Transcripts For CSPAN3 The Presidency Reagan Tax Cuts 40th Anniversary 20221028

Good evening, everybody thank you all so much for joining us today. Its my pleasure to welcome everybody to todays event, a celebration of the 40 Year Anniversary of the reagan tax cuts. Im matt dickerson, director of the Grover Center for the global budget here at the Heritage Foundation. Our team and i focus our research on issues related to taxing and spending. Unfortunately, i think theres been a little too much of both of those going on recently. But were very excited to be launching this event, this celebration the economic recovery tax act was a positive change in tax policy, yes. But it represented much more than that. It was a change in the mindset. The 1970s were a time of high inflation, high unemployment, low opportunity. Our nations leaders rejected the idea of american greatness and thought the American Dream was behind us. 30 years ago, the heritage hosted a celebration for the tenth anniversary of the tax cuts. It was titled, the importance of americas victory over washington. Think about that for a second. Americas victory over washington. As the tax cuts were being debated in congress, president reagan gave voice to this sentiment in his televised address, reassuring the American People quote, all the lobbying, the organized demonstrations, and the cries of protest by those whose way of life depends on governments wasteful ways, were no match for your voices, which were heard loud and clear. So, its healthy and very important for our movement to celebrate our successes. And remember the good things that were accomplished for the country. Its even more important for us to come together and consider the lessons learned. And teach the next generations how to apply those lessons to the challenges of today and the challenges of tomorrow. A retrospective analysis of the 1981 tax cuts, performed by the tax foundation, that if had been fully allowed to stay in place instead of being partially rolled back by later tax hikes, it would have increased the long run gdp by 8 . 8 thats a huge number. Think about how good that would have been for the country. Perhaps we should have given that a try. It turns out if you lower taxes, reduce regulatory burdens, allow people to keep more of their own money, and allow them to make their own decisions about what to do with it, it results in more Economic Growth, more prosperity, and Higher Standards of living for the American People. But now, President Bidens agenda adds another major threats to american prosperity and our way of life. Theyre threatening massive tax hikes, a massive expansion of government control over the most personal aspects of your life, not to mention key provisions of the tax code under current law are seen going to be expiring. The tax code is still too burdensome, too uncompetitive. And perhaps, most importantly, the size and scope of government has grown, its too unsustainable. Its too costly. Its too harmful. Hi spending restricts current and future Economic Growth. It infringes on liberty and has very serious negative effects on peoples lives and their liberty. So its vital that we all work together, rise to meet this moment, and address these challenges head on, just as president reagan addressed the challenges of his time. In his book, the age of reagan, Stephen Hayward made a really interesting observation. He said that one of the things that made the supply side phenomenon so remarkable is that there were so few supplying siders. There werent even enough supply siders to fill all the key positions in the Reagan Administration. And its notable that some of the most ardent criticism of the supply insiders came from republicans, but the supply supplysiders understood the way the world works, and the American People intuitively understood as well. So, when president reagan and stephen and all the others harness the power of ideas, harness the power of principles, went on offense and spoke truthfully and unapologetically, make one. We won. Even the democrats at the time started talking about the need to reduce tax rates in order to help fix the economy. The Heritage Foundation analysis at the time called that the triumph of supply side. Unfortunately, too many of todays conservatives are willing or are unable to argue terms of the First Principles of our true north as well as president reagan did. We have truth and justice and fairness and other things on our side, so lets shout about it and talk about it boldly and proudly. Here to do just that, we have a very distinguished and fantastic lineup this evening that needs little introduction. We will hear remarks from ed , attorney general and key adviser to president reagan, and the Heritage Foundations Ronald Reagans distinguished fellow americans will hear from founder and chairman of associates, on a Panel Moderated by Larry Goodloe the host of goodloe on fox business network. Were going to hear from harriet Steven Forbes the committee to unleash prosperity, stephen moore. Senior fellow at the independent institute, judy shelton. And speech writer to president reagan, anthony dolan. First, id like to turn the stage over to my friend and head of the reagan alumni association, luke gordie. Luke . Im luke korte, executive direction of reagans alumni association, and on behalf of the board, we are delighted to cohost this event with the Heritage Foundation and the committee to unleash prosperity, to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the signing of president reagans tax cuts. We are at a surreal moment on the one hand, we are talking about the massive reagan tax cuts and across the street and downtown, we have President Biden and democrats looking to spend 1. 9 trillion, i think its called, the American Rescue act, 1. 2 trillion for infrastructure, 3. 5 trillion, and so on and so forth. Its terrible where we are now, but lets remember, it was terrible at the end of the 1970s, and because of folks like reagan, folks like the people in this room, and others around the country, we will rebound. I want to take just a couple of minutes to touch on some of the quotes of Ronald Reagan when he talked about his tax cuts because it helped position the argument pretty well, leading up to it, and then talking about it afterwards. Many of you recall one of the quotes he used often was governments view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases. If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. It and if it stops moving, subsidize it. Another one is, the problem is not that people are taxed too little. The problem is that government spends too much. He said when John Kennedys tax program, which he said was not too dissimilar from his, was passed, the same thing happened. More revenue and lower tax rates. He said a taxpayer is someone who works for the federal government, but doesnt have to pass the Civil Service exam. And he said our federal tax system is in short, utterly impossible, utterly unjust, completely counterproductive. It wreaks with injustice and is fundamentally unamerican. It has earned a rebellion and it is time we rebel again. A couple more is, he said, if you reduce tax rates and allow people to spend or save more of what they earn, there will be more industrious. They will have more incentive to work hard, and keep the money that they earn. They will add fuel to a great economic machine that energizes our national progress. The result, he said . More prosperity for all and more revenue, consequently, for governments. There were a few economists at the time that called this principle supply side economics, and he said, sometimes, he calls it just common sense. Lastly, as one of his more colorful ones, he said the american taxing structure, the purpose of which was to serve the people, began instead to serve the insatiable appetite of government. He said, if you will forgive me, you know, someone has likened government to a baby. It is an elementary canal with an appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other. President reagans tax cuts certainly stimulated the economy, created billions of jobs, and got the country out of president carters self described malays, malaise. Speaking of president carter, i will try my own attempt at reagan like humor, lets imagine in, that president carter was jogging around the tidal basin and he slipped and fell in and was drowning. Secret service may be looking the other way, and three terminal books took off his bike and saved him. He said, im president of the United States. Id like to do