed up. 
The best was yet to come.
  With his beloved wife Nancy by his side, Ronald Reagan began to 
pursue a bigger dream. He wanted to make an impact on the world that 
would put him on a bigger stage. He wanted to get more involved in 
politics and put his principles and values into action in the work that 
had to be done to solve the problems facing the Nation.
  His first effort was a run for Governor of California. People thought 
that was an impossible dream of his and he would never make it. Ronald 
Reagan proved them wrong--not for the first or the last time. He took 
his case to the people, put together a coalition of both Republicans 
and Democrats and when the votes were counted, he had won.
  I still remember meeting him when I was the president of the Wyoming 
Jaycees. We held our national convention in California and Ronald 
Reagan spoke to us. I had a chance to meet him and I was quickly 
impressed by his personality and his style. He clearly had a way not 
only with words, but to connect to people one on one. Still, I don't 
think any of us could have guessed what would happen next in his life.
  Reagan had his sights set on the Presidency of the United States. He 
knew it wasn't going to be easy, but for Ronald Reagan the only failure 
would be to fail to try. He wasn't successful at first, but he never 
gave up. He kept traveling around the country, speaking to groups, and 
sharing his message of hope and opportunity with the people who came to 
hear him speak. This seemed to be another impossible dream, but once 
again Reagan made it happen. He won the Republican nomination for 
President, facing an incumbent who spoke often about the terrible 
problems facing the Nation. Ronald Reagan didn't speak with doubt and 
uncertainty about the future; he spoke with strong and passionate 
certainty that things would get better if we all worked together.
  Unfortunately, optimism will only get you so far--so when the time 
came for him to take the oath of office, he knew he had a lot of work 
to do. He often referred to our economic problems as the ``misery 
index.'' We were in the middle of a time of high unemployment, high 
interest rates and high inflation. The Nation seemed to have lost its 
self-confidence and no longer believed that it could dare to do great 
things--and succeed. The experts all seemed to say that there was 
little if anything that one person could do to change things and 
reenergize the Nation.
  Once again, Ronald Reagan proved the experts wrong. It seemed almost 
overnight things changed. There was a renewed sense of confidence in 
our shared destiny as a nation, a new feeling of hope and opportunity 
about the

[[Page S525]]

future, and a return to the spirit of America that had been lost. In 
just a short time, with his words and his actions, he inspired a 
generation to look to the future with the kind of confidence that comes 
from our belief in and commitment to the principles upon which our 
Nation was founded.
  I remember those days very well. I was the mayor of Gillette, WY, and 
when the National League of Cities held its national meeting the 
President flew to California to speak to our group. I had a chance to 
meet with him again and enjoyed having an opportunity to speak to him. 
He was the greatest ambassador for the West and our Western way of life 
that we have ever had. He understood rural life and because of it he 
understood the problems of our rural communities. He also understood 
public service for what it is--service--and he continued to see himself 
as a public servant throughout his career and his life.
  I always thought the years he spent living on his ranch in California 
were responsible for his passion for speaking the truth, regardless of 
whether or not it was politically expedient to do so. It is a trait 
that people in Wyoming appreciate and expect from their leaders. It 
quickly led to some of his best moments.
  I believe we all have strong memories of Ronald Reagan speaking by 
the Berlin Wall, taking advantage of the occasion to challenge Mikhail 
Gorbachev to ``tear down this wall.'' He then went counter to the 
advice of his staff and referred to the Soviet Union as the ``evil 
empire.'' For Ronald Reagan, life was that simple. If it was the truth, 
it must be said for there are two kinds of people in the world--the 
good guys and the bad guys. If the good guys worked hard and were 
willing to sacrifice and do whatever it took to succeed, they won. In 
Ronald Reagan's world, we were the good guys and, during his 
Presidency, more often than not, we won.
  Still, no matter how harsh the rhetoric may have seemed, his 
political opponents always knew that it wasn't personal--it was 
principle based. That is why, after all that he said, he was still able 
to form a friendship with Mr. Gorbachev. Our two countries were two of 
the biggest superpowers in the world and he knew he would have to find 
a way to keep the lines of communication, trust and understanding open 
between them, a necessity that gave way to another of his trademark 
lines, ``Trust but verify.''
