Congressional Record, Volume 150 Issue 79 (Tuesday, June 8, 2004)

[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 79 (Tuesday, June 8, 2004)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6604-S6623]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

TRIBUTE TO FORMER PRESIDENT RONALD REAGAN

Mr. SHELBY. Mr. President, I rise today to pay tribute to the life
and the legacy of former President Ronald Reagan. President Reagan
served our country with honor and distinction, and I feel privileged to
have the opportunity to reflect on the contributions he made to our
country and to the world.
Upon hearing the news of his death, I thought back to the footprints
he left on my memory. He was, indeed, one of the greatest leaders, I
believe, of our time, and I was honored to know him.
President Reagan provided our country with an enormous amount of hope
following a period of national remorse and confusion about the
direction of our country and about its place in the world. Let us not
forget the context into which he emerged to seize his place in history
and to move the United States forward with a determination and an
optimism about the future that was so recently lacking.
The ghost of Vietnam haunted our foreign policy and the specter of
Watergate informed our politics.
The election of Ronald Reagan, however, truly changed America. He
instilled hope that every American could be optimistic about his or her
future; hope that communism would not endure and that freedom and
democracy could ultimately vanquish the forces that sought to pull our
country, and many others, into the abyss of despair and hostility that
permeated much of the world; hope that personal freedom without the
encumbrances of big government would revitalize the economy; hope that
the rejuvenated armed forces he would lead as Commander-in-Chief could
make the United States once again truly the leader of the Free World in
a struggle for survival against the Soviet Union.
President Reagan's eternal optimism gave our country a renewed sense
of self, a belief that the American dream was possible and that every
individual had the opportunity to create his or her own success. Ronald
Reagan believed that each new day was filled with high purpose and
opportunity for accomplishment. He gave America back the hope we had
lost for many years.
President Reagan's leadership and courage were central to ending the
Cold War. He was certain that freedom and democracy could prevail in
all corners of the globe if only the one country with the capacity to
do so would step in and show the way.

[[Page S6605]]

Many Americans who were not yet born or were too young to understand
could not appreciate what this man accomplished. The first half of the
20th Century was marked by warfare on a global scale. The First World
War--the war to end all wars--had decimated much of Europe. A
generation was lost to the trenches and newly introduced technologies
of destruction such as the machine gun and the tank.
The war that followed, World War II, managed to go well beyond its
predecessor, as the failure of European diplomacy once again dragged
the continent into the horrors and devastation that man continued to
wrought. The epic struggle against the forces of fascism, a struggle we
remembered this past weekend with the anniversary of the Normandy
landings, was a fight against evil in every sense of the word. Its
ending, however, set the stage for a new type of conflict--a conflict
that would take the second half of the century to resolve, mercifully
without the nuclear war that existed as the logical culmination of the
stand-off that came to be known as the cold war.
The skills, strengths and enormous fortune that kept the cold war
from turning hot transcended, of course, multiple presidential
administrations. It was brought to its successful resolution, however,
through the vision and strength of exactly one man: President Reagan.
Decades of conflict management, in which experienced diplomats and
elected officials sought primarily to prevent nuclear war and to
contain the Soviet threat, had succeeded in preventing nuclear war.
That was an incredible feat, to be sure.
What set Ronald Reagan apart, however, was his vision of a world
without the nuclear stand-off that had become an indelible image in the
public psyche of virtually the entire world. What set Ronald Reagan
apart was his visceral belief that the United States, and the freedom
and prosperity it represented, had to, and could, not just contain the
threat but eliminate it without the awful specter of nuclear war coming
to fruition.
Derided by his opponents both here and abroad as a dangerous cowboy,
President Reagan stood firm in his beliefs and led the country to
victory. He believed, correctly, and at variance with the views of many
a university professor and politician, that the United States could
force the Soviet Union over the cliff on which it rested, buttressed on
the backs of the millions it held in its tyrannical grip.
This was a truly great man.
Limited government, lower taxes, and individual responsibility will
also be part of President Reagan's legacy. He believed that each
American and each community were the best problem-solvers. Rather than
making Government bigger to address the challenges our country faced,
Reagan stood firm in his commitment to the contributions that could be
made through personal empowerment and a renewed sense of political and
social responsibility.
I was just a second-term congressman when President Reagan came into
office. Although a Democrat at the time, I closely identified with his
commitment to lower taxes, limit government and rebuild the military. I
shared President Reagan's conservative philosophies, and he helped me,
and millions of other Americans, have a restored faith in the purpose
of our Government.
I also recall a time when President Reagan asked me to breakfast at
the White House. I, a second-term Congressman at the time, was
certainly impressed. I had always been a conservative Democrat, and he
had hoped that I would change parties, as he had done when the
Democratic Party ceased to represent the values he held dear. I
declined his offer to do so at the time, explaining my strong desire to
work to fix the Democratic Party from within. The President knew
better, telling me that the party was in the midst of a transformation
that would not be reversed any time soon. It took me more years to
fully appreciate the President's wisdom. But appreciate it, I did, and
I followed his lead in abandoning the party of my youth in deference to
another. While I took a little longer to change than he would have
liked, he did provide me with much of the foundation as to why I needed
to leave the Democratic Party. I have always appreciated his guidance,
humility and humor.
I believe history will treat Ronald Reagan well. He uplifted a
frustrated country through his optimism and hope. He changed a troubled
world with his devotion to the spread of freedom. Ronald Reagan
embodied the American spirit, and our country and the world are forever
grateful for his service.
I offer my condolences to Mrs. Reagan and the entire family. They
have endured much heartache with his illness, much grief with his
passing, and much joy with his life. My thoughts and prayers are with
them in this difficult time.
May God bless Ronald Reagan and his memory.
Mr. FITZGERALD. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Crapo). The clerk will call the roll.
The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. ALLEN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for
the quorum call be dispensed with.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. ALLEN. Mr. President, I rise to speak as if in morning business.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. We are in morning business. The Senator is
recognized.
Mr. ALLEN. Mr. President, my colleagues and Americans, President
Ronald Reagan will be returning to Washington tomorrow for the very
last time. I rise to honor the memory and life of the greatest leader
of the 20th century and to express my sympathy to his wonderful and
loyal family--in particular, his loving wife and partner Nancy.
Nancy Reagan has always been an outstanding and inspirational role
model for our entire Nation. And that has never been more clearly
displayed than through her wonderful courage and love during the
difficult journey she and President Reagan traveled during the past
decade.
Like so many, I was inspired to actually answer the call of public
service because of then-Governor Ronald Reagan's positive, principled
message. In 1976, I began as a young lieutenant in the Reagan
revolution when I was asked to chair Young Virginians for Reagan.
Today, I am still motivated to work to advance his individual-
empowering philosophy in government.
Ronald Reagan entered the political stage in 1964 with a speech which
summed up a philosophy that would guide him through his Presidency two
decades hence, and which turned the tide of world history.
Mr. Reagan said in 1964, ``You and I have a rendezvous with destiny.
We can preserve for our children this, the last best hope of man on
Earth, or we can sentence them to take the first step into a thousand
years of darkness. If we fail, at least let our children say of us we
justified our brief moment here. We did all that could be done.''
Indeed, Ronald Wilson Reagan did have a rendezvous with destiny.
President Reagan rejuvenated the spirit of America. His determined,
optimistic leadership lit the torch of liberty and allowed it to shine
in the dark recesses of oppressed countries around the world.
Ronald Reagan believed in the innate goodness of mankind. He believed
and advocated the wisdom of our country's foundational principles. He
believed that given the opportunity, all men and women would seek
freedom and liberty and with it unleash creativity, ingenuity, hard
work, and economic growth.
He touched deeply the hearts and minds of Americans through his
genuinely believed, commonsense conservative words of encouragement--
from his first inaugural speech in 1981, to his inspirational State of
the Union Addresses, to his moving memorial tribute to our lost
Challenger explorer, to his strong demand to tear down the wall of
oppression, to his passionate tribute to the defenders of liberty at
Normandy 20 years ago this week. Those were the words he delivered.
Those words which he delivered are now as much a part of the fabric of
America as the threads of our flag, Old Glory. Lee Greenwood's song,
``God Bless the U.S.A.,'' was an anthem to Ronald Reagan's renewed
America.
Historians will surely discuss and debate the impact of Ronald
Reagan's 8 years as President for generations to come. But there is no
doubt his legacy

[[Page S6606]]

has already been revealed. In fact, he foresaw his legacy. He was there
at the bicentennial in 1981 of the Battle of Yorktown. He gave a
wonderful speech at Yorktown, VA.
He said as follows, ``We have come to this field to celebrate the
triumph of an idea--that freedom will eventually triumph over tyranny.
It is and always will be a warning to those who would usurp the rights
of others. Time will find them beaten. The beacon of freedom shines
here for all who will see, inspiring free men and captives alike, and
no wall, no curtain, nor totalitarian state can shut it out.''
To put this in context, when Ronald Reagan became our 40th President,
Americans had lost their faith in our leaders and in the role of
America in the world. Government at home was restraining its citizens
with oppressive taxation and burdensome regulations. Our national
malaise led to historically high unemployment, high interest rates and
inflation, low productivity, and a stagnant stock market.
Our moral authority around the world had been eroding, and confidence
in the ideals of liberty and democracy were replaced by the fear of
expanding tyranny, communism, and repression.
America yearned for a leader who could change the direction of our
Nation and make them proud of our heritage once again. Ronald Reagan
answered that call.
Many tributes this week rightfully point to President Reagan's
unwavering optimism and belief in the inner strength of Americans, and
indeed all human beings. He understood that they could be motivated and
inspired to higher ideals with our competitive nature. No more hand-
wringing. He wanted action. Indeed, he challenged us to look no further
than his administration and ourselves for solutions. He said, ``If not
us, who? If not now, when?''

