Happy Birthday Mr. President!
jim
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THE WASHINGTON TIMES
washtimes.com
February 5, 1999
OPINION
Birthday remembrance . . . and appreciation
By Dinesh D'Souza
President Clinton has survived an amazing succession of
scandals because he has presided over an era of peace
and prosperity that most Americans assume he is
responsible for creating. But in fact Mr. Clinton has had very
little to do with the economic boom of the '90s. The man we
should be thanking is Ronald Reagan.
When we consider the ingredients of America's economic
strength -- the taming of inflation, the revival of economic
growth, the restructuring of the economy, the reduction of the
deficit, the opening up of world markets, the peaceful climate
generated by the end of the Cold War -- we see that in virtually
every case, the turning point came in the 1980s.
Yes, it's true. Ronald Reagan, who turns 88 tomorrow, is the
man most responsible for America's economic restoration. Few
are willing to credit his achievement because most people -- and
especially intellectuals -- accept the facile stereotype of Mr.
Reagan as an intellectual lightweight who napped on the job and
was too detached from the daily operations of government to
have a lasting impact.
Like most stereotypes, this one contains an element of truth.
But it misses the broader point that Mr. Reagan made the critical
choices that led to America's victory in the Cold War and the
restoration of the economy after a long period of stagflation and
indefinable "malaise."
Mr. Reagan initiated a massive military buildup to counter the
Soviet threat, and secured sharp across-the-board tax cuts to
stimulate economic growth. (The top tax rate plummeted from
70 percent to 28 percent between 1981 and 1986.) Mr. Reagan
also supported the restrictive monetary policies of Federal
Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker as a necessary strategy to curb
the double-digit inflation of the Carter era.
These measures extracted a heavy price. Mr. Volcker's tight
money policies ended double-digit inflation, the scourge of the
1970s, but at the price of plunging the U.S. economy into a deep
recession in 1982. The poverty rate climbed from 12 percent to
15 percent. Unemployment rose from 7 percent to 11 percent.
The New York Times dubbed his policies "Reaganomics" and
observed that "the stench of failure hangs over Ronald Reagan's
White House."
Mr. Reagan's critics demanded public works projects to put
Americans back to work. They also called for restrictions on
cheap imports to save domestic jobs. Invoking the success of the
Japanese, many economists advocated "industrial policy," an
elaborate scheme to invest taxpayer money in the "sunrise"
industries of the future and to protect jobs in "sunset" industries
that were no longer competitive in the world economy.
Mr. Reagan refused to support these short-term solutions.
He allowed the economy to go through a painful period of
downsizing and restructuring. In the depths of the 1982
recession, Mr. Reagan urged Americans to "stay the course" in
the confidence that things would get better.
Eventually, they did. In 1983, the economy turned around and
went into a 15-year boom, interrupted only by the mild Bush
recession of 1990-1991. Nearly 20 million new jobs were
created between 1983 and 1989, and another 15 million since
then. With typical panache, Mr. Reagan remarked that "the best
sign that our economic program is working is that they don't call
it Reaganomics anymore."
Mr. Reagan's major failure was his inability to arrest the
growth of government spending. This, combined with his tax cuts
and defense increases, produced the $1.5 trillion deficit of the
1980s. Mr. Reagan's critics warned that he was leading the
country on an expensive spending spree that would bankrupt
future generations. But the deficits of the Reagan years
corresponded almost exactly with the amount invested by the
Reagan administration in fighting the Cold War.
America won that war. So if future generations must assume
the financial burden of the deficits of the 1980s, they also inherit
a world in which the threat of nuclear war is vastly reduced.
Moreover, the end of the Cold War has meant the opening up of
world markets to American companies, contributing to an
unprecedented surge in the Dow Jones Average from around
800 in 1982 to nearly 9,000 today.
Mr. Reagan's final vindication has come lately in the
disappearance of the deficit as a serious concern. Suddenly,
almost mysteriously, the deficit has evaporated and the budget is
in a surplus. In retrospect, the predictions of many of Mr.
Reagan's critics and his own budget director, David Stockman,
of "$200 billion deficits as far as the eye can see," seem
misguided and myopic.
President Clinton has claimed credit for the disappearance of
the deficit. But what has he done to achieve this? There are two
ways to eliminate a deficit: dramatically raise taxes or sharply
cut government spending. In fact, Mr. Clinton raised taxes
marginally in the 1993 budget deal. But his own budget
projections show Mr. Clinton anticipated a continuation of huge
deficits. And far from reducing government spending, Mr.
Clinton repeatedly has increased it.
Actually there are two factors responsible for reducing the
deficit. The first is the continued vitality of the Reagan boom -- a
bonanza for the U.S. Treasury. The second is America's huge
defense savings as a consequence of winning the Cold War. In
real terms, America today is spending around $100 billion less
each year on defense than at the height of the Cold War era.
Consequently, the man blamed for the deficits of the 1980s is the
same person who is largely responsible for the surpluses of
today.