something for. You first get says, can i get it over the white house . President carter says, you saved my life. I will give you the tour myself. Second kid says, can i just get a new bike . Ill buy you the best bike there is. You saved your life. Im the president of the United States. The third kid says, as president of the United States, do you oversee Arlington Cemetery . He said, i do. As president , do you have enough power to get me a plot . There but what about, you your ten years old. Why are you thinking of death . He said, but because if i tell my parents i saved you, theyre going to kill me. [laughs] next, ill hear some remarks from thank you very much. Its a pleasure. That was great, by the way its fun being with all of. You chose a few on the panel, i wish i was. There ive got to go up to the mountain tomorrow where im going to be hosting that event of the honorary 40 years, and that will be fun, too. I wish you all were there. What i just wanted to say, and i dont want to overlook all the other accomplishments of the Reagan Administration and what the president did. For example, coming in and seeing the end of the iran hostage crisis that day, the moment he took the oath of office. Incredible. That showed us just the power. We had a joke before he took the oath of office of whats and the answer was tehran ub about 15 minutes after reagan takes the oath of office. That was a joke. They understood the threat from reagan, and they released the hostages as he took the oath of office. I also dont want to underestimate the power of the controlled oil. We had all the gas lines, if any of you remember that, said the limits of how long a cast line came back would be how long it took to drive through one full tank of gas. You could never get any longer than that. And they close that line. And then, of course, that air Traffic Controllers, i dont want to underestimate. That was very powerful as well. As some of you may know, it was the air Traffic Controllers, so correct me if im wrong in that, that i believe that was the only union that are supported us in the republican primary in. I think they were the only union that supported us in the general election. But even with all of that goodwill towards the administration from the administration to them, you cant strike against the American People, and Ronald Reagan gave them a firm edict without consideration of the favors they did for us, and literally fired the air Traffic Controllers. Thats really a powerful thing as well. Or the focus on the attack. I look at the earth as being the first installment of a two installments policy. The next one was the 86 tax act. Those two together just unleashed supply side economics on the economy. A proof that economics, supply side economics, really worked. People respond to incentives. They really do. I was shocked at some of the details of the responses to incentives that occurred with the supply side economics, and, also with the tax cuts. To get the bill through the house and the senate, president reagan agreed to phase in the tax cuts. The tax cuts actually began in full on january 1st,. It is amazing to me how tax cuts dont work until they take effect. We had the deep downturn in 81, when the tax cuts took effect out of literally one minute into the, bam, they hit from january 1st, through june of, and 18 month period, the u. S. Economy grew by 12 in real terms. 12 . We grew at an average annual rate at a little less than 8 year over here. Thats chinese growth rates. Its amazing what did it. If you look at the whole set of policies there, and i just want to go through them, we had tax cuts, we had paul hoke or deserves an enormous amount of credit for the type of policies that he put in this administration. Even though he was appointed by jimmy carter, he did the greatest job. You have sound money, tax cuts, free trade, and, deregulation, and you look at the prosperity we had. That prosperity was wonderful. I dont understand like walter heller, the architect of the kennedy tax cuts, or so he said, why he would be against it when its almost the exact same thing with Ronald Reagan. But he was. He said we would have hyperinflation. You just tell me, have the supplying more goods to the marketplace cause prices to rise . If you have a bumper crop in apples, the price of apples doesnt go up. It goes down, duh in a way, you look at the situation there. This is a beautiful period. It was simple, as larry gatlin said, and im going to turn it over to and in one second. Dear friend, mary catherines, and im just going to quote larry here, as all of you know, night of the national because national and tennessee are the lowest tax states in the nation i want you to know, i find it that way. But larry gatlin says, it aint rocket surgery. [laughs] you want an economy of prosperity . A poor person cant spend themself into wealth. Jack kennedy put it so beautiful. The best form of defense spending is always wasted whenever you find yourself in a situation where you need your military hardware and prowess. Thats a clear sign you did not spend enough. Reagan understood all of these policies, put them altogether, it created the greatest prosperity ever, and i am so proud i was able to work with him. I just loved it. It was terrific. And now i want to give you the dean of all scenes of the reagan period, my dear friends, and, man i wish i would be up there tomorrow, but ed meese is the heros hero. The show is yours. [applause] thank you. Great job as usual. I want to let you know how happy i am to be with you and my friends here today on this program. This was a very important day for the country, when these tax cuts was announced. The legislation set, and find, in 1981. An important day for the presidency of Ronald Reagan, that was really the crux of getting things started, catching the country back again. But there is one person whos not here today with us, unfortunately. Thats Martin Anderson. Martin passed away a number of years ago. He was very instrumental back in,. He has been with Ronald Reagan sends campaigns for the presidency, both 1976 and 1980. It was at that time, as you point out, our country was in deep trouble. We were in the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s. In the transition, Ronald Reagan had smart planners come up with a strategy for how we could get the country back on track. So, martin went to work, art, he definitely had your ideas in mind when he illustrated the supply side economy by, i believe, throwing a design on the back of a cottontail napkin. I think that is somewhat significant. I think what your work was impacted how you did it. You were able to explain a fairly complex subject in a very simple and very illustrative way. And so Martin Anderson went to work, having been charged by the president , the president elect at that time. With this task, he came to the president with a four point strategy which he related to him in the transition, i believe, december and start of january 1981. There were four points. Some of which youve already talked about today. The first was the tax cuts. The second was regulatory reform. The third was maintaining a stable Monetary Policy. And the fourth was slowing the growth of federal spending. Each of these was important. The tax cut was absolutely significant, because this was the one that mainly took the American People and through the families would be able to benefit from the new policies of this administration. And so, the tax cut was put into effect when Ronald Reagan signed the legislature on the 12th of august, 1981. There, in the porch of the ranch house, his ranch and this was the day where im glad we are able to celebrate 40 years showing, actually, as you pointed out, that conservative ideas, particularly, conservative economic ideas, worked. Im sure the panel that will be speaking later on today will describe this in more detail. But the challenge, of course, was the plan was an action, to get it passed by the legislature, and thats why this date itself is so important. The challenge after that was to make sure that these tax cuts could be a continued. It was a big move in, because as you point out, art, the whole program and the effect of the impact we still had some Major Economic problems in 1982. Many people talked about jeffs thing, the tax cuts. Ronald reagan i remember being with him in the oval office when he told those who tried to do away with the tax cuts that he was going to stand firm, and there was no way they were going to be able to change or modify or destroy the significant foundation