Beyond his unshakable faith in mankind was his consistent adherence
to principles which were unfashionable and often scorned when he came
to office but today which are solidly embraced and winning the minds of
people across our country and throughout the world. He acted on his
beliefs that government interference should be restrained and that free
people should be unrestrained, without limits. We prospered and we
thrived with the creation of jobs and opportunities.
One of my very favorite principles of President Reagan was declared
in his 1985 State of the Union address when he said, ``Every dollar the
government does not take from us, every decision it does not make for
us, will make our economy stronger, our lives more abundant and our
future more free.''
And so it is. Through tax cuts that return tax dollars to those whose
hard work and ingenuity earned them, to reducing burdensome
regulations, President Reagan presided over the beginning of the most
robust peace expansion of our economy in the history of our Nation.
But President Reagan believed the blessings of liberty must not be
bestowed only on a few nations and only to those blessed to be born on
free soil; Ronald Reagan, with the strength of his convictions,
exported and advanced democracy to continents, countries, and people
yearning to taste the sweet nectar of liberty.
He knew the evil communistic empire could not be sustained and would
collapse under the weight of a determined effort to challenge the
Soviets on their failed policies, both foreign and domestic. He
reversed decades of policy calling for containment of that oppressive
tyrannical system, and he boldly asserted that the advancement of
freedom and liberty must be America's No. 1 foreign policy objective.
Indeed, he believed that it is our solemn moral obligation to do so.
Now we are seeing his greatest legacy. Hundreds of millions of free
people, from the Baltics in Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia through Poland,
Hungary, Slovenia, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria and Romania,
all people once repressed behind the Iron Curtain are now joining NATO.
They are true friends and allies. Yes, they are breathing that
invigorating wind of freedom.
One of the last public statements Ronald Reagan made was in 1983. He
provided us with a vision which will guide us now and in the future.
Ronald Reagan said, ``History comes and history goes, but principles
endure and ensure future generations to defend liberty--not as a gift
from the government, but a blessing from our Creator. Here in America
the lamp of individual conscience burns bright. By that I know we will
all be guided to that dreamed of day when no one wields a sword and no
one drags a chain.''
It is Ronald Reagan's inspiring character, courage, unflinching
adherence to principles, policies, and eloquence that brought forth a
renaissance for the United States of America, a rebirth of freedom, and
the world also experienced that renaissance at a crucial juncture in
history. He fanned the flames of freedom and that torch of liberty will
continue to burn brightly by his inspiration and example. We all thank
God for blessing the United States and the world with Ronald Reagan.
President Reagan, as you finally enter the gates of that shining city
on the hill you always talked about, rest peacefully, knowing you left
the world a much better place than it was when you arrived. For that,
the free people of your Nation are eternally grateful.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Alaska.
Mr. STEVENS. I ask unanimous consent that following my remarks
Senator Kyl be recognized and then Senator Brownback.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I come to the Senate today to join others
to remember a good friend and a great American leader.
In 1977, I was elected to the Senate leadership and served as
Assistant Minority Leader until the 1980 election. I don't think anyone
at that time could have predicted the sweeping changes that were about
to take place. When Ronald Reagan was elected, he ushered in a new era
of government so profound it became known as the ``Reagan Revolution.''
That was an exciting time in Washington.
As I became assistant majority leader and began a new life--Howard
Baker was the majority leader. The day before I was to marry my wife
Catherine, Howard called and asked me to replace him on a trip to China
because Deng Xiaoping wanted to understand what ``Reaganism'' meant. My
wife Catherine and I were married on December 30, and we left for China
on December 31. To prepare for those talks, I reviewed all of President
Reagan's actions as Governor of California and his promises made during
the election. I was honored to be offered the opportunity to explain
and defend his record.
When Congress convened in 1981, those of us in the Senate leadership
went down almost weekly for meetings at the White House. Occasionally,
President Reagan came up to Howard Baker's office as Majority Leader to
meet with us. I don't think any other President has done that as often
as Ronald Reagan. President Reagan always tackled very serious subjects
in these meetings, but he kept us relaxed. He usually began our
discussions in the Cabinet room with a joke or a story. His leadership
brought out the best of all of us.
During his administration we were able to accomplish a lot for the
American people and set the Nation and the world on a new course. Much
has been said already about the mark President Reagan left on our
national defense and foreign policy. Those were his greatest
contributions as President, and I viewed those decisions from a unique
advantage point.
I was sworn in as chairman of the Senate Appropriations Defense
Subcommittee just days before President Reagan took the oath of office.
He immediately began to move toward a 600-ship Navy, new aircraft
development, and space-based missile defense systems. President Reagan
understood that the first thing we had to do was restore our military
capability. The Soviets were outspending us at that time and stealing
our secrets. The President took control of that situation, and in the
years since President Reagan left office, either Senator Inouye or I
have been chairman of the Appropriations Defense Subcommittee. Each of
us has carried forth the vision President Reagan had for our military.
History has overlooked President Reagan's personal commitment to arms
control, however. In 1985, the President supported the creation of the
Arms Control Observer Group in the

[[Page S6607]]

Senate, a group of Senators that served as official observers at any
arms control negotiations involving the United States. I co-chaired
that group along with Senators Lugar, Nunn, and Pell. Our goal was to
avoid the problems we faced in the 1970s when three successive arms
control treaties were unable to achieve ratification in the Senate. Our
group went to Geneva 3 or 4 times a year and came back and briefed the
President, Secretary Shultz, and the Senators who were involved in arms
control matters.
The President encouraged the Soviets to decrease the size of their
arsenals and to reduce the size of our nuclear forces. This was one of
the most significant parts of the Reagan agenda, the overall concern
with arms control.
The President also created a revolutionary new approach to defense
space research. He brought down the walls between isolated research
projects and advocated a more comprehensive approach. A lot of the
aspects of the missile defense system, which he called Star Wars, were
based upon the research he put into effect then.
When President Reagan passed away on Saturday, I noted that his death
coincided with another sad day in American history: On June 5, 36 years
ago, another great American leader, Senator and Presidential candidate
Robert Kennedy, was struck down by an assassin's bullet in Los Angeles.
Although they were from different generations and different political
parties, Robert Kennedy and Ronald Reagan had a lot in common. Both men
were leaders who did more than just point the country in the right
direction. In the words of Bobby Kennedy, they inspired Americans to
envision a ``world that never was and ask `Why not?' ''
On June 12, 1987, President Reagan inspired all of us to envision a
new world when he gave his famous speech at the Brandenburg Gate. I
will never forget the image of President Reagan standing before that
gate demanding that Gorbachev ``Tear down this wall!''
Weeks before he gave that speech, the President learned that his
remarks would be carried in East Germany over the radio, and in one
part of the speech he spoke directly to the people of East Germany. One
can only imagine the hope the people on the other side of that wall
must have felt when they heard the President of the United States
declare in their native tongue: ``There is only one Berlin.''
Here at home, President Reagan built, as he called it, a ``shining
city upon a hill.'' He borrowed that phrase from John Winthrop, an
early Pilgrim who used it to describe the kind of America he
envisioned.
For Reagan, the idea of a ``shining city'' 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 there.

I will always be grateful to President Reagan for teaching us to
believe in that shining city and for opening its doors so Alaska could
finally enjoy full citizenship.
Under President Ronald Reagan, the freeze on the transfer of Alaskan
lands to our new State and to the Alaskan Native people was finally
lifted, and we began to receive the land that rightfully belonged to us
under the Statehood Act that admitted Alaska into our Union. President
Reagan instructed the Department of the Interior to move quickly as
possible on that. I do not believe it would have happened that fast had
he not been elected.
Under President Reagan, the Village Built Clinic Program began, and
we set out to establish Indian health service clinics in every Native
village in Alaska.
Under President Reagan, we finally addressed the injustice of Aleut
internment during World War II by awarding reparations to Aleuts who
had been taken from their homes and sent to what were called ``duration
villages'' in southeastern Alaska for the duration of the war.
President Reagan understood Alaska's military and geopolitical
significance better than any other President. The modernization of
Alaska's military bases accelerated during his administration.
What most Alaskans probably remember best about President Reagan is
how well he understood our State and our way of life. When he came to
Fairbanks to meet Pope John Paul II, he told the crowd that every time
he came to Alaska he thought of the poet Robert Service and threatened
to recite ``The Shooting of Dan McGrew.'' In fact, he did that just
that one night when Catherine and I were attending a dinner in Chicago.
We had just flown in from Fairbanks, and I told the crowd that was
present that the 20-degree weather in Chicago could not compete with
the harsh weather back home, where the temperature was 50 below. Ronald
Reagan got up to give his remarks, and he recited Robert Service's poem
``The Shooting of Dan McGrew'' from memory.

