President of the U.S., 1981-1989; Republican Governor (CA)
Nuts to ask Americans to wear sweaters & bike to work
Always, I look at my hero, Ronald Reagan. He was unbelievable, and one of a kind. Character. Principle. Walked the lonely road. Challenged Americans to make their own difference. Recall that when he first came into office he was succeeding a president wh
told Americans to beat the gas crisis by riding their bicycles to work, to beat the oil shortage by wearing a sweater. Reagan took one look around and essentially said, "What are you guys, nuts?" Interest rates were out of control.
Inflation was at its zenith. So what did he do? He sent Jeanne Kirkpatrick to the United Nations and delivered a powerful message that the rest of the world was not going to kick America around anymore. He cut marginal rates. And he took on the Soviet
Union. He called them the "Evil Empire." His advisors said, "Mr. President, that's not good politics. That's not good diplomacy." And Reagan just chuckled and said it anyway.
Decontrolled oil prices, but didn’t fill oil reserves
Reagan removed controls on oil prices. The result was lower prices and a glut. Had Reagan taken advantage of this to fill the nation’s strategic reserves with cheap oil or to reduce U.S. dependency on foreign oil by imposing an oil import fee,
or to encourage conservation through a tax, he would have left his successor less a prisoner of events in the Middle East. But Reagan abhorred taxes, and he did not accept the necessity of conservation. His trust was in the marketplace.
Source: The Role of a Lifetime, by Lou Cannon, p. 823
, Jul 2, 1991
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