  Over the years he turned many a phrase that reflected the strength of 
his character, his sense of humor and more. He had a unique way of 
expressing complex truths in simple sentences that held great meaning 
by virtue of their simplicity.
  Because of his trademark one liners and other famous remarks, he has 
often been called the Great Communicator, a title that caused Reagan to 
remark ``I never thought it was my style that made a difference--it was 
the content. I wasn't a great communicator, but I communicated great 
things.''
  Ronald Reagan did communicate great things and he communicated them 
in a number of ways--most importantly by the way he lived his life. 
There is an old saying that reminds us that we can play it safe and 
take the well worn path or we can dare to go where few have gone before 
and blaze our own trail in life, leaving a path for others to follow. 
Such was Ronald Reagan's philosophy and by so doing he helped to give 
us an example of what was possible for us as individuals and for our 
Nation.
  In the end, Ronald Reagan will be remembered for many things. He 
found a cure for an ailing economy. He helped to bring an end to the 
Cold War. He did all of that and so much more but he also did something 
else that was to prove to be far more important. He helped us to regain 
our spirit as Americans. He helped us to regain that great pride we had 
always had for our heritage. He helped us to believe in ourselves again 
and in our ability to serve as the leaders of the free world, a title 
we were always meant to carry. Thanks to Ronald Reagan, it is a title 
we have carried proudly and with purpose ever since. Through his words 
and his enthusiasm for life and living, the Great Communicator was able 
to infuse our country with optimism, patriotism and an unashamed hope 
for a better tomorrow. Thanks to him, the United States of America 
became a brighter, better place for us all to live as the impact he had 
on the world around us continues to be felt to this day.
  Ronald Reagan's burial site is inscribed with the words he delivered 
at the opening of his Presidential Library. ``I know in my heart that 
man is good, that what is right will always eventually triumph and that 
there is purpose and worth to each and every life.''
  As in so many things in life, just like the old show business adage 
reminds us, he left us wanting more. And that is why he will never be 
forgotten by those who knew him and those who remember how he touched a 
generation for the better just by the great strength of his character 
and the warm gentleness of his soul.
  Mr. RUBIO. Mr. President, I am proud to honor Ronald Reagan on the 
100th anniversary of his birth. President Reagan was a man who inspired 
millions of Americans to serve their country and fulfill its promise as 
the shining city on a hill. His genial demeanor, resilience, no-
nonsense approach to governing and rock solid principles attracted 
flocks of young Americans to the Republican Party, and I am proud to 
include myself in that number.
  I was fortunate to have grown up and come of age politically just as 
President Reagan was in office. His words and deeds inspired our entire 
country to take pride in our patriotic values and the free market 
principles that have made America exceptional. He also comforted us 
during moments of national tragedy. And his willingness to speak out 
against communism--as both a bankrupt economic system and an immoral 
violation of human dignity--was a ray of sunlight to those living in 
its darkness.
  I will never forget my parents' reaction the day the Berlin Wall fell 
in 1989. Having lost their country to Fidel Castro's communism, they 
had spent 30 years divided from their homeland, friends, and 
relatives--just as the Wall had done to millions in Europe.
  Especially for my parents' generation of Cuban exiles, whose hopes 
and dreams were shattered by communism, the Wall's fall was a historic 
event they questioned would ever come. It was a day of celebration and 
rekindled hope that all lands within communism's grip would soon be 
free as well. Ronald Reagan helped bring about the change that made 
communism's fall possible. By joining with other world leaders like 
Pope John Paul II, he seized the opportunity to highlight communism's 
failures. In doing so, he helped make millions of oppressed people more 
self-aware of their intrinsic dignity, more confident that their 
pursuit of freedom was justified, and more hopeful that they were not 
alone in their struggles.
  In commemorating Ronald Reagan's 100th birthday, we also remember the 
work that remains to be done to tear down other oppressive walls that 
still stand. America's responsibilities in this effort cannot be 
underestimated.
  Economically, we cannot allow Washington's borrow-and-spend binges to 
diminish our free enterprise system, nor can we allow our debt to make 
our commitment to freedom and human rights subservient to our debt 
holders.