I distinctly remember him saying this phrase from Service's poem:

When out of the night, which was fifty below, and into the
din and the glare, there stumbled a miner fresh from the
creeks, dog-dirty, and loaded for bear.

On the plane ride home, the President told my wife Catherine that his
mother had kept a first edition of Robert Service's poetry by his
bedside and read those poems to him as a child. Catherine later sent
him a first edition of Robert Service that she found in a bookstore in
New York, and he wrote her a nice letter back telling her he planned to
memorize ``The Cremation of Sam McGee'' once more.
I tried many times to get the President to come back to Alaska, but,
unfortunately, he decided, as the years went by, that he wanted to go
back to California to ride horses.
We understood that, and honored him for it. Alaskans took comfort in
knowing that even if his heart belonged to California, he was raised on
the words of Robert Service, our favorite poet.
One of my fondest memories of President Reagan is, strangely enough,
a phone call I received from him as chairman of the Appropriations
Subcommittee on Defense. The President called to ask me if I had placed
funding in the Defense bill that year to procure a new pair of Air
Force I airplanes. I told him that I had. President Reagan told me that
he had not requested that funding and would veto the bill.
He said: ``Ted, I'm the President.''
I said: ``Sir, I understand that, but you won't be President by the
time the new planes arrive.''
There was silence on the other end of the line, and when he finally
spoke, the President said: ``Ted, do you have a design for these
planes?''
I will never forget that because the first time a President flew in
those new planes was when one of them took the retired President and
Nancy back to California in 1989.
This week, President Reagan will fly back to Washington for the last
time. Thousands of Americans will pay tribute to him in the Capitol
Rotunda and millions more will reflect on his life. Catherine and I
extend our deepest sympathies to Nancy and the Reagan family, as all of
us will mourn the loss of a true American hero.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Arizona.
Mr. DORGAN. Will the Senator yield?
Mr. KYL. I am happy to yield.
Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, my understanding is, by unanimous consent,
Senator Brownback will follow Senator Kyl. I ask unanimous consent that
I be allowed to follow Senator Brownback.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
The Senator from Arizona.
Mr. KYL. Mr. President, America mourns the loss of an epic-making
leader, Ronald Wilson Reagan.
As the biographer Lou Cannon has said, Reagan ``possessed a special
`something' that transcended the appeal of ordinary politicians,'' and
he knew it. Even so--and this is an important point--he was neither a
vain man nor in love with power. In not misusing that special appeal
that he had, he showed such character and goodness. He could have been,
but was not, a demagog. He was trying to accomplish his exalted vision
of this country, only that. And in large measure, he succeeded.
Militarily, he rebuilt America's capacity to defend itself and its
allies. Reagan's defense buildup led to U.S. victories in the cold war,
the Persian Gulf war, and beyond. In fact, dealing

[[Page S6608]]

skillfully with a Congress controlled during most of his Presidency by
the other party, he secured funding for weapons systems that are still
being used.
Diplomatically, he achieved with the Soviet Union, our adversary for
most of the last century, an accord that eliminated whole classes of
nuclear weapons from the stockpiles of both countries.
Politically, he enabled us to regain confidence in America. His
confidence in his country and his goodness was utterly unshakeable, so
he was just the right leader to rise to the fore when the national
spirit had been battered by our withdrawal from Vietnam, the scandal of
Watergate, and the malaise that his predecessor identified but could
not seem to counteract.
Economically, he slew the dragon of double-digit inflation. He braved
unpopularity to stay the course with Paul Volcker, Chairman of the
Federal Reserve, in tightening the money supply. This steadfastness saw
the United States through its worst economic crisis in 50 years. The
economy slid deep into a recession before recovering in late 1982.
Along with tightening the money supply to kill inflation, Reagan was
convinced that marginal tax rates must be cut to stimulate growth.
These anti-inflation and tax policies defied the conventional wisdom of
that time. But they worked. They gave us what the late, great
journalist Robert Bartley called ``the seven fat years,'' a time of
unprecedented job creation and economic expansion in America.
Even as Ronald Reagan won through in domestic policy, he was a
statesman who left his mark on the world.
During his two terms in office, early 1981 to the end of 1988, he
championed the cause of human rights in the Soviet Union and Central
and Eastern Europe, standing up for freedom, democracy, and civil
society. He spoke passionately of God-given rights and said self-
government and free markets were the only way to vindicate those
rights. He wanted the people who were living under oppression to regain
their dignity, and his words gave hope to millions.
In his 1982 Evil Empire speech before the British House of Commons,
President Reagan said:

While we must be cautious about forcing the pace of change,
we must not hesitate to declare our ultimate objectives and
to take concrete actions to move toward them. We must be
staunch in our conviction that freedom is not the sole
prerogative of a lucky few but the inalienable and universal
right of all human beings.

The Reagan administration fostered democracy around the world in the
1980s, in Central America, South America, Asia. The Philippines,
Taiwan, and South Korea all liberalized their societies in ways that
may not have been possible without the Reagan administration's support.
President Reagan will go down in history for his doctrine of peace
through strength. It turned this country around militarily and
diplomatically and turned the course of the cold war dramatically in
our favor. It was also a negotiating strategy--just the right one, it
turned out--for dealing with a Communist power that was ailing
economically but still aggressive. The Soviet Union had last invaded a
country the year before he was elected, Afghanistan in 1979. The
U.S.S.R. was engaged in the 1970s in a rapid military buildup. The
prevailing nuclear standoff between the two superpowers when Reagan
came into office was frightening. They were locked in a decades-old
equilibrium under which neither attacked the other because each could,
at the push of a button, destroy the other's populations with nuclear
weapons. President Reagan once commented that this nuclear standoff,
which was called mutual assured destruction, was ``a sad commentary on
the human condition.''
He had the courage and the imagination to think of a way out of it:
erecting a defense against nuclear arms. This would end the practice of
holding civilian populations hostage to the atomic bomb. It was, he
believed, both militarily and morally necessary to strike off in this
new direction. As he pointed the way, he endured heavy criticism and
even ridicule, but it didn't faze him.
His idea was brilliant, for even if embarking on this high-tech
shield against missiles did not lead to a deployable U.S. system right
away, he knew the Soviets would pour their resources into matching our
progress toward missile defense. It was a competition they could ill
afford. The extra burden economically and even psychologically of
keeping up with missile defense and the entire Reagan military buildup
hastened the collapse of the Soviet economy and the Communist system
itself.
People who didn't agree with President Reagan called him a saber
rattler and worse. Opponents wrung their hands at this peace-through-
strength approach, insisting a buildup of U.S. military capabilities
couldn't possibly help us if the goal was a safer and more peaceful
world. Yet the critics were wrong. President Reagan, the saber rattler,
sat down with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in Washington in December
of 1987 and the two men signed the Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty
which abolished the use of all intermediate and shorter range missiles
by the United States and the Soviet Union.

The following year the Reagan administration created the On-Site
Inspection Agency to conduct U.S. inspections of Soviet military
facilities and to aid Soviet inspections at our facilities. The Reagan-
Gorbachev diplomacy set the stage for the 1990 signing between NATO and
the Warsaw Pact of the Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty.
One of the well-known personal traits of Ronald Reagan was he didn't
care who got credit for successful policies. Goodness knows, his
detractors, then and even now, will deny him any credit he might
deserve for making the world safer. He did make the world safer,
though. That is the truth of it. And history will remember him that
way.
We can say of Ronald Reagan what Lincoln said in praise of his,
Lincoln's, personal role model Henry Clay:

He loved his country partly because it was his own country,
but mostly because it was a free country.