Future generations, less clouded by bias than today's pundits,
will remember Mr. Reagan as a great president whose policies
were instrumental in ending the Cold War and reviving the
American economy and the American spirit. But it's only right
that we, who are benefiting enormously from his legacy, should
do Mr. Reagan the honor of acknowledging his achievement
during his lifetime.
Dinesh D'Souza, a research scholar at the American
Enterprise Institute, is author of "Ronald Reagan: How an
Ordinary Man Became an Extraordinary Leader," just
published in paperback by the Free Press.
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When Reagan rode
By Tod Lindberg
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
SANTA BARBARA, Calif.
Ronald Reagan's 88th birthday is this week, and once again,
because of the 40th president's ill health, we will have to
do the commemorating for him. In Simi Valley, Calif., this
week, the site of the Reagan Library, scholars, former officials
in his administration and old friends will gather to mark the
occasion, as well as the passage of ten years' time since he left
office.
Ten years? It doesn't seem like it could possibly be so long.
The impressions seem too vivid, more robust to this day than
anything that lingers from the administrations of his two
successors. "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down that wall!" The daring of
that exhortation is breathtaking -- all the more so now that the
wall is long gone, as is the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact;
Germany is one country; the Baltics are free and independent;
and Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic are NATO allies.
As well, the tireless defense of freedom Mr. Reagan
mounted -- in particular, the collective economic rationality that
took hold during his administration, according to which the ability
of the marketplace to improve our material condition finally won
pride of place over the vanities of central planners and
regulators. Some conservatives want to give Mr. Reagan the
credit for the economy of the 1990s. If the policy argument is
dubious -- one must also take into account the sudden and
surprising Democratic affection for the bond market in the 1990s
--the sentiment is admirable. We truly did cross the economic
Rubicon in the early 1980s, and no one had more to do with
achieving this political reality than Mr. Reagan.
And, to pick an example about which the Left was especially
vicious in its caricature of Mr. Reagan, it looks like he may get
his missile defense after all. In many startling ways, 10 years
after his departure, the political debate in Washington is still on
the terms he set.
How was he able to do this? The question has baffled many
a better mind than mine. Edmund Morris, his official biographer,
is said to have been agonizing for years in his effort to capture
the essence of the man. His much-postponed effort is due this
spring, apparently with the rather unpromising title "Dutch: A
Memoir." Dutch? A childhood nickname? For the man who won
the Cold War? This seems to promise eccentricity.
Perhaps simplicity is a better approach -- or so it seems to
me now, especially after a visit to the Reagan ranch in the hills
outside of Santa Barbara. The Reagans bought the 688-acre
spread in 1974, and it is the place to which Mr. Reagan returned
again and again until 1995, when his failing health made it
impossible. In total, he spent as much as a year of his eight years
in office here.
Rancho del Cielo -- ranch in the sky -- now belongs to the
Young America's Foundation, which acquired the property last
year with the admirable intention of preserving it and using it as
a place to teach college students about Mr. Reagan and his
legacy. Nancy Reagan has been especially helpful to the project.
Most of the personal items at the ranch were removed to the
Reagan Library after the Reagans' last visit. Mrs. Reagan has
been bringing them back and helping Marc and Kristen Short,
who run the project for Young America's Foundation, to restore
the look and feel of the surprisingly modest, 1,500-square-foot
house.
Apart from family, the Reagans never had overnight guests
at the ranch. They did entertain there, inviting people up for
lunch and perhaps a horseback ride, but that was all. As
president, Mr. Reagan kept his staff seven miles down the hill on
the coast, in Santa Barbara proper. And on most days, the press
office there would issue statements on the president's activities
along the following lines, maddening to those trying to find a
story to cover: After lunch with Mrs. Reagan, the president rode
and cleared brush.
That's it.
The place reeks of historicity. It is almost as if the Reagans
have merely stepped out, and one is a voyeur on a guided tour of
an unauthorized nature conducted by a daring housekeeper. Is it
really all right to eat a roast beef sandwich at Mr. Reagan's
dining table, overlooking the fence he built out of old telephone
poles around the pond he enlarged? And here is the table at
which he signed the 1981 tax cut. And here is his favorite cap,
the sweat-stained one that says "Secret Service Mounted
Division." And there hanging in the closet off the bedroom is the
navy Polo shirt with horizontal white stripes familiar from scores
of pictures of the robust American president riding and clearing
brush.
What's striking is that nothing about this place is the least bit
fake. Evidently, he came here over and over again for two
decades because he loved it -- the view of the valley from
horseback, the physical labor. It's the authenticity of the man
that lives on at the Reagan ranch.
Maybe that's not a bad place to start in understanding Ronald
Reagan. Here he rode and he cleared brush, a harmonious blend
of pleasure, determination, labor and accomplishment.
Elsewhere, too, he rode, and he cleared a hell of a lot of brush.
Happy birthday, Mr. Reagan.
Tod Lindberg is editor of Policy Review.
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