Reagan

ABORTION

“With me, abortion is not a problem of religion, it’s a problem of the Constitution. I believe that until and unless someone can establish that the unborn child is not a living human being, then that child is already protected by the Constitution, which guarantees life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness to all of us.”
“And yet our opponents tell us not to interfere with abortion. They tell us not to impose our morality on those who wish to allow or participate in the taking of the life of infants before birth. Yet no one calls it imposing morality to prohibit the taking of life after a child is born. We’re told about a woman’s right to control her own body. But doesn’t the unborn child have a higher right, and that is to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness?”
We have the duty to protect the life of an unborn child.
Abortion is advocated only by persons who have themselves been born.
“More than a decade ago, a Supreme Court decision literally wiped off the books of fifty states statutes protecting the rights of unborn children. Abortion on demand now takes the lives of up to 1.5 million unborn children a year. Human life legislation ending this tragedy will some day pass the Congress, and you and I must never rest until it does. Unless and until it can be proven that the unborn child is not a living entity, then its right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness must be protected.”

BIG GOVERNMENT

Government’s first duty is to protect the people, not run their lives.
I have wondered at times what the Ten Commandments would have looked like if Moses had run them through the US Congress.
Government exists to protect us from each other. Where government has gone beyond its limits is in deciding to protect us from ourselves.
No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we’ll ever see on this earth!
Government does not solve problems; it subsidizes them.
Concentrated power has always been the enemy of liberty.
Government is like a baby. An alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other.
One way to make sure crime doesn’t pay would be to let the government run it.
Today, if you invent a better mousetrap, the government comes along with a better mouse.
The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.
“We must reject the idea that every time a law’s broken, society is guilty rather than the lawbreaker. It is time to restore the American precept that each individual is accountable for his actions.

We should measure welfare’s success by how many people leave welfare, not by how many are added.

BUREAUCRACY

Government, when it is bent at all, is bent to the wills of the special interest groups, whose goals are always in opposition to the general Interest. The great mass of people are too busy working to pay bills and the taxes; they’re not organized. They only get a chance to get their will known at election time
The most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the government and I’m here to help.
As government expands, liberty contracts. “Remember that every government service, every offer of government – financed security, is paid for in the loss of personal freedom… In the days to come, whenever a voice is raised telling you to let the government do it, analyze very carefully to see whether the suggested service is worth the personal freedom which you must forgo in return for such service.”
Nothing lasts longer than a temporary government program.

ECONOMICS

Recession is when a neighbor loses his job. Depression is when you lose yours.
Government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.
Entrepreneurs and their small enterprises are responsible for almost all the economic growth in the United States.
A recession is when your neighbor loses his job. A depression is when you lose yours. And recovery is when Jimmy Carter loses his.
There are no great limits to growth because there are no limits of human intelligence, imagination, and wonder.
To paraphrase Winston Churchill, I did not take the oath I have just taken with the intention of presiding over the dissolution of the world’s strongest economy.
Inflation is as violent as a mugger, as frightening as an armed robber and as deadly as a hit man.

EDUCATION

Will we meet (the students’) neurotic vulgarities with vacillation and weakness, or will we tell those entrusted with administering the university we expect them to enforce a code based on decency, common sense and dedication to the high and nobel purpose of the University?
According to them (history professors) it is the United States that has aggressive ambitions which cause the Soviets to arm defensively for protection. Logic obviously is not part of the approved course for at least some history teachers.
FREE TUITION IS NOT A RIGHT; IT IS A PRIVILEGE OF THE DESERVING

ENERGY

All the waste in a year from a nuclear power plant can be stored under a desk.
Our problem isn’t a shortage of fuel, it’s a surplus of government.

ENTITLEMENTS

We should measure welfare’s success by how many people leave welfare, not by how many are added.
Welfare’s purpose should be to eliminate, as far as possible, the need for its own existence.
Unemployment insurance is a pre-paid vacation for freeloaders.
To sit back hoping that someday, some way, someone will make things right is to go on feeding the crocodile, hoping he will eat you last – but eat you he will.
It’s true hard work never killed anybody, but I figure, why take the chance?
My philosophy of life is that if we make up our mind what we are going to make of our lives, then work hard toward that goal, we never lose – somehow we win out.
What we have found in this country, and maybe we’re more aware of it now, is one problem that we’ve had, even in the best of times, and that is the people who are sleeping on the grates, the homeless, you might say, by choice.
To sit back hoping that someday, someway, someone will make things right is to go on feeding the crocodile, hoping he will eat you last–but eat you he will.