The role model of our time is Ronald Reagan. His principles are the
principles we now embrace. They will help us to keep this free country
and to help others who want to be free.
As we continue in the wake of September 11 to fight the war on
terror, we all take comfort and inspiration from the jaunty optimism
and the seriousness of purpose of Ronald Reagan. President George W.
Bush practices Reagan's doctrine of peace through strength. He has done
so by confronting and defeating tyranny in Afghanistan and Iraq, by
pursuing deployment of missile defenses, by leading the international
community to stop the spread of weapons of mass destruction, and by
demonstrating to the world that the United States is willing to rally
free peoples in defense of our civilization and our democratic way of
life.
Thank you, Ronald Reagan, for showing the way.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Kansas.
Mr. BROWNBACK. Mr. President, I rise to pay tribute to Ronald Reagan,
my political guiding light. I came to Congress on the second Reagan
wave in the 1994 election, when Republicans took over the House of
Representatives. Many of us were raised on Ronald Reagan. His was my
first Presidential campaign in 1976, when I was still a student at
Kansas State University. I was riding in a tractor in Kansas when I
heard the Evil Empire speech. I started pounding on the dashboard,
saying: That is right, that is right. Then all the pundits came on
afterward and said how terrible it was. I was a bit confused but
decided Reagan was right and the pundits were wrong. He went on to
prove that.
He was a great contributor to our time and our legacy. I only had the
pleasure of meeting Ronald Reagan once. I was a White House fellow in
the Bush 1 White House. We met him in southern California. People had
always given examples of his legendary humor. This meeting was no
exception. We were having a meeting for a period of time, and then one
of the people with whom I was traveling asked him a question: What one
thing didn't you get done as President that you wish you had gotten
done. I think he had heard this question before and he had given this
line before, but he tilted his head back, and you could see the glint
in his eye and the smile comes across the face, and he said: I wished I
had

[[Page S6609]]

brought back the cavalry. That was a line people enjoyed at the time,
and it was the sort of humorous thing he was so known for in his
policies. It was part of his greatness.
While he was a great President, he didn't consider greatness to be
inherent to him. In other words, he was not full of himself. He
considered this country great. He considered the position of President
to be great. But he wasn't full of the feeling of greatness for
himself, and he always had self-deprecating humor. That was part of
him.
Following on the previous speaker, Senator Kyl, I had a chance
several years back to talk with Eduard Shevardnadze, Foreign Secretary
under Mikhail Gorbachev, about when Reagan and Gorbachev were
negotiating on missile reduction and nuclear weapons reduction. This
was a meeting that took place within the last 3 or 4 years with Mr.
Shevardnadze. I asked him to reflect on that time period when we were
having a military defense buildup here under Ronald Reagan and what
took place in the Soviet Union in that time period. I wanted to get a
measure from him on that.
He said of Reagan: Reagan saw the central weakness of the Soviet
Union. That was its inability to produce goods and services. They were
spending somewhere between 60 to 80 percent of the GDP of the Soviet
Union on the military. Along comes Reagan and says: I am moving more
chips on the table. You will have to match me if you want to stay in
this race.
The Soviet Union then was looking around saying, how do we stay in
the race when we are putting virtually every chip we have right now
into this military buildup for the cold war. And it was a long way from
secure at that point in time that the Soviet Union was going to fall
any time soon. This was a very well-established, militarily strong
country. What it forced in the Soviet Union was for them to restructure
their economy and move to openness to try to get more chips on the
table to grow their economy.
They introduced the likes of glasnost and perestroika, openness and
restructuring of the economy. But when you looked at the totalitarian
Communist system, glasnost and perestroika were inherent
inconsistencies and led to the demise of the Soviet Union, that along
with Ronald Reagan's words. These words are from Eduard Shevardnadze.
Many talked about star wars and how the Soviet Union, at that time when
Reagan announced star wars--the Soviet Union's leadership sent its best
scientists to come back and appraise it and tell the political
leadership if the Americans could do this. The Soviet scientists came
back after a few months of studying the American proposal--the Reagan
proposal--for star wars and said we could not. They spent another few
months looking at it and then returned to the Soviet leadership and
said if the Americans are willing to stay on this path and put the
money into doing it, they can do it.

It sent a shock wave through the leadership in the Soviet system that
the United States could get this accomplished. Clearly, the deciding
factor of opening that system led to the demise of the Soviet Union and
the end of the cold war. There was this wave of freedom for people who
had been in oppressed societies for their entire existence, and that
was Ronald Reagan. He understood the source of our national greatness
was not our wealth or our military power but, rather our belief in the
dignity of the individual and in the God-given freedom of ordinary
people to order their lives as they wished. That was the source of his
view of the United States being a shining city on a hill and a model to
people the world over, and an inspiring example of a political system
that put power in the hands of the people, not bureaucrats or judges.
That was Ronald Reagan.
We remember President Reagan for restoring our national confidence at
a time when our country was on the heels of the Vietnam war and the
impeachment of a President, uncertain about the way forward. We
remember him for his staunch defense of innocent, unborn human life--an
issue on which he never wavered--and for the extraordinary step he took
in authoring a book as President, entitled ``Abortion and the
Conscience of a Nation,'' because he felt so strongly about the pro-
life cause. We remember his brave challenge to a new Soviet leader to
``tear down this wall,'' because it was an affront to human dignity. We
remember his vital role in bringing the cold war to an end--an end
hastened by both President Reagan's military buildup and his
revitalization of the American economy.
In all of Ronald Reagan's political life was his passionate belief in
two core principles: human freedom and human dignity, both inalienable
because they were given by God. He believed in the unbounded
inventiveness and ingenuity of the individual freed from the tyranny of
government but firmly rooted in our recognition of a higher moral
authority. He understood that, in his words, ``The city of man cannot
survive without the city of God, that the visible city will perish
without the invisible city.''
President Reagan recognized that the vitality of our society and
culture has always been dependent on the religious faith and practice
of the people. As he said, ``Those who created our country . . .
understood that there is a divine order which transcends the human
order. They saw the state, in fact, as a form or moral order and felt
that the bedrock of moral order is religion.''
Ronald Reagan was never reticent in speaking about his own faith and
the primary place it held in his life. In all of these things,
President Reagan was, and continues to be, an inspiration to millions,
and certainly to me. He transformed the world for the better, and we
are thankful he graced this Nation with his life, his example, and his
divine calling.
Our thoughts and prayers go out to him and to his family. And for all
of us who mourn his passing, may we continue to be inspired and
elevated by all he was, all he achieved, and all he sought for us to
be.
God bless you, Ronald Reagan.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from North Dakota is recognized.
Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, I would like to extend my deepest sympathy
to the Reagan family, and to send a thank you from a grateful Nation to
someone who served this country so well. And I know that the citizens I
represent in North Dakota feel the same way.
President Reagan had a profound impact on the demise of the Soviet
Union and the end of the cold war. I recall in the 1980s, in the middle
of the cold war, when the lives of two men intersected: Ronald Reagan
and Mikhail Gorbachev. These two men were very different in many ways,
but they changed the course of history. Together, President Reagan and
Mikhail Gorbachev sat down together to reduce the threat of nuclear
weapons, to reduce the stockpile of nuclear weapons in both countries.
The Soviet Union no longer exists. Eastern Europe and the Warsaw Pact
no longer exist. The Communist threat and cold war that stemmed from
them is gone. And much of the credit, in my judgment, belongs to
President Ronald Reagan.
We all recall the historic occasion when he stood at the wall in
Berlin and said, ``Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.'' It was a
moment I will never forget.
But President Reagan was defined by more than this moment.
When hundreds of American troops were killed in Lebanon, it was
Ronald Reagan who went to the press room and said: I am accountable.
You don't see many in politics do that, but he did.
In 1986, I served on the House Ways and Means Committee, in which we
provided the most significant tax reform that had been done in many
decades in this country--under the leadership of a President who said
let's reduce tax rates for all Americans and get rid of some of the tax
loopholes. This President led and the Congress followed. I was proud to
be a part of that.
His Presidency was not without substantial controversy and
difficulty. I felt his fiscal policy would produce very large budget
deficits, and it did. And the Iran-Contra scandal was a serious problem
for the administration. Yet, despite those problems and setbacks and
controversies, I think President Reagan provided leadership in some
very important areas.
The charm of President Reagan was considerable. He had that cowboy
hat kind of cocked back on his head. He had movie-star good looks. He
had that famous smile. He was a great storyteller with a gleam in his
eye. He told the story often about the pile of manure and the child who
insisted that if