for the economic recovery that then began. As you point out, art, that was the start that finally took effect. That was the start of the longest period of peacetime Economic Growth in the history of the country. Thats why its appropriate that we commemorate that day when the legislation was signed. Its important, actually, that we remind people of the benefits of this country derived from that economic strategy. And its important to remind that legislation today and National Leaders for the future, that tax cuts and low taxes is the key note of a successful economic program, and economic success for our nation. Its a pleasure to be with you all today. I see a lot of good friends. Who will be speaking later on and to commemorate what Ronald Reagan did, and also to remember Martin Anderson, who was instrumental for all of those who were there today in making this happen. Thanks. I appreciate the privilege to beat with all of you and to help you celebrate an important day. Thank you. [applause] larry, i think youre up. If youre ready . The floor is yours, larry. Yeah, you can pass those forward, to. Thank you. Mr. Meece, it is wonderful to hear your voice. Thank you for what you just said. I dont know who else is out there. Art spoke out there. We just had him on the tv show, in fact. Except for judy and you all introduced him . Everybody knows tony dolan, who was a reagan speech writer. Chief speech writer, excuse me. [laughs] some things never change. He also winds up bumping around the trump white house, if you can believe it. There is a few of us left who served both of those places. I dont think he knows anything about the economy. He has Great Stories to tell about other things. My dear friend, steve forbes of forbes media, a longtime leader in supply side and politics and communications, who was just a bedrock man of great, great principles. My brother, steve moore, similarly, we have been in the middle of just about every insurrection you can imagine here in washington and elsewhere. I think i see and more out there someplace. Hello, and. Take a bow. Shes been married to steve all these years, so she deserves a hand just for that alone. [laughs] im sorry. Had to get punchy, after the tv show. And judy shelton, great monetary expert, great friend of ours, advisers to both the reagan people and the trump people and many in between. Also, a steadfast person of great principles. I want to begin with one of the thoughts that steve forbes mentioned on our show a few moments ago, which i think is so very important, and that is the relationship between economic strength at home and national security, military strength, abroad. Sometimes, its characterized as weakness at home, weakness abroad, but i think its more properly characterized as strength at home and strength abroad. The one leads to the other, to some extent, its perhaps less understood or underrated as a factor, but steve, you mentioned it on our show as you always do, and i wanted you to talk a bit about that. Because america was on the defensive in the 1970s. Maybe long before that. But certainly, in the 70s, we forget the strength of soviet communism, and we forget that in fact, now, the soviets had eastern europe. They were infiltrating our own hemisphere, not just in cuba, but also in places south, throughout south america. That all changed during the reagan years. Why dont you take it from there, because i think, in some respects, in the grand sweep of history, that may be the most important impact of Ronald Reagan. Thats right. Not only did his programs, the two big tax bills that are mentioned, countering inflation, which that often extraordinary gloom. We mentioned on the show, but between 1983 and 1990, the sheer growth, about real growth of the u. S. Economy, the growth alone exceeded the entire size of the german economy, then, the Third Largest in the world. We grew germany in seven years, and amazing achievements. You have Silicon Valley becoming a for cutting edge technology. The u. S. Went from the malaise of the 1970s, when it looked like our best days were behind us, that we couldnt compete again, that were going to fall behind, and we had to keep temperatures down at 55 during winter time, to a nation that was really on striding the world. The amazing thing is, after those tax cuts, 50 nations around the world imitated those cuts. So, you had a global boom. But relating to what larry said in the 1970s, especially in the demoralized aftermath of the vietnam war, after the hubris of the late 60s, and, by the way, that book on Great Society chronicles that terrible time in the late 60s, where we lost our way. But in the 70s, we faced the aftermath of it, and as larry pointed out, in central america, nicaragua fell. And it looked like other countries are going to go the soviet way. Africa, angola, and mozambique, with cuban mercenaries. They were falling and fell. And in europe itself, the soviets put in missiles, shortrange missiles, to really destroy nato, which was the alliance that enabled us to win the cold war. But the whole battle of the missiles, nobody remembers it today. Larry, that was so important because the soviets figured if they had short term missiles aimed at europe, the europeans would no longer trust the u. S. To defend them, if there was a nuclear attack. Because we wouldnt risk the utter destruction of the United States. So, it was key that we get short term missiles stationed in germany, which, no surprise, was fiercely resistant by the soviet union. They drummed up opposition in germany and elsewhere. But thanks to the strength, the and even the strength of the United States in the early 80s, became apparent, we were on the march again. We were a nation of innovation and confidence and growth we had been in the 50s and 60s. That was back again. That enabled chancellor helmet before him to believe the u. S. Was going to be there. So, the missiles got in, and the great soviet gambit to win the cold war ended. So, a Strong Economy means a strong country. It doesnt mean we dont make mistakes. But the world wants a strong leader. A civilized leader. One that believes in human freedoms. All the complaints you get from europeans and others about the u. S. , they fear the u. S. Not being strong in the world. And in asia, whoever wouldve thought that the vietnamese would be begging us to have aircraft carriers visit as a counter to the pressure from china . And so, we play that unique role. All you have to do, larrys look at the 1930s when the u. S. Was weak, wrecked by the Great Depression, and i barely lost civilizations. The 1970s, when one of these bad policies continued, we had soldiers on food stamps, for crying out loud we couldnt even keep our ships in repair and so, it looks like the u. S. Was washed up. Suddenly, overnight, confidence returned. By golly, it was a better, richer world. And thats whats so dangerous today. So dangerous today, we are making the same bloody mistakes again. And i use the word bloody advisedly. If the u. S. Is seen as weak, and by golly, if biden has his way with those title mints and everything else, weak dollar, we are going to have a troubled period again, and hopefully, we can turn it around. This is why this panel is so important and others like it its to remind people it can be turned around. Lets turn it around its not repeat the same mistakes again, because its not just gdp. Its about the safety and morale of a free and civilized society. [applause] one of the thoughts here is that when reagan started to negotiate, meet, and negotiate, with gorbachev, the issues or disarmament, missiles, and of course, gorbachev wanted am to give up in star wars, in effect. Which, today, by the way, its a bastion of our defense provided we keep it up. But steve, when those guys met, it occurs to me and, i think, many others, thats gorbachev was facing a guy who, along with his country, had literally delivered the goods to the citizens. Whereas in the soviet union, they couldnt deliver the goods. The system had, in effect, self destructed, as reagan himself predicted. And it was happening in the mid 80s. Our recovery was off to a flying start. Reagan, in effect, unleashed capitalism, unleashed Free Enterprise, took the cuffs off, lowered taxes, minimized regulations, deregulated oil, which dropped to ten or 12 a barrel at one point by the mid 80s. So, gorbachev couldnt match that. He could not match that. His Economic System didnt work and ours did. You and i hence this paper tomorrow that the journal of the growth rates and so forth. Today, today, i think were