  Militarily, as Ronald Reagan said, ``Of the four wars in my lifetime, 
none came about because the U.S. was too strong.'' A free and secure 
world requires a strong America led by our brave men and women in 
uniform. America's commitment to the defense of our allies should never 
waver. Diplomatically, we must not confuse a desire for security and 
the promotion of democratic values as mutually exclusive goals.
  The United States and the world owe a great debt to Ronald Reagan for 
his decisive leadership, adherence to conservative principles and 
inspiring example during a tumultuous period. And we owe a special debt 
of gratitude to his wife Nancy for her efforts to keep his memory and 
legacy alive.
  Now the question before us is whether we are going to do as Ronald 
Reagan did and ensure that future generations can inherit the single 
greatest society in all of human history. I, for one, am fully 
committed to honoring Ronald Reagan's legacy by standing up for the 
principles that defined him and have made America exceptional for more 
than two centuries.

[[Page S526]]

  Mr. HOEVEN. Mr. President, today, when our country faces enormous 
challenges--both domestic and international--we have an opportunity to 
recognize President Ronald Reagan on the 100th anniversary of his 
birth.
  Today--when we need big doses of optimism and a renewed faith in 
America--the memory of Ronald Reagan tells us that our challenges can 
be met and our obstacles can be overcome.
  I remember the Reagan era well. The late seventies and early eighties 
were tough times. I had just finished college and returned to North 
Dakota, and America was clearly hurting.
  It was the era of stagflation--stagnant economic growth and 
inflation, all at the same time.
  It was an era of fuel shortages, long lines at the gas station, and 
sticker shock when you got to the pump.
  A few years later, America was emerging from that recession and the 
country was on the mend. We could see light on the horizon. President 
Reagan told us: ``It's morning again in America.'' And it was.
  It was also the era of the Cold War. For more than a generation, the 
Soviet Union had kept Eastern Europe and its own people under its heel, 
and threatened the West with belligerent rhetoric and an arsenal of 
nuclear weapons.
  In 1987, at a time when much of the world was resigned to a tense 
doctrine of coexistence, with a literal and figurative wall between us, 
President Ronald Reagan would have none of it. He stood at the Berlin 
Wall, and challenged: ``Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!'' And made 
it happen.
  In some of our Nation's darkest hours, President Ronald Wilson Reagan 
was there to remind us that we are a great nation and a great people--a 
nation kind and generous beyond measure, when deserved, but tough and 
enduring when circumstances warranted.
  He knew that believing in ourselves was vital, and then working 
together to get the job done. That is a lesson worth remembering, 
today, 100 years after the birth of one of America's greatest 
presidents.
  We can--and we will--build a brighter future for ourselves and for 
future generations. We will continue to truly be that shining city on a 
hill--a beam of light and liberty for the world.
  Mr. LUGAR. Mr. President, I have had numerous opportunities to 
comment on the amazing life and Presidency of Ronald Reagan. He had 
bold ideas and the courage to see them through. He was the true 
embodiment of the American success story. I have often referred to the 
fact that he was charismatic, determined and consistent, and he enjoyed 
a remarkable batting average of being right. It has always been a point 
of great pride to me that my voting record was supportive of President 
Reagan's positions more than any other Member of the Senate.
  As the Senate commemorates the 100th anniversary of President 
Reagan's birth, I want to share with my colleagues and the public a 
speech I wrote when President Reagan was given the Hudson Institute 
James Doolittle Award.
  It was November 22, 1991, and it was a tumultuous time for Washington 
and the world. Yet you could still see the sparkle in the President's 
eyes and his warmth and good humor. What we did not know was that 
President Reagan's effort to end the Cold War was quickly coming to 
fruition. Within days, on December 1, Ukraine would vote to break away 
from the Soviet Union, and on Christmas Day, Mikhail Gorbachev 
announced the end of the USSR.
  During his Presidency, when President Reagan decided to renew arms 
control negotiations with the Soviets, he had the wisdom and political 
strength to ask the Senate to form an official observer group so that 
there would be understanding and support for any treaty coming out of 
the negotiations. As cochair of the Arms Control Observer Group, I 
worked closely with Senator Sam Nunn of Georgia and began a partnership 
with him that continued for many years.