FAMILY

All great change in America begins at the dinner table.
I’ve often said there’s nothing better for the inside of a man than the outside of a horse.
The ultimate determinant in the struggle now going on for the world will not be bombs and rockets but a test of wills and ideas-a trial of spiritual resolve: the values we hold, the beliefs we cherish and the ideals to which we are dedicated.

FREEDOM

If we ever forget that we are One Nation Under God, then we will be a nation gone under.
Freedom prospers when religion is vibrant and the rule of law under God is acknowledged.
A people free to choose will always choose peace.
Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.
Man is not free unless government is limited.
Democracy is worth dying for, because it’s the most deeply honorable form of government ever devised by man.
Let us be sure that those who come after will say of us in our time, that in our time we did everything that could be done. We finished the race; we kept them free; we kept the faith.
“The American dream is not that every man must be level with every other man. The American dream is that every man must be free to become whatever God intends he should become.”
“I hope we have once again reminded people that man is not free unless government is limited. There’s a clear cause and effect here that is as neat and predictable as a law of physics: as government expands, liberty contracts.”
I’ve spoken of the shining city all my political life, but I don’t know if I ever quite communicated what I saw when I said it. But in my mind it was a tall proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, wind-swept, God-blessed, and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace, a city with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity, and if there had to be city walls, the walls had doors and the doors were open to anyone with the will and the heart to get here. That’s how I saw it and see it still…” “And how stands the city on this winter night? More prosperous, more secure, and happier than it was eight years ago. But more than that; after 200 years, two centuries, she still stands strong and true on the granite ridge, and her glow has held steady no matter what storm. And she’s still a beacon, still a magnet for all who must have freedom, for all the pilgrims from all the lost places who are hurtling through the darkness, toward home.”
“Remember that every government service, every offer of government – financed security, is paid for in the loss of personal freedom… In the days to come, whenever a voice is raised telling you to let the government do it, analyze very carefully to see whether the suggested service is worth the personal freedom which you must forgo in return for such service.”

GLOBAL COOLING / WARMING

Approximately 80% of our air pollution stems from hydrocarbons released by vegetation, so let’s not go overboard in setting and enforcing tough emission standards from man-made sources.
A tree’s a tree. How many more do you need to look at?

IMMIGRATION

A nation that cannot control its borders is not a nation.

LIBERAL INSANITY

The trouble with our Liberal friends is not that they’re ignorant; it’s just that they know so much that isn’t so.
One picture is worth 1,000 denials.
Facts are stubborn things.
They say the world has become too complex for simple answers. They are wrong.
If the Soviet Union let another political party come into existence, they would still be a one-party state, because everybody would join the other party.
“A hippie is someone who looks like Tarzan, walks like Jane and smells like Cheetah.”
“No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we’ll ever see on this earth!
“They tell us we must learn to live with less, and teach our children that their lives will be less full and prosperous than ours have been; that the America of the coming years will be a place where — because of our past excesses — it will be impossible to dream and make those dreams come true. I don’t believe that. And, I don’t believe you do either. That is why I am seeking the presidency. I cannot and will not stand by and see this great country destroy itself. Our leaders attempt to blame their failures on circumstances beyond their control, on false estimates by unknown, unidentifiable experts who rewrite modern history in an attempt to convince us our high standard of living, the result of thrift and hard work, is somehow selfish extravagance which we must renounce as we join in sharing scarcity. I don’t agree that our nation must resign itself to inevitable decline, yielding its proud position to other hands. I am totally unwilling to see this country fail in its obligation to itself and to the other free peoples of the world.
We must reject the idea that every time a law’s broken, society is guilty rather than the lawbreaker. It is time to restore the American precept that each individual is accountable for his actions.
If more government is the answer, then it was a really stupid question.”
“The size of the federal budget is not an appropriate barometer of social conscience or charitable concern.”
“The most dangerous myth is the demagoguery that business can be made to pay a larger share, thus relieving the individual. Politicians preaching this are either deliberately dishonest, or economically illiterate, and either one should scare us. Business doesn’t pay taxes, and who better than business to make this message known? Only people pay taxes, and people pay as consumers every tax that is assessed against a business. Begin with the food and fiber raised in the farm, to the ore drilled in a mine, to the oil and gas from out of the ground, whatever it may be — through the processing, through the manufacturing, on out to the retailer’s license. If the tax cannot be included in the price of the product, no one along that line can stay in business.”
Today if you don’t like the laws in your state, you can move. When the federal government takes control, there is no place to move to.