in danger of really hands coughing Free Enterprise and capitalism. As dan clifton has noted, in a recent piece, these are the first tax hikes on capital, buggy that laid the golden egg, on capital, in 50 years. And i find that to be foreboding, certainly moving in the wrong direction, and will certainly damage us in the eyes of the rest of the world. What do you think . Is that for me . Its for you. So, let me just shout out a couple of great people in this room. I just wanted to say the reagan tax cuts would not have happened without richard richard, you are a superstar. [applause] you were, at that time, chief economist of the chamber of commerce, when the chamber of commerce was good. And thank you for what you did. You were a driving force behind that. And grover , i dont know if you have the tax pledge, but i think reagan certainly gave birth to that movement. And held reagan from being succumbed into agreeing to tax increases. So, that was incredibly important. And others, by the way, duty, you should be the chairman of the federal reserve. You are the top monetary economist in the country. By the way, i tried. Very hard. And so, i want to mention to other people, because its such a great, great day. Its a great day to remember what happened. The great robert , and i dont think it would have happened without, for those of you who that remember, bob with Editorial Page Editor of the wall street journal, and about every day, they were head editorials explaining and teaching the American People why this was so important. And jude lewandowski, who was at the editorial page at that time. Was he the one who came up with the term supply side economics . I dont remember. It was herb stein. Herb stein. So, that was all cool. I will just say one quick thing that i think, we are in the danger zone right now because none of the lessons we should have learned over the last 40 years seems to have been learned by the left, and thats troubling to me. One thing you set on the show today, larry, was that reagan revolution was a 30year revolution. I would think its a 40 year let revolution. Obviously, trump followed a lot of those ideas for reagan as well, and to give you all one statistic thats in our wall street journal oped tomorrow, its just incredible when you think about this. 40 years ago today, there were 100 points or so, the dow jones was at. 100 today, 40 years later, the dow jones is at 35,000. Not 3, 500, 35,000 this is the greatest period of Wealth Creation in the history of civilization. We havent seen anything anywhere in the history of the world that comes close to what happens in the United States. It wasnt just the tax cuts. It was the deregulation, it was the sound money policy. Clearly, it was the march towards free trade. Limiting government. And now, we are seeing biden and not just joe biden, but the left in america has not learned any of the lessons from these things. That is troubling, because i worry if we start turning the styles back to where they were in the 70s, when we did have 60 and 70 tax rates, Elizabeth Warren talks about it all the time, thats what we should go back to. Literally, they want to reregulate the airlines and the railroads how stupid is that . If theres ever any a success, it was deregulating the airlines and the Energy Markets and the railroads, and they want to go back to policies we had. One of the reasons we put this whole thing together, by the way, thank you to heritage for doing a great job and getting, this and thank all of you for being there and brave and covid to be here. I think its really important that this lesson be taught in schools, and universities, and what reagan did for our country and how if we keep these rates low, we can have another 40 years, larry, like the previous four years. I really believe that, and we will be an unrivaled superpower. China will only catch us. Thats whats going on. China will only catch us if we allow if we do it to ourselves. If we reverse our own policies, because china will not catch us if we keep our tax rates low, and let america succeed as it has over the last 40 years. Judy shelton, weve talked a lot about the policy mix of low tax rates and a strong dollar. Low tax rates and tight money. That was how used to characterize it in his shorthand. We dont have that now. We sure dont have tight money now. We probably wont have low tax rates, although, we will see how that legislative argument plays out. In your judgment, did reagan work well with volker . What was called the laugh for mondale processes play at that point, either consciously or not . Well, first let me also express my thanks for being with you all. I feel very grateful to be on this panel with my heroes. I didnt serve in the Reagan Administration, but my first job as a newly minted doctoral person was to be a Research Assistant to Martin Anderson. So, i feel like i brought props with me today. My first project with martin was he had this pamphlet called the economic bill of rights. I just want to go back and integrate some of the things ive been hearing, which have given such remarkable perspective. As ed meese said, martin wrote the memorandum that laid out the four points. And in this pamphlet, he was reflecting on. That. When was this written . 1988. 1988. And so, he had just left the white house, having served as the chief domestic Economic Policy adviser. He was saying, what do we do . Next you decided to get reinvigorated in a think tank out of the hoover institution. But in here, he said, in the summer of, reagans approach to resolve the economic malaise of the 70s was spelled out in that internal memorandum that became the basis for the policies of his 1980 campaign, and second omicron program. There were the four basic parts. First, control the rates of increase of Government Spending to reasonable levels. We need that now. The second was to reduce personal income tax rates and to accelerate and simplify business depreciation schedules and in orderly systematic way. To remove the increasing disincentives to work to save, invest, and produce. People respond to incentives. The third was to reform, reduce, and eliminate economic regulations. So, as to encourage Economic Growth. This is sounding a lot like the Trump Administration progress agenda. Was to establish a stable and sound Monetary Policy. That was the part that to me was visionary and radical, in a sense. Youre right. Larry, as you asked me at the outset, did that work . Here, you had volker, who decided that he would try this experiment of targeting monetary aggregates and let the Interest Rate go wherever it had to go. At the same time, you had the pro growth tax policies and that was mondales magic formula. And it did work. It worked tremendously. It was brutal. It hurt a lot of the economy, but wrenching out the inflation was vital, and i think we went from over 13 in 80 12 what, three or years later . It was astonishing. So, my other props, jack the american idea. What a promoter he was [applause] heres a guy who would sit on the bus, going from one Football Game to the other, reading john major readings general theory. And understand. Against. But then, i remember, and my thanks to jimmy, who gave me some books from his dad library, which i treasure, but jack said the monetary agenda was anything but remote from anythings experience. In my experience, honest, sound, stable money is a popular, blue collar, bread and butter, winning political issue, and we see how people are so distressed over this rising inflation. They definitely get the value of stable money, have a sound, monetary platform, so they can plan and invest and make good decisions dictated by free market mechanisms. Another one. Bob , the seven fat years. And he is the one who, can i say, popularized, in the best sense, helped everybody understand. For me, having studied International Monetary systems, was my personal guru, and all of that. But i remember in his acceptance speech in 99 for his nobel, heres what he said. And i think this sums it up. The 70s were a disaster, in terms of economic stability, but we learned a valuable lesson. The lesson was inflation, budget deficits, big debts, and big governments are all detrimental to public wellbeing and that the cost of correcting them is so high that no democratic government wants to repeat the experience. So, im very afraid we might be about to, but he warned us. So, in some, on this one, it did work, and they did collaborate . Question mark . I think that Ronald Reagan honored the independent judgment. Its true that volker had come in