  Subsequently, after the failed coup against Gorbachev in the summer 
of 1991, we heard from Soviet officials we had met that they were 
worried about the control of the Soviet nuclear arsenal as political 
events unfolded. By that November when President Reagan was being 
honored, Senator Nunn and I succeeded in passage of the Nunn-Lugar 
Cooperative Threat Reduction Act.
  Thanks to his leadership and vision, President Reagan helped build 
the foundation for the Nunn-Lugar Program. Now thousands of missiles 
and warheads, any one of which could have destroyed my city of 
Indianapolis, have been eliminated. The success of the Nunn-Lugar 
Program is a clear derivative of President Reagan's legacy. Thank you, 
President Reagan.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record 
the speech I wrote in honor of President Reagan when he received the 
Hudson Institute James Doolittle Award.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

Address by Senator Richard G. Lugar in Honor of President Ronald Reagan

                          (November 22, 1991)

       President and Mrs. Reagan, Governor Du Pont, trustees, 
     scholars and friends of the Hudson Institute--We are 
     assembled at the Hudson Institute's James H. Doolittle Award 
     luncheon to Celebrate the Patriotism, personal courage, and 
     strategic wisdom which has made the United States of America 
     historically unique.
       I am grateful to Governor Du Pont for the extraordinary 
     public service he gave to the Congress of the United States 
     and to the State of Delaware and for the remarkable years of 
     public witness he has given as a champion of market economics 
     and vital federalism. I admire the strength of his ideas, the 
     skill of his advocacy, and i am grateful for the constancy of 
     his loyal friendship.
       I thank the Hudson Institute for giving me this opportunity 
     to visit with President and Mrs. Reagan. It was my privilege 
     to sit beside Mrs. Reagan during several White House and 
     Republican Party events and to understand the strength of her 
     ideals and her hopes for our country as she worked 
     thoughtfully with the President, day by day, to make those 
     dreams come true.
       I begin with mention of dreams, hopes, visions because the 
     service of President Reagan to our country can only be 
     approached by understanding how wide he cast the net of 
     potential achievement.
       President Reagan actually believed and articulated that our 
     country had a special destiny, that no barriers were 
     insurmountable because we are Americans. He actually believed 
     and said that the Soviet Union was an Evil Empire, that its 
     political and economic institutions were disintegrating, and 
     that if its leadership and people knew the alternatives which 
     our country presented, they would choose democracy and market 
     economics.
       President Reagan was prepared to invest an increasing 
     portion of our national treasure in military defense with the 
     certainty that we would negotiate successfully with our 
     adversaries from a position of strength. He shocked foreign 
     policy and defense specialists by proposing that all 
     intermediate nuclear missiles be destroyed, a negotiating 
     position labelled universally as a bizarre arms-control non-
     starter.
       He affirmed the staying power of NATO by deploying Pershing 
     missiles to Germany and cruise missiles to Italy even after 
     the Soviets declared that such deployment would end all arms 
     control negotiations and stimulate Soviet nuclear buildup.
       Add to this President Reagan's startling proposal that the 
     United States should develop a Strategic Defense Initiative 
     to protect our country against incoming missiles fired upon 
     us. He contended that we should and could try to defend 
     ourselves against the so-called balance of terror.
       He proposed to President Gorbachev that the United States 
     and the Soviet Union ban all nuclear weapons. In fact, he was 
     confident that if he could take Gorbachev on an extended tour 
     of America that Gorbachev would want to shape the Soviet 
     Union into many of our successful traditions.
       Meanwhile, President Reagan knew that substantial new 
     growth must occur in our domestic economy to pay for the 
     special leadership role he had envisioned in foreign policy. 
     He was confident that substantial cuts in individual marginal 
     tax rates and a host of investment incentives would establish 
     and sustain the longest peacetime prosperity we have ever 
     enjoyed. Our prosperity underwrote the magnificent gains in 
     free and fair trade which he championed and world wide wealth 
     grew abundantly.
       When Ronald Reagan stood on a balcony of the Reichstag in 
     Berlin and challenged Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall, 
     he could see white crosses just below where courageous 
     persons seeking freedom had lost their lives in that pursuit. 