[[Page S6610]]

there is a pile of manure, there must be a pony somewhere. The
President loved to regale people with stories.
I don't pretend to have known him well, but I sat behind him on the
west front of the Capitol in 1981, when he gave his inaugural address.
I recall that he announced to the country that planes had just left the
tarmac in Iran with the American hostages, now freed. It was a gray,
cold day and the first inaugural of President Reagan. As he began to
speak, the clouds began to part and rays of sunshine began to come
through. It was a remarkable moment.
And I was a freshman member of the House when, one day, I was called
to the bank of telephones in the Democratic cloakroom. They told me it
was President Reagan calling.
The President wanted my vote for a policy he was proposing to the
Congress. I listened to him, but in the end, I felt he was not right on
that particular issue, and I said I could not support him on it. He
said: Well, you are a good man, and thanks for taking my call. It was
just like him to frame it that way.
I had the opportunity to have breakfast with him, along with a
handful of my colleagues, one morning in the White House. Once again,
he regaled all of us with wonderful, charming stories.
I have always said that if you could have dinner with anyone, you
could not do better than Ronald Reagan or Tip O'Neill, both Irish, both
wonderful people with a wit and a charm, and both great storytellers.
I believe that for President Reagan, politics was not bitter or
rancid. In fact, he used to talk about the ``11th commandment'' for his
party: Thou shalt not speak ill of someone in his own political party.
It is a commandment that has been long forgotten, regrettably. I am
afraid that today's politics have taken a turn for the worse.
President Reagan was aggressive in debate but always respectful. I
believe he personified the notion that you can disagree without being
disagreeable.
He was a man of great strength. After he was shot during an
assassination attempt--seriously wounded--he was wheeled into the
hospital emergency room, and he was ready with a quip for the doctors.
He was a remarkable person. When the Challenger accident occurred and
this country was horrified by seeing the explosion of the Challenger
and the death of those astronauts, it was Ronald Reagan who came on
television and talked about that ill-fated flight. But he did it in
such an inspiring way, and finished with the refrain from that poem:
They have slipped the surly bonds of Earth and touched the face of God.
Later in life, as President Reagan lived in retirement in California,
he began a long journey into the darkness of a devastating illness
called Alzheimer's. His last statement to the American people was a
poignant statement, in which he described his illness and its
consequences.
This is a man who served his country with great distinction, someone
with whom I had disagreements from time to time, but someone who I
believe is owed the admiration of an entire nation.
I am reminded of a book that David McCullough wrote about another
President, John Adams. In the book, you learn that John Adams wrote to
his wife Abigail, as our Founding Fathers tried to put this country of
ours together--and he asked these questions: From where will the
leadership come? Who will be the leaders? How will the leadership
emerge to create this new country of ours? And then he would
plaintively say to his wife: There is only us. There is me. There is
Ben Franklin. There is George Washington. There is Thomas Jefferson and
James Madison. There is George Mason.
Of course, in the rearview mirror of history, we recognize that these
men were some of the greatest human talent ever assembled on Earth. But
every generation has asked that same question for this great democracy.
From where will the leadership come? Who will be the leaders? And this
country has been fortunate that, in generation after generation, men
and women of virtually all political persuasions have stepped forward
to say: Let me serve this great country.
Ronald Reagan was one of those leaders. He served in California as
Governor and then served two terms as President of the United States.
He had, in my judgment, a kind of a peculiar quality, a quality that
gave him an almost quenchless hope, boundless optimism, an
indestructible belief that something good was going to happen, and he
communicated that to a grateful nation.
So today we say thank you. Thank you for your service. God bless your
memory, and God bless your family.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Colorado.
Mr. ALLARD. Mr. President, some people have the capacity to change
your life. For me, Ronald Reagan was one of those people. Ronald
Reagan's message of strengthening individual liberties, maintaining a
strong national defense, cutting through the thicket of Government
regulations and lowering taxes inspired me to run for public office in
the 1980s. He made me believe it is possible to bring about change for
the better.
I first ran for the Colorado State senate in 1982, the second year of
Reagan's Presidency, and fought to pass resolutions there supporting
the policies that the President advocated, such as the balanced budget
amendment.
I was a small businessman. I operated a private veterinary practice.
So Ronald Reagan's vision of strengthening America's small businesses,
because they are the backbone of our economy and way of life, had a
great deal of appeal. His belief in small Government and cutting taxes
to allow people to decide how best to spend their own money have been
two of my guiding principles since I was first elected to public
office. I believe him to be the father of the modern Republican Party.
My wife Joan and I never had the opportunity to meet Ronald Reagan
until he came to Colorado in 1988. Talking to him one on one was an
emotional high point of my life. We smiled all the way back home to
Loveland, CO. I have kept his picture hanging in my office, first in
the U.S. House of Representatives and now in the Senate, ever since.
It is hard to describe to the young people who live in our vibrant
economy and confident culture just how unsure and discouraged Americans
were in the late 1970s. Everything that could go wrong had. America
seemed to be shrinking before our eyes. Those in charge of our
Government had apparently given up on winning the cold war. The Soviet
Union loomed dangerous and, we were told, invincible. We were being
admonished to get used to a dysfunctional economy that combined high
inflation with low growth, a demoralized military, an ever more
intrusive and intruding Government, a depressed and depressing
spiritual malaise that left many in doubt about our fundamental values.
No one offered a way out.
Ronald Reagan's fresh voice of optimism was like manna to our hungry
spirits. He talked about how our idling economy could regain its
formidable power. He talked about how great our country was and how
much greater it could be. He talked about facing down our foes and our
fears. He talked about restoring American pride and patriotism. He,
more than any other individual in the second half of the 20th century,
brought America back from the brink of self-imposed defeat and despair.
He made us proud once again.
Ronald Reagan was a monumentally gifted man, and a man of many gifts.
To those in doubt, he brought the gift of optimism.
To his supporters and allies, he brought the gift of confidence and
assurance.
To an audience, he brought a magnificent gift of humor.
To his opponents, he brought the gift of disagreeing without being
disagreeable.
His gift to the world was even more significant. He brought about the
end of a cold war that had cast a 50-year shadow of fear over all the
people on the planet.
Ronald Reagan never doubted his country's need to defend itself from
all foes. ``Of the four wars in my lifetime,'' President Reagan said,
``none came about because the United States was too strong.''
It is of paramount importance for us to remember, during this period
of threat and conflict, the wisdom of one of his favorite phrases:
``Peace through strength.'' Among his greatest achievements was to
rearm us, to reinvigorate

[[Page S6611]]

the American military, and to let our adversaries know, beyond any
doubt, that they were in a race they were not going to win.
In the past 15 years or so, the United States has decisively fought
and won two significant wars. The keys to those victories were highly
motivated and skilled combat personnel fighting with unmatched military
equipment and employing unprecedented tactics.
How did this renewed and reinvigorated American military might come
about?
Let's look back to Ronald Reagan's acceptance speech at the 1980
Republican nominating convention. As only the Great Communicator could,
he laid out his vision for us with not only clarity, but with a
conviction that rings true and is still good counsel today.
He said:

We are awed--and rightly so--by the forces of destruction
at loose in the world in this nuclear era. But neither can we
be naive or foolish. . . . We know only too well that war
comes not when the forces of freedom are strong, but when
they are weak. It is then tyrants are tempted.

He added:

Let our friends and those who may wish us ill take note:
the United States has an obligation to its citizens and to
the people of the world never to let those who would destroy
freedom dictate the future course of human life on this
planet. . . . This nation will once again be strong enough to
do that.

He was, of course, as good as his word. Once assuming office,
President Reagan launched a military renaissance that not only led to
the demise of the Soviet Union, Soviet communism, and the cold war, but
also set the course for our military leadership that continues to this
day ensuring our safety.
President Reagan's initiative was threefold: upgrade our military
equipment; improve the training and morale of our service men and women
to improve recruitment and retention; and restore national pride in--
and global respect of--the United States' military.
A major accomplishment of President Reagan's was the development of a
credible, modern strategic deterrent. He reinvested in our strategic
ballistic missile weapons inventories, modernized a complement of land,
sea, and aircraft-based platforms to project our strategic force.
This display of offensive force proved to be an effective deterrent,
but President Reagan envisioned a world with far fewer of these
destructive weapons, and pressed throughout his Presidency for
significant reductions of nuclear weapons. In 1983, President Reagan
launched the Strategic Defense Initiative in the hopes of one day
rendering all such ballistic missiles ``impotent and obsolete.''
Today we are building on his legacy by deploying strategic missile
defenses and aggressively eliminating excessive nuclear stockpiles.
President Reagan's legacy to us, of a safer world, is one we must
constantly guard and honor.
There is no doubt that President Reagan was one of the greatest
Presidents of the modern era. A man of huge confidence and unwavering
principle, he revived the American spirit, revitalized our economy and
engineered the fall of communism. He changed the world for the better.
We share his family's grief, and keep them in our prayers.
In his memory, let us recommit ourselves to President Reagan's goal
of ensuring that America always remains the ``bright, shining city on
the hill.''
Mr. President, I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Chafee). The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. HAGEL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the order for the
quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. HAGEL. Mr. President, on January 20, 1981, Ronald Reagan, after
being sworn in as the 40th President of the United States, looked out
over The Mall and addressed the Nation. He told us that the challenges
of our day required:

Our best effort, and our willingness to believe in
ourselves and to believe in our capacity to perform great
deeds; to believe that together, with God's help, we can and
will resolve the problems which now confront us. And, after
all, why shouldn't we believe that? We are Americans.