under carter in august of 79. He was there until august 87. We had the 1981 commission. And i think that volker understood that people were so concerned about the lacks policies of his predecessor and arthur burns and whether there was some kind of acquiescence to what the white house might want. That president reagan was very respectful, but it turns out that what paul volker thought he had to do to wrench out the inflation happens to be exactly in compliance with what mondale said we ought to be doing. And in order to have a probe growth tax policies, expand economic output. And the combination of low tax rates and sound money. I mean, to me, thats the most important lesson to be learned. So, look. I was a young kid then in our and the and i did sit in on one of those volker meetings, thanks to mr. Meese, by the way, who would include me. Reagan and volker had something in common. Gold. Gold. Volker was the last guy, volker was defeated when nixon went through what he went through, in the early 70s. Volker was the under secretary of the treasury at that time. Volker did not want to delink the dollar from gold. He wanted to make some minor price adjustments to the gold link, but not to end it. I dont know about burns. Burns, ive heard both ways of this thing. I know volker. I know him very well. I was once his executive assistant at the new york fed, and i think, reagan like those guys saw things simiarly, he tried to push them out, and eventually succeeded in. For, whether that was a mistake or not, i dont know. Came in, did a very good job until the very end. But i always thought those guys were sympatico. I could be wrong. I think youre exactly right. And volker took no prisoners. Hes like reagan. Reagan used to say, leave the politics to me. He used to always say that about a lot of debates. And that was one of them. You do what you have to do. Ill take a political heat. I thought that was fabulous. It was fabulous in a lot of other ways, and they want to bring in my pal, tony into that. As i said, tony has more reading to do on the economic side. [laughs] but the benefit and the brilliance is as a speech writer and the creative guy and an intellectual and ideals guy, what was reagan thinking . What was he thinking, especially in 81 and 82, tony . I dont want to offend you, but ill begin with some numbers that should appeal to you. Really . We were facing 22 Interest Rates. We were facing 8 unemployment. And backtoback, double digit inflation, two years in a row for the First Time Since world war i. We also were facing 18 increases in federal spending. Ronald reagan came into office, said, no, were going to stop. Neil said, youre in the big leagues now, were gonna teach you a few lessons. He went on the air and everything changed. Ronald reagan, soon, bill came up with the perfect label for him and branding. It also helped the media assimilate. Yes, thats. Right reagan had this video magic. This trans he could put people in. So, he was the great communicator. He was quoting, larry, again when this bill came up. The reason they were doing it is because, i have a 20 book question on this. Were going to the fetus. Reagan did what he had done prior, with the economic speeches. And by the way, Marty Anderson to the audit that was based on. So, grateful to him for bringing it up. But i must tell you, reagan wrote the speeches. They were his. We were talking about this forever. Its the same thing. He called up Pete Handford in the 70s and said pete, have you seen this camp roth tax cut bill . So, they did a script together. He insisted on it. Nobody thought reagan was going to run for president again at this time. So, even than, his advisers said, governor, are you sure you want to be that far out on Something Like this . He had to fight for the campaign, as we all know. Bob , a great guy, but he was losing his mind watching jack kemp talk about the tax hike. [laughs] and bob doyle, i gave him a copy of so we can give bob dylan as quickly in the hospital. But these were things, every one of the c e a chairman told me over lunch, where you and i used to commune as well in the staff table, that Ronald Reagan knew economics as well as anyone they knew. In fact, he knows our bag of tricks. Hes got it down. And i want to emphasize, we sent two drafts in for this speech. But one that changed everything. And tip oneill was laughing, all of washington was laughing, and mike said, you know, the president was pleased with the draft. Well, mike, he ought to be. It was all his stuff. [laughs] for three months, hes been talking about this bill. He had been talking about it in formal situations and informal. Once who was a terrific supply side leader, he could handle any speech, but in particular, he was a supply side trooper. He did this draft that had terrific descriptions of what was going on, and again, parts of the conservative speech writer regan white house ethos, we plagiarize reagan, and we got to take the credit for his speeches. I set one in something edward dunn with elected block the half an hour period of time of all three networks. It was just the setup. It was, okay, folks, the breakthrough has to come now its a few. If you go read the speech, and theres a critical moment. One of the congressman came in and they let me be there when, remember, reagan got us through a Democratic House and a very reluctant republican senate. And the democrats of the lastminute came up with their own tax cuts. This was going to finally do reagan in. One of the you know, mister president , i was up talking to farmers the other day, and i explained to him our tax cut bill and how it was going to do just fine, and it was okay, and i went into all get involved discussions about it and so forth. Finally the farmer just looked at me and said, congressman, are you for him or against him . And i said, mister president , im voting for you. And he told this story in the speech. Think of what happened, Ronald Reagan had this vision of the economic world that he did, and where did that come from . He believed in benefits and forest you believe that as calamitous as our world was, if you have duty, truth, and goodness, it still has power. And what he was saying, really, he understood paradoxes. He understood you tuck cut taxes to raise revenue. He understood you confront regime in order to make it conciliatory. And how i will just finished up with this. If you want, i could tell you a story about rehearsal, it was very funny, it was back and forth with his tv director. I will finish with this. He understood paradox ambiguity and mystery. The mystery of not as i put it. The idea that the philosophy kings know better. Its the Mysterious Force that democracy works better because people make better corporate decisions than the oligarchs, and similarly, lots of people dont know each other, making economic decisions, in billions of transactions do way better than the government handles. So, i have to tell you, thats the reason Ronald Reagan, but leader in supply side, believed that if you stood up for the truth, it had ontological power. And he believed in the judeochristian paradigm, and he believed if you just had a little trust you can change the world. Thats what i leave you with. This was remarkable intellect, as well as a remarkable communicator. And he actually did use numbers in his speech. Oh, he loved numbers. Love them. Thats a long start. A lot of these politicians today will tell you, or their advisers will tell you, oh, nobody was since the numbers. They are ice clays over. Its not. Good larry, listened to the speech of 64. He always use numbers. In fact, used on camera charts, graphs. On camera. Which is very. Cool you want the story or . Not sure. Got to have. It. Im not going to be able to stop you anyways, okay. But its about the chart . Go for the charts. By the way, youve picked your whole game up on the economy. Im proud of. It [laughs] im your student, larry. But in any case, hes rehearsing. Somebody very and we had the script down it was fine, and they were going through it once. And somebody, theyve always got to fix stuff. And im ready is probably Something Like larry. Was it you . I cant remember. Anyway, i want to make a change. It was me. No, it wasnt, it was gergen. So, he had a wonderful mark director, mark good. And what reagan knew was live tv, anything can go wrong. Talk about calamity. So, you better do it. Right. Mark went up to him and said, mister president , we want you to go to the chart now once and go back to the text and back to the charts, but weve only rehearsed it with