     Everything still appeared to be so locked up and grim, and 
     sophisticated observers were barely patronizing in comment on 
     his Berlin Wall challenge.
       When Germans hacked the Wall down in November of 1989 and 
     Eastern Europeans drove authoritarian communists from 
     positions of power, many scholars and journalists applauded 
     President Gorbachev as Man of the Decade. These awards 
     revealed virtual ignorance of the actual history of Europe in 
     the 1980s and a deliberate attempt to ignore the very public 
     words and leadership of Ronald Reagan for eight years.
       The Evil Empire crumbled, the Berlin Wall and other walls 
     fell, all of the intermediate nuclear force weapons were 
     destroyed exactly in three years as the INF Treaty provided, 
     and the United States became the

[[Page S527]]

     only superpower with the strongest economy and the ability, 
     uniquely, to extend military authority around the world.
       All of this occurred because President Reagan persuaded the 
     Congress and his countrymen to build our armed forces, to 
     build our economy through the growth incentives termed 
     ``Reaganomics,'' to maintain the successful strategies of our 
     NATO alliance, to utilize military force to support foreign 
     policy as required, and to commence Strategic Defense 
     Initiative research.
       We now know that the Soviets were much weaker than experts 
     estimated. We now know that they could not keep up the pace 
     and that desperate attempts to do so led to the collapse of 
     the Soviet Empire and then to the collapse of the Union, 
     itself.
       President Reagan advocated two more things which were 
     inspiring and critically important in world history.
       First, he rejected the Brezhnev Doctrine--the idea that 
     territory which socialism has occupied can never be 
     reclaimed. When he advocated this roll back of the Iron 
     Curtain, he created deep anxiety and alarm among most 
     international foreign policy advisers who loved liberty a 
     lot, but loved stability even more.
       U.S. Stinger missiles shipped to the expert ministrations 
     of the Mujadahin in Afghanistan were a major instrument of 
     the Soviet roll back, and the world watched in awe as the 
     Soviet troops withdrew to a smaller socialist world.
       Second, President Reagan enunciated a new policy in a 
     statement sent to Congress after the Philippine election and 
     revolution. He stated that henceforth, we would oppose 
     tyranny of the left and tyranny of the right, that we were 
     for democracy developed by the people who sought to know and 
     enjoy democracy and human rights. This statement was severely 
     criticized by experts who suggested that in the ``real 
     world'' a good number of dictators were friendly to the U.S. 
     and certainly useful in waging the Cold War against 
     communism.
       In articulating his vision on the roll back of the Iron 
     Curtain; in identifying with nations all over the world who 
     applauded our passion for building democratic institutions; 
     in celebrating human rights and free market principles; in 
     all of these areas, Ronald Reagan was far ahead of the 
     prevailing wisdom. Yet he ultimately brought other leaders in 
     America and around the world to his point of view in a 
     relatively short interval.
       Surely the spirit of the Doolittle Award strongly commends 
     not only being courageous, and being on the right side of 
     history, but performing these deeds in a very public way 
     which instructs and inspires others. Some of us have learned 
     much from President Reagan as we have watched him speak and 
     act. He is charismatic, he is determined and consistent, and 
     he enjoys a remarkable batting average of being right.
       We now have an important responsibility to make certain 
     that our children comprehend the greatness of his presidency, 
     his optimism about the particular uniqueness of our future 
     opportunities in this country, and the foundations for world 
     peace which his leadership established and which we are 
     charged to build upon.
       We now also have the opportunity today to correct the 
     historical mistake made a few years ago in designating 
     Mikhail Gorbachev ``Man of the Decade.'' It has to be a high 
     moment in each of our lives to be able to present to 
     President and to Mrs. Reagan even a small fraction of all of 
     the tributes which well up in our minds and hearts today.
       On behalf of all of your friends assembled to celebrate 
     your life and service, President Reagan, it is my honor to 
     announce that you are the recipient of the James H. Doolittle 
     Award and to express the unbounded gratitude which we have 
     come here to demonstrate today.