LIBERTY

Government is not a solution to our problem government is the problem.
The federal government did not create the states; the states created the federal government.
Our natural, inalienable rights are now considered to be a dispensation from government, and freedom has never been so fragile, so close to slipping from our grasp as it is at this moment.
Someday, the realm of liberty and justice will encompass the planet. Freedom is not just the birthright of the few, it is the God-given right of all His children, in every country. It won’t come by conquest. It will come, because freedom is right and freedom works. It will come, because cooperation and good will among free people will carry the day.
“If you analyze it I believe the very heart and soul of conservatism is libertarianism. I think conservatism is really a misnomer just as liberalism is a misnomer for the liberals — if we were back in the days of the Revolution, so-called conservatives today would be the Liberals and the liberals would be the Tories. The basis of conservatism is a desire for less government interference or less centralized authority or more individual freedom and this is a pretty general description also of what libertarianism is.

MILITARY

When you can’t make them see the light, make them feel the heat.
We will always remember. We will always be proud. We will always be prepared, so we will always be free.
Peace is not absence of conflict, it is the ability to handle conflict by peaceful means.
Above all, we must realize that no arsenal, or no weapon in the arsenals of the world, is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women. It is a weapon our adversaries in today’s world do not have.
We’re in greater danger today than we were the day after Pearl Harbor. Our military is absolutely incapable of defending this country.
Of the four wars in my lifetime, none came about because the U.S. was too strong.
History teaches that war begins when governments believe the price of aggression is cheap.
I call upon the scientific community in our country, those who gave us nuclear weapons, to turn their great talents now to the cause of mankind and world peace: to give us the means of rendering these nuclear weapons impotent and obsolete.

OBAMA

Surround yourself with the best people you can find, delegate authority, and don’t interfere as long as the policy you’ve decided upon is being carried out.
You know, if I listened to Michael Dukakis long enough, I would be convinced we’re in an economic downturn and people are homeless and going without food and medical attention and that we’ve got to do something about the unemployed.

PATRIOTISM

Some people wonder all their lives if they’ve made a difference. The Marines don’t have that problem.
We can’t help everyone, but everyone can help someone.
There are no easy answers’ but there are simple answers. We must have the courage to do what we know is morally right.
If indeed, America does have aggressive designs on the world, then how do we explain those days after Wii when the United States had the greatest military strength in history and a monopoly on the nuclear bomb – why didn’t America impose its will on the world
The people’s instincts are still right. You see them come to the rescue of someone – a child who falls down a well – hundreds of people rush to help, and labor and equipment are volunteered without any thought of who’s going to pay for it. This is a basic feeling in Americans. They don’t stand back in such a circumstance and ask what government’s going to do about it.

POLITICS

It has been said that politics is the second oldest profession. I have learned that it bears a striking resemblance to the first.
Before I refuse to take your questions, I have an opening statement.
The best minds are not in government. If any were, business would steal them away.
I’ve never been able to understand why a Republican contributor is a ‘fat cat’ and a Democratic contributor of the same amount of money is a ‘public-spirited philanthropist’.
But there are advantages to being elected President. The day after I was elected, I had my high school grades classified Top Secret.
Politics is not a bad profession. If you succeed there are many rewards, if you disgrace yourself you can always write a book.
Politics is just like show business. You have a hell of an opening, coast for a while, and then have a hell of a close.
I didn’t leave the Democratic party, the Democratic Party left me.
One thing our founding fathers could not foresee – they were farmers, professional men, businessmen giving of their time and effort to an idea that became a country – was a nation governed by professional politicians who had a vested interest in getting re-elected. They probably envisioned a fellow serving a couple of hitches and then looking eagerly forward to getting back to the farm.
I think one of the most dangerous slogans ever coined is the “The greatest good for the greatest number” a noble sounding phrase, but what does it really mean? It means that 50% of the people plus one can do whatever they want to the rest, by rationalizing that what they are doing to them is good.
Professional politicians like to talk about the value of experience in government. NUTS! The only experience you gain in politics is how to be political

RELIGION

We are never defeated unless we give up on God.
Without God, democracy will not and cannot long endure.
Within the covers of the Bible are the answers for all the problems men face.
We might come closer to balancing the Budget if all of us lived closer to the Commandments and the Golden Rule.
If we ever forget that we’re one nation under God, then we will be one nation gone under.
“Christmas can be celebrated in the school room with pine trees, tinsel and reindeers, but there must be no mention of the man whose birthday is being celebrated. One wonders how a teacher would answer if a student asked why it was called Christmas.”
“Live simply, love generously, care deeply, speak kindly, leave the rest to God.”
“Sometimes when I’m faced with an atheist, I am tempted to invite him to the greatest gourmet dinner that one could ever serve, and when we have finished eating that magnificent dinner, to ask him if he believes there’s a cook.”
Freedom prospers when religion is vibrant and the rule of law under God is acknowledged. When our Founding Fathers passed the First Amendment, they sought to protect churches from government interference. They never intended to construct a wall of hostility between government and the concept of religious belief itself. … To those who cite the First Amendment as reason for excluding God from more and more of our institutions every day, I say: The First Amendment of the Constitution was not written to protect the people of this country from religious values; it was written to protect religious values from government tyranny.
The basic freedoms: The freedom to worship, the freedom to choose your occupation, the freedom to try and fail and, if need be, to try again, the freedom to make mistakes and to do things others might consider stupid

