Reagan’s 100th: Witness to His Presidency

Today marks when Pres. Ronald Reagan would have been 100 years old. Much it being made of it in some circles where he is considered an FDR type. I’m old enough to have seen it up close and personal and from a different perspective.

Around 1977 as a young Fortune 500 attorney I was sent my first international trip on behalf of a company called Brown & Root to a place called Nicaragua. We were supposed to review a water project financed by several million in US AID money that President Somoza had taken for reconstruction after a devastating earthquake -- and pocketed. The people were mad-as-hell about it, so he suddenly wanted a major American construction company to get involved.

It was barely a year before we would see Somoza fall and the Contra war backed by President Reagan began. I still remember how Oliver North bungled the arms shipment to Iran—yes, our arch enemy Iran-- which was set up to fund the Contras in Nicaragua (illegally). We never did that deal, which was designed by Somoza – the Nicaraguan Mubarak of his time and place. Had Brown & Root had $200 million in equipment there, Somoza knew that the company execs would be calling Washington to “send the Marines” to protect our stuff. It didn’t work because, for some reason, we never did that deal.

I also remember vividly how our deficits spiked starting in Reagan’s first term. What George H.W. Bush labeled “voodoo economics” had became the mantra – “Supply side economics” it was called. This notion that you could (1) Cut taxes AND (2) RAISE defense spending and that would defy the laws of math and magically generate a positive return -- instead of the massive deficits it did. Reagan actually GREW the size of government while speaking against it. Amazing.

I also remember that H.W. Bush would later do the right thing to bring the American economy back into balance, even after campaigning on “read my lips, no new taxes” but he did raise them. That brave move is what stopped America’s deficit slide – but it also cost him an election in 1992. But Clinton kept the Bush 41 new tax revenues and didn’t splurge on spending – and generated the first budget surpluses in decades. It enabled President Clinton to hand President George W. Bush a $200-plus Billion SURPLUS on his first day in office, where the same Reagan cut and spend was turned into borrow and spend, with even greater disastrous results. Under G.W. Bush American went from the largest creditor nation to the largest debtor nation and doubled a 200-plus debt in less than 8 years.

I also remember a Reagan cabinet that was all men. And I’m old enough to remember that during the 80’s the Reagan administration was assisting Saddam Hussein -- who was fighting a 8 year war against our arch enemy Iran. Yep, the same Iran that Ollie North was doing secret weapons deals with for the Contras. Have we forgotten that? I was a corporate attorney during global deals, so we couldn’t help but notice. The mustard gas Saddam later used on the Kurds could have come from American stockpiles.

Yes, I also remember “Star Wars” – a laser defense system that was ahead of its time, as was Reagan’s call for a new aircraft “Orient Express” that could take people from D.C. to Tokyo in 2 hours.

I also remember Reagan saying “Tear down this Berlin) wall.”

That wall has fallen, and so have we because of poor economic policies and spending $1 trillion on another war in a country (Iraq) that wasn’t even behind 9/11, to remove a guy who our own government as assisting in the 80’s. Removing Saddam removed the one thing holding down the Iranians, who were then free to pursue their nuclear ambitions.

Reagan believed in morning in America. I believe we will have it if and when we get ourselves away from voodoo economics – where we just insisted on tax cuts even for the top 2%, adding another $1 trillion to our debt.

I believe if we get back into budgetary balance like Bush 41 and Clinton showed could be done that even Reagan would be pleased. I suspect that he’d also be disappointed to find out that on his 100^th birthday that we are not already riding on Space Planes and beyond.