[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 19 (Tuesday, February 8, 2011)]
[House]
[Pages H529-H530]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1920
                           REAGAN CENTENNIAL

  (Mr. ROYCE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. ROYCE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in commemorating President 
Ronald Reagan's centennial.
  President Reagan served as an inspiration for an entire generation of 
us to get involved in politics. I first had the

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honor of meeting Ronald Reagan as a young student in California, and in 
fact, this meeting led to my getting active in Youth for Reagan. He had 
a powerful message of economic freedom and limited government. Yet it 
was his ability to translate powerful messages like this into real 
reforms that set him apart from past leaders.
  At the heart of all of Reagan's policies, from supply-side economics 
to promoting democracy overseas, was the importance of the individual, 
not the collective. It was the importance of freedom, not statism. This 
great legacy is what we celebrate today.
  I remember, following the Carter administration, our economy was in a 
state of economic malaise--high unemployment and high inflation. In 
fact, that legacy led to the creation of the concept of the misery 
index--inflation plus unemployment--and that reached an all-time high. 
But through the enactment of a pro-growth agenda, Reagan was able to 
cut that number in half in that era of stagflation and lead us into 
prosperity.

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