I remember the celebrations that evening as if they happened
yesterday. It was a bitterly cold evening. As our Nation celebrated a
new beginning, it was as if the cold January winds swept away a
nation's doubts and fears and replaced them with a renewed American
spirit.
Ronald Reagan was a unique American leader who understood the
greatness and the goodness of America. He knew who he was and what he
believed. Over the last century, no American President was as well
grounded as Ronald Reagan. He had faith and confidence in the people of
America, and that trust was reciprocated.
As much as anyone who came before or after him, Ronald Reagan
possessed an innate understanding of the significance of the American
Presidency. Ronald and Nancy Reagan set the gold-standard for grace,
dignity and class in the White House. Reagan understood the weight and
consequences of his office beyond the borders of the United States. The
world looked to him as a standard bearer of freedom. Reagan also
understood the importance of the Presidency to young people. The
responsibility of being a role model to a nation's youth rested easily
on his shoulders.
Ronald Reagan is known as the great communicator. While he certainly
was one of the best communicators ever to hold the Presidency, he was
far more than just a talented communicator. Reagan was a thinker and a
writer. He was constantly writing beautiful letters and his speeches in
long-hand. Today, these speeches and letters are national treasures.
Reagan thought deeply about the great issues of his time without
getting dragged down into the underbrush of detail and trivia. He was
not a superfluous man. Our Nation was guided by his clarity of purpose,
understanding of the purpose of power and the limitations of
government.
Since President Reagan left the American political stage, we have
missed his imagination and creativity. Since his days of sitting in a
radio studio doing play-by-play broadcasts for baseball games from news
wire service copy, he had a genuineness that served him well. He was a
masterful story-teller. In today's age of processed politics and
politicians, President Reagan's candor and humor are sorely lacking.
Ronald Reagan was a child of humble beginnings who never forgot the
little guy. He believed every American had something special to
contribute. Reagan let people know that each thread of the American
fabric mattered. In late September of 1980, I was working as an adviser
on the Reagan-Bush campaign.
One evening, I was part of a group invited to an estate near
Middleburg, VA, where then-Governor and Nancy Reagan were staying. They
wanted to thank us for the work we had done for the campaign with a
wonderful dinner. As the evening was ending, an aide to Governor Reagan
asked me to remain after the dinner because Governor Reagan wanted to
speak with me. I was taken into the house where Governor Reagan was
staying. He sat down next to me and told me he wanted to talk about
Vietnam. He wanted to know about my experience and what I thought about
the war. That was the kind of man he was. He wanted to understand
things. He wanted to know things and he wanted to make the world better
than it was.
Though his individual accomplishments are great, Ronald Reagan will
be remembered for something far greater than the sum of his individual
accomplishments; he will be remembered for renewing the American
spirit. He was a true American original. We will never see one like him
again.
Over the last decade as we struggled to meet the challenges of our
time, Ronald Reagan slipped away from us. He now belongs to the warmth
of eternity and the pages of history. However, he has not left us to
meet our challenges alone. The lessons of his leadership and the
strength of his spirit that swept across our country on a cold day in
January 24 years ago, guide us still today.
I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.

[[Page S6612]]

The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, I rise today to pay tribute to a man who
meant a great deal to me and a great deal to my State and to our
country. That, of course, is President Ronald Reagan. It is with
sadness that he has recently passed away. But I have great confidence
he has passed away and moved on to a better home. I express my
condolences and sympathies to his family and also thank them for their
generosity in sharing Ronald Reagan with us in the public life, both as
Governor of the great State of California, and also as President of the
United States for eight wonderful years.
I had the privilege, in the same year as Ronald Reagan was elected
President, to be elected to the Senate. I have many fond memories of
Ronald Reagan. I remember very well during his Inaugural Address when
the rumors were coming out, and then later confirmed, that the American
citizens who were held hostage in Iran for 444 days were released. I
remember the euphoria that came across the stage. I remember the
euphoria that came across America. It was such an exciting, positive
change. Americans really felt great. This was suppressing our country,
the very fact that we had American citizens held hostage for over a
year, in many cases being beaten or tortured or abused, with American
flags burning in Tehran continually. It was such a great day when they
were released.
I happen to think it was because, in many respects, the leadership of
Iran decided they did not want to worry about this new President,
Ronald Reagan, and what actions he might take. I think they made a very
good decision. I was very pleased they did so. I was very euphoric at
the time and probably could not have been much more excited at that
time.
When we were sworn in, there were 18 new Senators elected in 1980 and
sworn in early in 1981. Of the 18, 16 were Republicans. The leadership
of the Senate changed for the first time, I believe, since 1954. So we
had new committee chairmen; we had new leadership. Howard Baker assumed
the responsibility and role as majority leader and did an outstanding
job. The Senate was a great place to work and to serve, and to work
with a President as generous, as humorous, and with such strong
leadership as Ronald Reagan.
I look at the economy that Ronald Reagan inherited, and I see great
accomplishments. A lot of people do not remember that in 1980 the
inflation rate was 13.5 percent and it fell to 4.8 percent by 1989. The
interest rate in 1980 was 15.27 percent and fell to 10.87 percent by
1989. Actually, the interest rate had risen to 18.87 percent in 1981. I
remember that now. Interest rates were at 18 and 19 percent. The
unemployment rate in 1980 was over 7 percent. In 1981 it reached 7.6
percent but by 1989 it was down to 5.3 percent.
So we had record high inflation rates, record high interest rates,
and maybe not record high but very high unemployment rates. We
inherited an economy that was going nowhere fast. It was going in the
wrong direction. You could not afford to build a home. You could not
afford to expand your business. It was a very difficult time.
Ronald Reagan came in with such great enthusiasm, such an optimist.
He did not say, ``let's moan about it,'' but ``let's do something about
it.'' He had an economic game plan for which we fought, and we passed
in the House and the Senate. These were remarkable accomplishments when
I think about it.
He actually was responsible for pushing Congress, Democrats and
Republicans, to pass enormous changes in the Tax Code. I happened to
enjoy working on taxes, and during his 8 years he actually moved the
maximum tax rate from 70 percent to 28 percent. That is a phenomenal
accomplishment. Phenomenal. And he was able to do it with a bipartisan
majority. It was not a strictly partisan House and Senate. As a matter
of fact, the House was always controlled by the Democrats. ``Tip''
O'Neill, who was the Democrat leader, the House Speaker at the time,
was opposed. So we had big confrontations, political confrontations,
big battles over the tax cuts, and over the budgets. Yet they passed
them.

Even though we had big battles, we had a certain dignity and respect
in large part because of Ronald Reagan. And because of his affection
for individuals, Democrats and Republicans, even political adversaries
who would have political battles still had a collegial, working
relationship. They respected each other and respected individuals
regardless of their political philosophy. As a result, he was able to
enact enormous changes in the Tax Code and budgets, and increase
defense.
Ronald Reagan came in with an agenda, and he largely accomplished
those objectives. The result has been economic freedom in this country.
He was not satisfied, frankly, with just expanding and improving the
economic lot of Americans. He wanted to improve the economic lot and
the freedom of people throughout the world. Ronald Reagan was the
leader of the free world, and he spoke eloquently and often and
encouraged freedom through the world and countless countries that have
been oppressed or suppressed through Communist leadership. Ronald
Reagan was speaking to them. He would go right over the leaders of
Congress. If he wanted to get something done budget-wise, tax-wise, or
defense-wise, and if Congress was not listening, he would go to the
American people. And when he would travel internationally he would go
over the leadership of those countries and speak to their people with
great success.
We all remember his speech when he was in Berlin, the speech that
says: ``Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.''
The favorite picture of all my memorabilia that I have in my home is
a picture of me standing before the Berlin Wall, and behind it somebody
spray-painted on the wall: ``When this wall falls, the rest will,
too.'' And they did. The Berlin Wall did fall, and I think it was in
large part because of Ronald Reagan's leadership.
When that wall fell, other countries that had been suppressed and
under the reins of the Iron Curtain of communism began speaking up,
exercising their rights, and demanding freedom and obtaining it.
Ronald Reagan was the leader in winning the fight in the cold war. As
Mr. Gorbachev said, probably no one else in the world could have done
it, but Ronald Reagan did it. And he was able to do it with Mr.
Gorbachev. Many times they were political adversaries in negotiating
arms control treaties and so on. Yet they still became friends as only
Ronald Reagan could do. He could become friends with his adversaries
and eventually that kind of friendship and bond would lead to arms
control reduction, would lead to a significant reduction in nuclear
weapons, would lead to agreements with our NATO allies and other
countries to expand freedom.
Ronald Reagan, probably more than any individual since Churchill or
Roosevelt, was responsible for expanding freedom throughout the world.
I compliment him for his great contributions in doing so.
He became somewhat of a role model for many of us. I was elected with
this group in 1980. Many of us called ourselves Reaganites and
considered ourselves part of the soldiers in the field trying to get an
agenda done to expand freedom. I am proud to have been part of that. I
am proud to have had the opportunity to serve with such a great
individual.
I remember many times going down to the White House, talking issues.
I remember Ronald Reagan almost always having humor, almost always not
caring who got the credit as long as we accomplished our objective.
I remember many times he let other people wrestle with the details,
but he knew where he wanted to go. He knew the course he was trying to
direct our ship of state, and he managed it very well.
I have a lot of fond memories. I remember Ronald Reagan coming in to
campaign for me in 1986. We had him visit Norman, Oklahoma, the
University of Oklahoma, Lloyd Noble Arena. We packed the place. It was
more than packed. The fire marshal had to turn down people who could
not get in. We had thousands and thousands of people. I told President
Reagan: This is Reagan country. They love you here. You don't need to
make a prepared speech. You can say whatever you want. They will
applaud. They love you here.
There was a nice, big sign: ``This is Reagan country.'' Very
positive. The entire rally speech could not have gone better from my
standpoint. There were thousands and thousands of people. It was great.

