lamarsmith.house.gov

Lamar Smith
Contact: Christopher Chichester 202-225-4236


America`s President

Washington, Jun 11 -

I was honored to have served in Congress for the last two years of President Reagan’s second term.

President Reagan devoted his life to the preservation of freedom. He believed that “no weapon in the arsenals of the world is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women.”

His global fight against communism is one of the most significant events in world history. Many said this enemy of freedom could not be conquered. But the Berlin Wall fell because President Reagan made it fall.

Since the president’s death we have heard all or parts of the speeches that inspired so many for so long. They earned him the nickname “The Great Communicator.”

President Reagan will always be The Great Communicator because of what he said and did. But his public remarks were also notable for what he did not say and what he did not do.

He did not pound the podium. He did not flail his arms, or yell. He did not substitute manufactured emotion for reason.

The style and manner of his speech combined with the power of his ideas made verbal and physical gimmicks unnecessary.

There are many ways to judge a president’s place in history. I believe a question we must ask is: What kind of impact on world and national events does a President have both during and after he leaves office? By that standard President Reagan is a historical giant. Consider two examples:

First, President Reagan initiated the largest peacetime expansion of our military ever. It gave him the strength to win the Cold War without firing a shot.

But would our service men and women have achieved such rapid success in the first Gulf War if we had sent our 1980 forces and weapons to fight? Would we have won the ground war in 100 hours without President Reagan’s military build-up? Of course not. I believe we would have prevailed, but not with such stunning success. And our modern, 21st Century military that is fighting the war on terror in Iraq today would be years, if not decades away, without President Reagan’s “Peace Through Strength” doctrine.

Second, President Reagan launched the boldest economic growth plan since the New Deal. When he came to office there were 14 income tax brackets, with the top rate a suffocating 70 percent. After he left office only two income tax brackets existed, with a top rate of 28 percent. This created the longest economic boom in history throughout the 1980’s. But what about the 1990’s?

Without President Reagan’s three-year across-the-board tax reduction plan in 1981, and without the fundamental restructuring of the nation’s income tax code in 1986, we would not have experienced the job creation machine of the 1990’s. And our economy certainly would not have survived and rebounded as it did after the 9-11 terrorist attacks and corporate scandals.

President Reagan left office with a united America, a strong America, and a prosperous America. His America is the country every president – every American – aspires to live in.