  Ms. SNOWE. Mr. President, I rise today to join with my colleagues in 
this august Chamber, especially Senators Feinstein, Hatch, and Webb, 
members of the Ronald Reagan Centennial Commission, as we pause to pay 
tribute to the indelible legacy of one of America's truly great 
Presidents, Ronald Reagan, who would have turned 100 years old on 
February 6, 2011. It is indeed fitting that as this month of February 
is filled with historic birthdays of transformational Presidents like 
George Washington, who founded our Nation, and Abraham Lincoln, who 
preserved it, that we honor the President who reignited its spirit, 
Ronald Reagan.
  A friend of freedom, a foe of tyranny, and always--always an advocate 
for America, President Reagan inspired our Nation eloquently and 
powerfully to recapture and reaffirm our founding ideals of individual 
freedom, common sense, and limited government. He reminded us with 
unshakable optimism that America, as the great experiment in self-
government, had planted an eternal stake along the timeline of human 
history as, in the words of Abraham Lincoln, ``the last best hope of 
Earth.''
  Many of my colleagues will be sharing their own personal remembrances 
of this threshold figure whom we rank as among the most rarefied of 
American Presidents. What I recall is a President who brought his 
passionate belief in the ideals of America to bear in advancing our 
Nation and projecting the hope of freedom as a force for good in the 
world and a leader who was, contrary perhaps to conventional wisdom, 
not averse to consensus-building in implementing his vision for this 
country.
  Like those rising to speak in this venerable Chamber today, I 
remember well the arduous challenges facing our Nation in 1980. At the 
time, I had just completed my freshman term as a Member of the U.S. 
House of Representatives. Internationally, our country was precariously 
mired in the Cold War, and reeling from the Iran hostage crisis. On the 
domestic front, our economic vitality had been sapped by double-digit 
inflation, hampered by interest rates that would soar to 21 percent, 
stifled by massive tax burdens including a top tax rate of 70 percent, 
and idled by an energy crisis, exemplified by half mile long lines at 
the gas pump.
  Against that backdrop, President Reagan arrived in Washington with an 
unflagging conviction that the greatest untapped potential lies in the 
American people themselves. And by embracing hope, not resignation, he 
charted a course for America that led to greater prosperity and 
security.
  As Commander-in-Chief, President Reagan was steadfast in his 
uncompromising foresight and ultimate success in building up our 
military, and displayed unequivocal mettle in confronting the world's 
only other superpower, laying the foundation for victory in the Cold 
War. With peace through strength, Ronald Reagan called America to a 
purpose he described in his own hand in 1980. He wrote: ``I believe it 
is our pre-ordained destiny to show all mankind that they too can be 
free without having to leave their native shore.'' And nothing evoked 
that immutable faith in humanity and belief in the possibilities for a 
better future more than his demand at the Brandenburg Gate forever 
etched in our memory: ``Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!'' Two years 
later, that wall did crumble, and not long after, so too did the Soviet 
Empire.
  President Reagan battled to reduce the size of the Federal 
bureaucracy--to return tax dollars to the families who had earned them 
and disseminate power out of Washington and back to local governments. 
And I well recall meeting with President Reagan numerous times to 
discuss issues as far ranging as the MX missile, the budget, women's 
issues, or the impact of proposed trade policies on traditional Maine 
industries such as potatoes or lumber.
  And I can attest to the fact that, as a problem solver on every 
front, President Reagan understood that in order to bring to fruition 
his core principles and also ensure he could be resolute in 
implementing his vision for the country, he had to make it happen with 
persuasion and openness. After all, it was President Reagan who 
believed ``if I can get 70 or 80 percent of what it is I'm trying to 
get . . . I'll take that and then continue to try to get the rest in 
the future.''
  In the end, President Reagan's deeds and words summoned America's 
resolve and essential goodness, and his steady hand guided this great 
land in working to foster liberty and kindle the fires of freedom that 
have always made America as President Reagan said better than anyone--
``a shining city on a hill.'' On the occasion of his 100th birthday, we 
express our eternal gratitude to President Reagan for his timeless 
leadership of our Nation which he aptly described in his first 
inaugural address as ``the breed called Americans.''
  Mr. President, I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. MANCHIN. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mrs. McCaskill). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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