[fable]

Without picking a fight, I must say that I like Reagan, and to a much lesser extent Nixon. I do respect anyone who has a beef with either of them because I agree that they both had serious downfalls. Perhaps fable can change my mind as he probably remembers the Teflon President far better than me, and I wasn't even born when tricky Dicky was in office.

The first president I can remember in detail was Kennedy, though I lived throughout Eisenhower's administration. As for Reagan: he did many things that I consider very negative, and some of them have been continued by Dubya. Targeted tax cuts for the rich, for example: that was invented by the neo-cons in the Reagan administration, the first time they made their way into government. David Stockman, Reagan's "financial boy" in the Office of Management and Budget, admitted later that one reason for doing this was the neo-con one of starving the government of funds for social projects.

While on the subject of economics, the fiscal deficit when Reagan entered office was almost 790 billion dollars. When he left, it was nearly 2191 billion dollars. The interest payments alone each year exceeded 100 billion dollars. It was the worst federal deficit in US history--until Dubya. And it dragged on the economy, in a way that we're also beginning to feel, now.

Yet for all that, real dollar federal assistance to schools (as an example) dropped by 9% during Reagan's terms, and infrastructure spending (usually in the form of grants to states for spending on highway roads and repairs) dropped nearly 25%.

The social safety net was nearly dismantled under the Reagan administration. Hospitals, including those associated with the Veterans administration, saw massive cuts. So did legal services nationwide, and mental institutions. A huge number of borderline cases were put out on the streets. Inflation was driven down, but unemployment when over 10%, and remained very high. When a couple of the homeless died after sleeping on a very cold night outside the White House, I remember Reagan remarking in a press conference that "They probably weren't Republicans."

The "If you're not with us, you're against us" attitude of the curent administration really started during the Reagan years. That same amazingly insensitive "They probably weren't Republicans" was trotted out following the Jonestown Massacre, when roughly 900 people (including almost 300 children) either committed suicide or were killed by cult leaders.

Reagan and his neo-con colleagues had a black/white view of foreign affairs, as well, which has come to such disastrous fruition in Dubya's term. But it was during the Reagan years that Rumsfeld, then in private business, was empowered on behalf of the government to sell chemical weapons to Sadam Hussein. They were intended for use against the Iranians. You tell me that this wasn't worthy of bringing the Reagan government before any court on "crimes against humanity"? All this was, of course, while human rights organizations were already accusing Hussein of atrocities against the Kurds. US helicopters sold by the Reagan administration were employed by Hussein when he gassed them, later. It would be extremely disingenuous to assert that Reagan and Company didn't know what use they would be put to, given Hussein's well known record, and his on-going campaign to decimate the Kurds.

While on the international front, Reagan also directed a series of wars in Central America: Guatamala, El Salvador, and Nicaragua. Each one was in favor of a rich, landed minority elite, that provided cheap exports to the US. The fact that the US was involved in Guatamala, a secret and undeclared war, nearly got Reagan impeached, except for his imitation of a braindead man ("I don't know.") before Congress. He literally sounded like he unware of anything, and repeatedly stated those words with utter bewilderment. Yet Reagan was quick to pardon those "responsible" in his administration for financing the illegal war, and was joking confidently and making presidential decisions later that same day.

By eliminating tons of anti-trust legislation, Reagan's administration paved the way for the media mergers that have lost us a free press, and resulted in nearly all media outlets in the US being controlled by one of three major international corporations run by an extremely conservative media magnate. The largest of these, Rupert Murdoch, regularly fired managing editors at the newspapers he took over if they didn't support the Republican ticket. This isn't considered "newsworthy" enough to write about usually, but as it has eliminated a variety of viewpoints within the media, this is very serious, indeed.

The Texas Savings and Loan Disaster! I almost forgot that one. One of the worst bank disasters of the century, caused by the deregulation atmosphere fostered, approved, and signed into law under Reagan. When it was over, and all those banks had gone under, the public footed a 150 billion dollar bill.

While AIDS was engullfing the world, Reagan didn't say a word until 1987. By then, 20,000 Americans had died of it. One use of his office would have been to encourage responsible behavior and to support plans to research the epidemic. While Surgeon General Koop advocated an aggressive campaign of public awareness to assist prevention, Reagan's Secretary of Education, Bill Bennett, refused to allow funding for this, and insisted any such campaign only focus on abstinence.

Dismantling the Environmental Protection Agency: its budget was slashed by half. Reagan advocates were installed to see to it that the rules weren't enforced. Alternative fuel research was gutted, as well. Reagan was a big oil man, as were his buddies--a state of affair we can see today, in the second administration to pursue these policies.

Anyway, those are the ones I can remember offhand. If I recall more, I'll post 'em.