[[Page S6613]]

Ronald Reagan concluded his speech. He said: ``That is why we need
Don Rickles in the Senate.'' And I thought: Did he really say that? I
told him to wing it, and he did. I have had that honor of being able to
call myself Don Rickles for a long time.
But Ronald Reagan leaves a legacy. He leaves a legacy of decency. He
leaves a legacy of integrity. I think he helped restore so much pride
in America. He was a true patriot, a patriot who loved this country
from the very inner core of his being. And it was contagious. It was
contagious through the fact that not only did he love America, but he
made Americans feel better about our country.
He made other people envy us to some extent. They wanted to be like
us. They wanted to be free. What does America have that we don't have?
They have freedom, optimism. And that freedom would be economic
freedom, personal freedom, and political freedom.
Ronald Reagan wanted to expand it all for all people. He believed
everybody--even if they lived in China or Russia or North Korea or El
Salvador--if people were trying to take that freedom away, he was
freedom's friend. He carried that banner very well.
He helped people learn to love and respect the United States. I can
honestly say I have the greatest admiration and respect for Ronald
Reagan. I loved Ronald Reagan. He has moved this country forward in a
way that I think all of us can be very proud.
Again, I express my condolences and sympathy to Nancy Reagan and to
the family. Nancy Reagan was one great First Lady. The love and
affection she showed toward her husband throughout not only his
Presidency and governorship but, frankly, throughout the last 10 years
is more than commendable, and it is the kind of role model that,
frankly, we expect from Nancy Reagan. She is a first-class First Lady,
a first-class lady for all of us.
Again, my condolences and sympathy to her. And I thank her and her
family for allowing us to share Ronald Reagan for many years as the
leader of our country. He has made this country and, frankly, this
world a much better place to live.
Mr. President, I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Maryland.
Ms. MIKULSKI. Mr. President, I, too, rise in memory of President
Ronald Reagan. President Reagan will be remembered for his strong
convictions, his unfailing optimism, and his deep and abiding
patriotism.
My heartfelt condolences go out to the Reagan family. They have been
through so much in the last 10 years.
Our former First Lady, Nancy Reagan, has met one of the greatest
challenges that one can face with grace, dignity, and dedication. Her
courage is a model for the Nation. I know how tremendously difficult it
is for a family when a loved one has Alzheimer's. My own dear father
suffered from this disease. And, my family and I know what the long
goodbye meant. So, I speak for my family, and I think all families who
have endured this disease when we salute Nancy Reagan as we pay our
respects to our President.

National Reagan Alzheimer's Breakthrough Act of 2004

Mr. President, as our country reflects on President Reagan's life,
many will ask, how should we honor him? I believe the greatest tribute
we could give to President Reagan and the Reagan family is a living
memorial, something that he would want to see us do, not something we
would like to do, and something that would have lasting value.
Therefore, I would like to issue a bipartisan call to support
legislation that Senator Kit Bond and I will be introducing next week,
legislation to create breakthroughs for Alzheimer's disease.
Let's honor President Reagan's life with new research and new
initiatives on how to prevent Alzheimer's, how to care for those who
have it, how to support the gallant caregivers, and how, ultimately, to
find a cure.
President Reagan was a man of vigor. Let's attack Alzheimer's with
the same type of vigor that President Reagan demonstrated during his
life.
The time to act for real breakthroughs is now. Just last month,
Senator Bond and I held a hearing on Alzheimer's research. Expert after
expert told us: We are on the verge of amazing breakthroughs; we will
lose opportunities if we don't move quickly; we are at a crucial point
where NIH funding can make a real difference.
Researchers, families, and advocates all said the same thing, we need
to do more, we need to do better.
Let's answer that call by introducing and passing the Ronald Reagan
Alzheimer's Breakthrough Act of 2004.
Friends, we are on the brink of something that could make a huge
difference in the lives of American families. We know that families
face great difficulties when a loved one has Alzheimer's. There is
great emotional cost as well as financial cost. We know that for our
public investment we could get new treatments that would prolong a
patient's cognitive abilities.
Each month we delay admission to a long-term care facility is
important to the family and to the taxpayer. Everybody wants a cure;
that is our ultimate goal. But even if we keep people at home for 1 or
2 more years, to help them with their memory, their activities of daily
living, it would be an incredible breakthrough, and what a great
tribute it would be to President Reagan.
It is amazing how far we have come. From the time President Reagan
took office in 1981 until the time he wrote that incredibly moving
goodbye letter to the Nation--and I note it with great emotion because,
again, I know how my own father felt. Back in the early 1980s, when
President Reagan first came to office, Alzheimer's was a catch-all
term. Today, doctors diagnose Alzheimer's with 90-percent accuracy.
Every day NIH is making progress to identify risks, looking at new
kinds of brain scans for appropriate detection, and understanding what
this disease does to the brain.
How did we get this far, this fast? With a bipartisan commitment like
the one represented by Senator Bond, Senators Specter and Harkin, the
Alzheimer's Task Force that is lead by Senators Collins and Clinton,
and all of us who are working on this issue. With a bipartisan
commitment of the authorizers and appropriators, we have been working
to increase the funding for the National Institute on Aging. Remember,
there are 19 institutes at the NIH. One of them is the National
Institute of Aging.
In 1998 the National Institute on Aging was funded at approximately
$500 million. Thanks to our bipartisan effort, it is at $1 billion. Now
is the time to do more.
That is why I want to join with my esteemed colleague, Senator Kit
Bond, who himself has been a very strong advocate for research and
breakthroughs, to introduce the Ronald Reagan Alzheimer's Breakthrough
Act of 2004.
We want to strengthen our national commitment to Alzheimer's
research, to increase and double the funding of research at NIA, to
give them the resources they need to make those breakthroughs they say
they are on the horizon of doing. This will mean more clinical trials
to test the best way to detect, prevent, and treat Alzheimer's.
NIH is looking at a range of behaviors and therapies that can make an
incredible difference.
In our legislation, we also call for a national summit on Alzheimer's
to bring together the best minds to examine current research, to look
at priorities, and also to look at how we can help families.
While we are looking at research to find the cure or the cognitive
stretch out, we have to support the caregivers. God bless the
caregivers. These are family members, often spouses, who take care of
someone with Alzheimer's. The first caregiver is always the family. We
saw that with Nancy Reagan who went from being First Lady to first
caregiver.
We need to support families. We need to give help to those families
practicing self-help. We now have legislation on the books to do that.
But, we need to add more to the Federal checkbook. Most families don't
know where to turn to get what services are available. I have a family
caregiver tax credit that would reimburse families for prescription
drugs, home health care, and specialized daycare. Too often, for
families with Alzheimer's, family responsibility brings them to the
brink of family bankruptcy.
There are other things we want to be able to do with this
legislation, such as providing news people can use. The legislation
would establish a network so

[[Page S6614]]