the charts once. Can you handle this . And the president just kind of looked at it and didnt say a thing. I realized there was something going on here between the record and the markeis, and he said it again, president , can you handle this . Can you do . This and finally, one more time, mark said, mister president , can you do this . And i realized what was happening. He was giving reagan his chance to tell the story. So, he pushed back and said fellas, i made a film with lawless barry. I can handle anything. And i said, we all laughed hysterically. But only mark knew why we were laughing so hard. So, to my credit, the next time i asked him, i said, what did you mean by that . He said, there was a saying in hollywood. Never do a scene with a little dog, a little kid, or wallace barry. It was my scene, i was the only one on camera as mr. Mike left, but i was the only one with any lines. He said, by the end of that scene, you realize, wallace was the only thing you could see, and i was off camera, talking to the back end of the horse. It was supposed to be my scene. Thats my point. He understood and by the way, this is exactly what happened. They were always prepared. Mark, at one, point had to crawl across the Global Office and hold a pent up. So, my marker is working again, because the lights have tried it out. That was the. Point Ronald Reagan knew set and force. And he can handle anything. Exactly. Let me finish on this. Let me finish this one line. When he gave a speech, there were no theatrics. The great communicator just let the words and sentences and the ideas to the work. Speak for themselves. Steve forbes. The benefits of reagans optimism . Thats almost a lost art. There are few people who are optimists who believe, as bad as things may be, they can be turned around. As big as the soviet union was and powerful, it could be brought to its knees. As awful as the u. S. Economy he inherited, it could all be changed in a year or two. He was a quintessential optimist. How important was . That it was critical, because people can be optimistic and suppressed people. Neville chamberlain was an optimist in early, before the german offensive. But he didnt inspire people that the situation was well in hand. But it made bring against optimism believable, was one that he believed, and was it wasnt a show or a putting a merry face on. It was a profound understanding of what made america unique. And what times and circumstances change, people free people will find a way to overcome the off trickles and move ahead. And because people come from the most unlikely backgrounds and do great things in commerce and elsewhere, was that profound faith, deeply red, as hes come out here, this was not some guy just read a line and went on to the next thing. And people sense that, even if the elites didnt. And so, they believed,. Yes we can see through this thing. And also, what made the optimism entering was that when he went through a very rough period from, when the bill was signed, the economy crashed into a recession, it took beating and congressional elections, people thought the economy wouldnt do much in, and he was going to be in jeopardy. His poll numbers went down i think about 35 . But people stuck with him even though they may have disapproved, because they figured, theres something there. And thats why he rebounded so quickly. The economy rebound a quickly, but heat was up in the 60s by the time 1984 rolled around, carrying 49 out of 50 states, as art pointed out. It wouldve been 56 out of, 57 states, but he would have done that. The thing is, it was grounded in an understanding that gave people confidence that this had a real wealth springlike with churchill. As bad as things are, there was a wellspring there you can trust. Thats the key word. Trust. You can trust. Him i often thought in those difficult, those tough years, youre exactly. Right we lost 45 seats in the house in november of 82. The economy was in recession. We didnt get the roaring recovery in early 82. And all of us were hoping for, but i often thought, as the tax debate, it came upon the white house. You had a faction of senior advisers who wanted to back off the tax cuts, and reagan refused. Very important. I was a witness to it. Im just saying, it occurred at the highest level. And with respect to his hard, tough line with the soviet union, it was really only one guy among the senior policy staff in the white house who believed a, you had to throw diplomatic shackles aside and be brutally tough with the soviet union, with respect to their flaws and their vulnerabilities, and the u. S. New position of strength. And b, there was really only one person among his senior policy people who truly believed, i mean, truly believed that the soviet union would, and could be, overturned. And defeated. Into the ash heap of history that was reagan. He was the only senior policy guy and i saw this i watched it. I can say i participated in this. I was not at the table. But he was there, and he was our yeoman. And they came very close, steve moore, in, to overturning the tax cut policy. You heard mr. Meese say how central that was. For a variety of. Reasons if, youre a tax cut or, youre not likely a big spender. If youre a tax cut or, you belief and people, not government planners and bureaucrats and ivy league scientists and so first. So, it meant a lot. And most of his senior staff, not all, but many of them, big shout out to steve moore, wanted to change the tax policy. Because it was more than the budget deficit, which was a evolving problem. They didnt care about growth. They didnt care about the Blue Collar Workers that tony was correctly talking about, that reagan believed. In reagan himself with a blue color background. They were afraid of the policies, oh, the polls and reagan just pushed it aside. He would take the political wrap that he wanted to do the right thing. Thats an extraordinary leadership position, steve moore. Extraordinary. I remember in 82 that there is so much pressure to exceed the giant jackson crease and think god that it was canceled. Congress wanted to cancel the tax cuts. That would have been disastrous. It couldnt have been hard for reagan to ascend. That they did pass a tax cut, but it was thankfully much smaller. And then do what they did in 86 was a really incredible accomplishment. Reagan comes in in the top ten, 57 down to 28 . He always talk about this. 15 in 20. How good would that be if we could go back . He, said i thought he was gonna he was so excited. He said, i did this column for newsweek. I think it was the early 70s. Just to start an argument on the tax. He said, reagans rates are only three points higher than what i was the man wasnt ecstasy. Larry just emphasize what you said. The start of the whole thing, with the economic miracle, the cold war was over. Trade barriers fell down. A billion people lifted out of poverty all because of what happened 40 years ago this day. That was the judy shelton sort of that groundwork being laid in the pack house. I think a lot of people forgot about that. The air Traffic Controllers union which had endorsed reagan during the campaign that is, shall we say, an upper middle class union . Not everybody but they went out on strike. Reagan said, dont do it. Im going to fire you. They went out. He fired them. I always felt for domestic purposes, but also international purposes, that was a shot heard around the world. I thought that was fearless and unique coming from a politician. I guess thats the definition of leadership and you are so right. When you mention this optimism, believing in what he knew in his heart and having the integrity to fight for and carry it out, that, i think, is so important. That faith in the future. I look at things from a monetary point of view. I think what have weve been doing to put money in a bank account and make it zero . How does that support the idea of if you sacrifice today because its a financial see corn thats going to be invested productively in lead to Higher Standards of living. Everyone benefits. You kind of destroy that with faith in the future, with the Monetary Policy weve been having, negative rates of interest. What i left about reagan, in addition to the strong leadership, was this reliance on the private sector. It is a respect for the individual. It was radical in the sense that it was sophisticated. His whole program, all four elements of it, were international in scope. It seemed ambitious. Even another book was this was cochaired, robert mondale, 1983, in williamsburg, the g7 conference, they