SOCIALISM

How do you tell a communist? Well, it’s someone who reads Marx and Lenin. And how do you tell an anti-Communist? It’s someone who understands Marx and Lenin.
Coersion, after all, merely captures man. Freedom captivates him.
Socialists ignore the side of man that is the spirit. They can provide you shelter, fill your belly with bacon and beans, treat you when you’re ill, all the things guaranteed to a prisoner or a slave. They don’t understand that we also dream.
I don’t believe in a government that protects us from ourselves.
If we lose freedom here, there is no place to escape to. This is the last stand on Earth
“They don’t subscribe to our sense of morality; they don’t believe in an afterlife; they don’t believe in a God or religion. And the only morality they recognize, therefore, is what will advance the cause or socialism.”
“If you serve a child a rotten hamburger in America, federal, state, and local agencies will investigate you, summon you, close you down, whatever. But if you provide a child with a rotten education, nothing happens, except that you’re liable to be given more money to do it with. Well, we’ve discovered that money alone isn’t the answer.”
“Socialism only works in two places: Heaven where they don’t need it and hell where they already have it.”
They preach the supremacy of the state, declare its omnipotence over individual man and predict its eventual domination of all peoples on the Earth. They are the focus of evil in the modern world…. So, in your discussions of the nuclear freeze proposals, I urge you to beware the temptation of pride, the temptation of blithely declaring yourselves above it all and label both sides equally at fault, to ignore the facts of history and the aggressive impulses of an evil empire, to simply call the arms race a giant misunderstanding and thereby remove yourself from the struggle between right and wrong and good and evil.
If you look back, you find that those great social reforms really didn’t work. They didn’t cure unemployment. They didn’t solve social problems. What came from them was a group of people who became entrenched in government, who wanted social reforms just for the sake of social reforms.

TAXES

The problem is not that people are taxed too little; the problem is that government spends too much.
Republicans believe every day is the Fourth of July, but the democrats believe every day is April 15.
The taxpayer – that’s someone who works for the federal government but doesn’t have to take the civil service examination.
Government always finds a need for whatever money it gets.
The government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.
A taxpayer is someone who works for the federal government but doesn’t have to take a civil-service exam.
You can’t tax business. Business doesn’t pay taxes. It collects taxes.”
True, I’d been making handsome money ever since WW II, but that handsome money lost a lot of its beauty and substance going through the 91% bracket of the income tax. The tragic fact of life in this evil day of Progressive taxation is that, once behind, it is well-nigh impossible to earn your way out.
Why is it inflationary to let the people keep more of their money and spend it the way they’d like, and it isn’t inflationary to let (the President) take that money and spend it the way he wants?

TEA PARTY

Our people look for a cause to believe in. Is it a third party we need, or is it a new and revitalized second party, raising a banner of no pale pastels, but bold colors which make it unmistakably clear where we stand on all of the issues troubling the people?
“No people in all history paid a higher price for freedom. And no people have done so much to advance the dignity of man. We are called materialistic. May be so…but our materialism has made our children the biggest, tallest, most handsome, and intelligent generations of Americans yet. They will live longer with fewer illnesses, learn more, see more of the world, and have more success in realizing their personal dreams and ambitions than any other people in any other period of our history – because of our materialism…I think on our side of civilization and on the other side is the law of the jungle…We all have to recognize that this country has been handed the responsibility, greater than any nation, to preserve some 6000 years of civilization against the barbarians.
“You and I are told we must choose between a left or right, but I suggest there is no such thing as a left or right. There is only an up or down. Up to man’s age-old dream — the maximum of individual freedom consistent with order –or down to the ant heap of totalitarianism. Regardless of their sincerity, their humanitarian motives, those who would sacrifice freedom for security have embarked on this downward path.
“I am impatient with those Republicans who after the last election rushed into print saying, ‘We must broaden the base of our party’- when what they meant was to fuzz up and blur even more the differences between ourselves and our opponents”