Happy Birthday, President Reagan!!!

February 6, 2013 marks what would have been Ronald Reagan's 102nd birthday.  In honor of his birthday, I'd like us to remember some great things he achieved during his presidency.  As much as I adore Ronald Reagan, I promise that my weekly posts will not all be Reagan-centric.  This is just a special Happy Birthday post in honor of our 40th president.  Here's Reagan's presidency in a nutshell...

1)  One month before President Reagan took office in 1981, interest rates were at an all-time high of 21.5%.  On the day he was sworn in, they decreased to 20%.  By the end of his first year in office, they were reduced to 16.5%.  By the time Reagan was sworn in for his second term in 1985, interest rates were down to 10.5%.  By May of 1987, interests rates were down to 8%.  Anyone who purchased a home between the 1970s and now understand how important it is to have low interest rates.  The low rates we enjoy now were unimaginable to home buyers in the 1970s.

2)  Reagan reduced taxation from as much as 70% during the Carter administration to 28%.  As a result, economic growth was stimulated and tax revenues actually increased from $244 billion in 1980 to $446 billion in 1989.

3) President Reagan played a crucial role in bringing the cold war to an end by building up our nuclear arms, preaching against communism and being a strong, yet fair leader in dealing with Mikhail Gorbachev.  Less than a year after President Reagan left office, the Berlin Wall fell.  By the end of 1991, the Soviet Union dissolved.  Sure, Obama supporters will say that Obama was responsible for killing Osama bin Laden, but anyone who has seen Zero Dark Thirty knows it was the operatives on the ground who dedicated nearly a decade of their lives to the hunt who are responsible for bin Laden's death.  Obama was lucky.  Reagan was not.  It was Reagan's foreign policy that ended the Cold War.

4) In 1986, President Reagan  signed the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA) into law.  This is the law that allows workers, who leave their jobs for whatever reason, to remain insured for a period of time.  What a concept, healthcare available to those who want it and are willing to pay for it.  It's optional, not mandated like the current healthcare law.

5) President Reagan saved Social Security signing the Social Security Reform Act in 1983.  He also mandated states to provide job training programs to low income families to break the poverty trap.  President Reagan, like all Republicans, knew that handouts don't get people out of poverty.

6) President Reagan helped curtail frivolous strikes by standing his ground in the Air Traffic Controller strike of 1981.  He brought in military air traffic controllers to ensure no interruption of service.

7) As I stated in my first blog, he appointed the first woman and the first Italian American to the United States Supreme Court.

The list goes on an on.  I could go on all day talking about what great president and what a great man Ronald Reagan was, but it is time to move forward.  The next presidential election is only 1,371 days away.  If we have any hopes of our next president being Republican, our party has to come into the 21st century.

Thanks for listening,
The Urban Republican