modestly put forward a monetary agenda for a world growth. But like thomas jefferson, they thought the american idea was so wonderful and so blessed, why not extend that to the world . They have the economic policies to make it work for america. After id worked for martin, he recommended me for the fellowship program, the National Fellowship program at the hoover institution. I took what i thought would be a very dry subject. The impact of western capital on the soviet economy. As i started working on that in 85, and then i saw the impact of this wildly turning around the condo me in the United States, when we went from being the losers to having the right message and the right mechanisms to turn it into a growth machine the impact on gorbachev, who just came in in 1980, five he was popular. Gorbachev was the first one to recognize that the soviet economy was going in the opposite direction. The opposite. I could see that reagan, by using our ability to invest in the strategic defense, was a maximum leverage. Gorbachev of, he was saying i dont want you to do research on it. He knew that the soviet union could never match that. My research ended up being a book that came out in january of 89, the combing soviet crash. Reagan was right. He saw that country was going bankrupt. Not just economically, morally as well. Judy, this is important. I was on the plane in the right back from reykjavik. It was just like the tax cuts. He said no. Time and use weaken the whole world was about to make him the great peacemaker. He, said no, im going home to nancy. He was being detailed by the soviets. The only two people on that plane who were happy, i dont know about reagan, because we knew what had happened. We knew he had done well for different reasons. I said, mister president , everybody wanted a treaty. Let me tell you something. He read it there and his eyes were filled with tears, i couldnt believe. It i said, youve done with the American People have always wanted an american president to do. You stood up to the russians. It was the same courage you point out about the tax cuts at the critical moment. The reason i talked about patco, the soviets notice that. Thats right. Thats where im going. It happened early. It was one of those moments you think im not gonna lower taxes . You think im not going to slam down the soviet union like i said . You think we are going to go ahead with our defense bill . Well, watch me. This thing comes in, it was a wonderful opportunity. It was like a god given blessing. He just hit that bid, he fired it, like it had never been done before. In fact, no president stood up to a labor union like that. The cable show the soviets were reacting. Right. They went crazy. Who is this guy . Shot heard around the world. In terms of inside the administration, us, the rank and file, it was rhythmic. It was like, wow. Wow, he did that. Years later, you called me when trump pulled out of the paris climate accord. You called me. This is the greatest moment. Wow, he actually did that. He said he would do it and he actually did it. By, the way contrast that with what biden is doing now. He goes to the g7, you can have this. Well give you this, well give you that. We will decapitate our history. Hes begging saudi arabia to produce oil. He doesnt know that we have a lot of oil. Oh, wait a minute. He doesnt know. He just doesnt want to embarrassing. A new low. Increase the Oil Production . We have more oil than ever. Thats the way our phone calls go. Thats why i thought it was so incredibly important. Tony, one quick question. Hes on a roll. Is it true that reagan, that the speech writers didnt want to let reagan say gorbachev, tear down this wall . Folks, i will be quick, larry, i promise. [laughs] ive heard a lot of versions. It was, earlier said to mr. President , you know, its really early. I was wondering, right at the end of the meeting, people were looking up, staring daggers. I said, if you have influence at all, think about what you might want to say in berlin. He did his Ronald Reagan imitating ritual during Ronald Reagan. Well, yes, tear down the wall. Thats what i have been folks. Ill tell you, everybody in the Foreign Policy community tried to get that line out. Peter robinson did a brilliant draft. We fought like for it. We went through a lot of provisions and we came out a bunch of times and got it back in. There is an ugly memo about me in the nsc files. Weve had, what, five conversations. Et cetera. The wonderful part about it was this a poor draft of larry and regan worked it over as he would and it was very much him. In the final analysis, that was the major of Ronald Reagan. Everybody wanted it up. He said, no way. Ill tell you, i wrote this in the wall street journal, if anybody is interested, four little words. It tells the story of the morning of the speech. We got a cable from the state department. Tom griscom gave it to me, the director of communications. I said, tom, is that what i think it . Is he said, yes. Dont pay any attention to it. The wall is going to be there another 20 years. Everybody had brought it to reagan. It was ultimatelys decision. As much as we prided ourselves and our retail in movements to keep the line in, and they took it to reagan. As you pointed out. At key moments, he told ally. These guys now, different president s. We will draw a red line through that. You cross that red line and the press always gets crossed now. Thats the reasons we have last respect for the institution. Regan upheld his red line which i think is quite remarkable. He thought, well, im gonna do the best i can. To come back to where we began, with steve forbess idea, all these decisions sent unbelievable messages to the rest of the world about american strength and persistence and defense of ideals. I want to add a bit of history here. I will go to steve farms. Ronald reagan was five times the president of the screen actors guild, a big union, an important union. How do you think that informed his actions, communications, and Political Activities down the road . He learned, one, about leadership. About, you just dont do things on your own. He learned about the communist threat, which is soon become taboo. You cant be anti communist. He learned that, learned how videos it was and he learned as well that he could make decisions, he did make decisions that he felt his life might be at stake, the forces arrayed against him. He was a new dealer. Democrat, union guy. But he never forgot he was there to serve his people, not some other political cause. Fortunately, that was reflected in much of the labor movement. George and others. They wanted more, wanted to organize, all that sort of thing, but they were also very patriotic, unlike the left today. That has been lost. That was the end of that. Reagan, while he was a big thinker, i want to remind you, he also is a very practical i have to share the story, even though its not totally relevant. Pete, we had a speech at the office, a dinner speech. He related, if you are the dinner speaker, lunch and speaker, and the desert is on the table, eat it first because they always ask you to speak when people are having the dessert and they never save it. So eat it first. Okay. Another thing on the actors union. He said, what did you learn . Never sit down at the table unless youre willing to get back up. Yeah, but what did he do . He was five terms president. He did one thing that had never been done before. Im pretty sure not since. He called a strike against studio bosses. He did it in college as well. Thats the only strike theyve ever had. In those days, hollywood was very closed. Monopolistic, a oligarchical place. Reagan himself, his future career was very much up for grabs. He was already moving away from it. He called a strike. In that strike he got a lot of concessions, not only for actors but also for the screenwriters and the people behind the camera, whose pensions were at stake and work rules were at stake. He just did that. It was like patco way before there was patco. I want to also ask what the years he was a ge, he learned about handling unions from the other side. He learned how to be a very tough messenger of Free Enterprise and free markets and capitalism. He went to all these factories, all around the world, all around the country, we theres a fabulous book. Ill never remember the author. Its about this experience and what bow are taught reagan. Judy was telling me about sound money helps the blue collar worker, which jack taught all of us. Reagan learned a lot of that stuff. We talk about how the gop now has become a workers party. Thats a lot of trumps own messaging and so forth. Reagans right there. He was doing his best to fight the establishment. In those days they had 100 factories, not like today. He would talk to the bluecollar people, argue with them back and forth. Reagan was a democrat, as steve said, he was a new deal democrat. Before he became republican. The other guy i worked for, he was a democrat who then became a republican. I was a democrat who became a republican. Im still, to this day, believe the best republicans are former democrats. Larry, could i just mentioned that the battle against the soviet union and all its attacks on the human soul and materially as well as in the heart, was facilitated because of reagans ability to work with the union movement, with labor. Labor solidarity. Like valencia and with Pope John Paul the second. Lane kirkland was already extremely helpful. I think the fact reagan had such credibility that workers knew he was really on their side. He understood how american principles really helped give opportunity to the little guy. What a message that would be. Kirkland actually got into staffing for the Social Security commission in the early 80s. Those guys were anti communist. Those old union guys where anti communist. Thats what, as steve moore said, that game has changed. The left is so awful now. The left hates america. In those days the union guys loved america. They just wanted to stand up for their members. They didnt collect dues in order to provide Critical Race Theory in junior high school. They love this country. They go around talking about systemic racism in america is always wrong. It was a very big difference. By the way, larry, in terms of ge, the book Great Society has great writings on reagans education at ge. Again, his humor when he became a ge spokesman. They turned his house into a laboratory of electricity. Everything was electrified. Stoves, heating, everything else. He said, i drew the line when they wanted to do terrorists. Is that in your book . The best of the best. I want to just our time is probably, it can go on forever i want to make a point. What we have now with the Biden Administration is an attempt to overturn, overthrow every single one of the principles weve been talking about this evening. I mean every single one, whether taxes or regulations or Free Enterprise or patriotism or love of america. As steve moore said, perhaps the most pathetic thing, in a long line of pathetic things ive seen the last few months, which is killing bidens polls, because the American People are much smarter than polls think, this business is about pleading with saudi arabia to produce more oil. It is pathetic. Here we have the greatest oil and gas business on the planet will completely unlocked and unleashed by president trump, where they had discovered new technologies in fracking and horizontal drilling. And natural gas revolution, which has brought down our emissions by 25 since 2000, five we are five years ahead of the claim is pirate we that had no government assistance, no government planning. It was a bunch of guys who put Old Technology to work, the brilliance of the private sector. I want to say, we really have to give every intellectual activism communications, writing, money, whatever it takes to defeat the reconciliation bill that will come up for a vote not immediately, in a couple months. Embodied in this bill, if they are using it as the vehicle to transform america, the transform its values, its culture, its history and its economy. They have no interest in Economic Growth. They know well that youre not going to tax your way into prosperity. They know well that the inflation is rising because of too much spending and the feds monetizing. Thats always going to be the big risk. Hes already now put it on jay powells head. Yes, he said that. He said, they will do it when they think its appropriate. This is the monetary equivalent of sending Kamala Harris to the southern border. I want to make a personal plea to everybody here. So important in such a great place. There is nothing more important than defeating reconciliation. Thats all there is to it. Nothing more important. Literally, our way of life in the stake every great principal were talking about, from optimism to taxes, to money, to Free Enterprise, to actually upholding but, abiding by red lines in the sand, will be defeated by the bidens. They are rather brash about it. I dont care whos in charge, whether its aoc or bernie sanders, or nancy pelosi, where my suspicion is joe biden we. Make no mistake. They want to overturn everything we hold dear, everything we hold dear. Im just making a plea. I will let my panelists get one last word on whatever topic they want. That is my fault for the day. Believe me. Trust me. The stakes are incredibly high. Last word, tony. Clock is ticking. The folks, behind his back, i refer to him as larry the golden heart. He is a wonderful, warm, great person who is busy getting people medals of freedom and thinking of others all the time. Thats a dark secret that i willingly share with all of you. I think the point i would make is regan was the author of his own success. He was a troublemaker. He embraced controversy just like margaret thatcher. Thats how you move the ball. Steve forbes . Reagan understood america in a way the few president s have. Lincoln did, and full of others, they wrote a book reagan did. Thats why he was successful. Thats why he had what my grandfather called sticktoitiveness. Through setbacks which are inevitable. It led to his triumph, even when he had the setbacks. He believed in the uniqueness of this country. Sadly, we have an establishment today, unfortunately, a culture, politics and elsewhere that has the exact opposite view that this country is a disgrace to humanity. Oul ofthat is what we are fight. Battle for the soul of america. Lets not forget it. Steve moore . You, know you mentioned tonight on the tv show that i had worked in late 1987 at the office of management and budget, under jim miller, a great reignite. I never thought a lot of it. We try to privatized amtrak. Wouldnt that be a great thing . 50 billion dollars more to amtrak to privatize it. Thats difficult. An example of the kind of things reagan wanted to do. What better transportation we would have today fully privatized amtrak. Im very proud of that, that i worked for reagan, you know . I think that its i tell my kids, you worked for Ronald Reagan, that is so cool. His stature keeps going up. You know something . Over time, reagan stature keeps going up. The last thing i will say, i went out to south dakota three weeks ago. Rapid city, saw mount rush more. There is room for one more. There is room. Wouldnt be amazing if Ronald Reagan was on that . [applause] judy shelton, last word . I think he proved you really can change the world. You can change the destiny of the world and for the good. For me, the 80s started with the privilege of getting to hear about the reagan program from Martin Anderson, from the people who created it. Then seeing that the consequences of that just against my study of the internal monetary of the soviet union. Who still has the capacity for thermal Nuclear Exchange to destroy everything. What you saw was that combination of vision and fortitude was able to bring down that nation. I remember, when i see john sitting there, i dont know if he remembers, but you once came to visit gayle and me at our home. You know what you brought us . As a little housewarming gift . A piece of the berlin wall. So that is what i am keeping it. It just shows that ideas are powerful for good or ill. If you combine that with the leadership and integrity, and the principles to see it through, its extremely powerful. Cspan out is a free mobile app featuring your unfiltered view of whats happening in washington, live in on demand. Keep up with a days biggest events with live streams of floor proceedings and hearings from u. S. Congress. White house events, the courts, campaigns and more for the world of politics. All at your fingertips. You can also stay current with the latest episodes of washington journal and find scheduling information for cspans tv networks and cspan radio. Plus a variety of compelling podcasts. Cspan hours available at the apple store and google play. Downloaded for free today. Cspan now, your front row seat to washington anytime, anywhere. Book tv, every sunday on cspan two, features leading author is discussing their latest nonfiction books. 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