information can get out people about the advances, and things that
could be done right now to slow the onset of symptoms. We need to get
the word out, such as the wonderful program developed by the
Alzheimer's Association called ``Maintain Your Brain.'' But, private
philanthropy cannot be a substitute for public policy and public
funding. We have to fund these initiatives.
I believe very strongly in this. There are 4.5 million people with
Alzheimer's. They live in every State, in cities and suburbs and on
farms. They are from every walk of life, like my father, who owned a
small grocery store, or a man who was the President of the United
States. Alzheimer's is an all-American disease. It affected an all-
American President. Now we need an all-American effort to find the
breakthroughs.
I encourage everyone to consider this when Senator Bond and I
introduce this legislation. This research and treatment is very
important. I do not want to be so bold as to speak for Mrs. Reagan, but
based on what I know she has gone through and what other families have
gone through, I believe the legacy she would approve of is an all-
American effort. An effort to speed up the day when no family ever has
to have that very long goodbye.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Missouri.
Mr. BOND. Mr. President, I thank and commend my colleague from
Maryland who has been a great champion of the effort to deal with the
terribly distressing and fatal disease of Alzheimer's in proposing--and
I am happy to join her--a measure to honor Ronald Reagan, his memory,
his life, his work, and his family with a living tribute, a redoubled
effort on behalf of this Nation to deal with Alzheimer's.
Senator Mikulski and others who have lived with and lost a loved one
from Alzheimer's can say very clearly how difficult it must have been
for Mrs. Reagan and the Reagan family as this true leader went through
the final stages of his life, crippled and debilitated by Alzheimer's,
to see this man who was so vigorous, who had contributed so much be
reduced to the indignities of Alzheimer's.
His life and legacy can be honored in many ways. People will remember
him for many reasons. I will speak of those in a moment. But by
increasing research for Alzheimer's disease, helping to limit the
number and maybe even eliminate Alzheimer's, providing assistance to
families who must deal with patients with Alzheimer's, and providing
assistance in identifying and preventing Alzheimer's is vitally
important.
One of the facts that struck me as we listened to the experts was
that as we get older more and more of us are going to suffer from
Alzheimer's disease. We were told in our hearing about a month ago that
if you reach 85, you have a 50-percent chance of getting Alzheimer's
disease. What a tragic figure. There is something we must do, and we
believe this legislation is one way of making a major effort, showing a
commitment, reaching out a hand of hope to the families of those who
have Alzheimer's, providing information to all of us on what we might
be able to do to lessen the likelihood we will be struck with
Alzheimer's.
As Senator Mikulski said, this bill will serve as a tribute to
President Reagan by doubling the funding for Alzheimer's research at
the National Institutes of Health. It would increase funding for the
National Family Caregiver Support Program to $250 million. It would
reauthorize the Alzheimer's demonstration grant program that provides
grants to States to fill in gaps in Alzheimer's services, such as
respite care, home health care, and daycare.
I have done a fair amount of work in home care and daycare. I can
tell you that a family living with a patient with Alzheimer's needs a
break. They need someone to care for that loved one so they can get out
and renew their batteries, refresh their view on life. This can help.
We would authorize $1 million for a safe return program to assist in
the identification and safe, timely return of individuals with
Alzheimer's disease and related dementias who too frequently wander off
from their caregivers. We hear the tragedies where they can't find
their way home and fall victim to natural or even automobile accidents
while they are gone. We would establish a public education program to
educate members of the public about prevention techniques, how you can
maintain your brain, as you age, based on the current research being
undertaken by NIH.
We would establish a $5,000 tax credit to help with the high health
costs of caring for a loved one at home.
Today, as Senator Mikulski said, about 4.5 million Americans have
Alzheimer's, costing about $100 billion a year. But if current trends
continue, and as more of us age, by 2050, 11 to 16 million individuals
could have this disease.
Over the past 20 years tremendous progress has been made in the
prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of Alzheimer's. It is now possible
to diagnose Alzheimer's with more than 90-percent accuracy. There are
new drugs, new treatments introduced each year, and investments in
research have set the stage for scientific and medical advances to
prevent or slow down the progression of Alzheimer's. Quite frankly,
most of the successful research to date has been in slowing the impact,
not preventing it. But this research offers hope for the 4.5 million
people and their families who suffer from the disease today.
These are some of what we can do as an honor to the President. It is
my great pleasure to speak in this Chamber about the life and
leadership and the truly remarkable legacy of the 40th President of the
United States, Ronald Reagan.
We mourn his loss. We pray for comfort for his family. But most of
all, we give thanks for his life, his leadership, and his
contributions. Truly, he is a man who changed the mood of the country.
He changed the economy of the country. And in many ways, he changed the
mood and the attitude of the world.
People talk about President Reagan as the Great Communicator. Nobody
could deliver a line better than he could. But do you know something
about communication? Communication is only as good as the message you
have to communicate. The power of Ronald Reagan was that he delivered
with enthusiasm, with optimism, with cheer, with love, a message of
hope, freedom, and opportunity, not just for Americans but for the
world.
I had the pleasure of getting to know Ronald Reagan. He was a
genuinely optimistic person who brought the spirit of optimism and hope
to us as Americans and to enslaved peoples around the world. Ronald
Reagan was a man who took disappointment and moved on. He was a man of
unfailing good humor, care, and thoughtfulness. Even people who
disagreed with his policies across the board could not help but like
him.
And those of us who may have disappointed him found it did not
interfere with his friendship. He campaigned for me in 1972 when I was
a 33-year-old kid running for Governor of the State of Missouri. I had
never seen anything like it. When he came into town, we had all of the
security and escorts. But it wasn't until he went up on stage and
started making his presentation that I saw what it was that had brought
so many people from southwest Missouri in to hear this leader. He had a
message then--the same message--of optimism, growth, and hope for the
future.
I was fortunate enough to be elected and to serve with him for 2
years. Two years after that, I hosted the Republican National
Convention, and I had made a commitment to our President at the time,
who selected our State for the national convention. So I supported him
and not President Reagan. But about 10 years later, when I was running
for the Senate, he came to Missouri three times and he put on the most
amazing campaign rallies I ever had. We still talk about it, because
people came to hear his message. I stood there, side by side with Jack
Danforth, and we smiled and glowed in the wonderful feeling he
generated. He helped me a great deal.
President Reagan helped the United States. He came to the Presidency
at a time when a lot of people were saying maybe the Presidency cannot
work, maybe nobody can govern this country, maybe it is too much to
expect somebody to lead. Well, he led very boldly. Quite simply, he
thought that if you returned tax dollars to the average American and
took off the fetters on

[[Page S6615]]

small business, you would create jobs and build the economy. By the
significant lowering of the tax rates, as my friend from Oklahoma,
Senator Nickles, said, he put money back into the pockets of small
businesses, and small business became the engine of economic growth,
creating three-quarters of the new jobs. He built an economy, and that
economy allowed us to put money into defense.
He tried to negotiate with the Soviets. He asked Mr. Gorbachev if he
would sit down and talk with him about how we could end the competition
between Soviet communism and the United States. Mr. Gorbachev didn't
respond. So he built up our defenses and showed the Russians, the
Soviets, that they could not defeat us. He went boldly to Berlin and
called on Mr. Gorbachev--much to the distress of the State Department,
I might add, and some of his own team--``Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this
wall.''
Well, that wall came down literally and figuratively. He had a
message that went far beyond Mr. Gorbachev. That message went to the
enslaved peoples behind the Iron Curtain. I had the pleasure of
visiting some of those countries right before and right after they
fell, a few years after President Reagan had set in motion the
inexorable machine of freedom. His message of hope, freedom, and
opportunity continues to reverberate around the world. I have had the
pleasure of meeting with people and traveling to other countries and
seeing how this message--the American dream--he championed is taking
hold. He wasn't the only one responsible for it, but we never had a
better proponent of it. I believe this message of the American hopes
and the American ideals, for which Ronald Reagan spoke so eloquently,
is winning the battle.
Finally, in his last and boldest move, when Ronald Reagan learned he
had Alzheimer's--a disease which was not spoken about often because
people hated to think of what would happen to their loved ones, so they
didn't talk about it--he said, ``I have Alzheimer's disease,'' and
Americans woke up and they thought, this is a world leader who is
suffering from this disease; let's do something about it. Let's get
serious about Alzheimer's disease. That public announcement gave us a
push that I believe we can continue by carrying on with his work with a
living memorial.

So as we say goodbye to this remarkable American, we join in our
prayers and thoughts with Mrs. Nancy Reagan and her family, and we
celebrate the life of a great American who made a real difference for
people throughout the world. Let us honor his memory by helping
millions more whom we might be able to save from the scourge of
Alzheimer's disease and the burdens and the sorrow that imposes on
their families.
I thank the Chair.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Oregon is recognized.
Mr. SMITH. Mr. President, in the elections of 1980 and 1984, the
State of Oregon sent its electors to the electoral college to vote for
Ronald Reagan. He was the last Republican to win the State of Oregon in
a Presidential election, and he did so at a time of great peril both
for my State and our country.
When that occurred, America was in economic malaise, communism seemed
to be in its ascendency, and America was struggling for leadership.
Winston Churchill once said of a predecessor as British Prime Minister,
``He had had the misfortune to live in a time of great men and small
events.'' When you think of where America was and where it ended after
8 years of the administration of Ronald Reagan, truly it can be said
that all free men and women are better and freer, more prosperous and
more at peace because Ronald Reagan was a great man called to a great
time.
As I contemplated what I could do in my small way to add some measure
of tribute to the life of Ronald Reagan and to express to Nancy Reagan
and her family my heartfelt condolences, I thought I should keep my
words to a minimum and focus, instead, on the warm and wise words of
President Reagan in his farewell address. It has been the practice of
the Senate for the last 140 years that on or around the birthday of
George Washington, a Senator is selected to read Washington's farewell
address. I thought I would begin that tradition this day, with
President Reagan's great speech, to come to the floor on or around
President Reagan's birthday, and share his speech--or if one of my
colleagues would like to do so, I would offer them the opportunity. I
believe that this new tradition would be a fitting tribute to Ronald
Reagan, to let Ronald Reagan's words speak again to the American
people, far more eloquently than I could on an occasion when we all
struggle to find the right superlatives to say thank you to him.
So with the Chair's indulgence, I will read the farewell address of
President Ronald Reagan, given shortly before he left the Oval Office
and George Herbert Walker Bush became the President.
The words of President Reagan:

This is the 34th time I'll speak to you from the Oval
Office and the last. We've been together 8 years now, and
soon it'll be time for me to go. But before I do, I wanted to
share some thoughts, some of which I've been saving for a
long time.
It's been the honor of my life to be your President. So
many of you have written the past few weeks to say thanks,
but I could say as much to you. Nancy and I are grateful for
the opportunity you gave us to serve.
One of the things about the Presidency is that you're
always somewhat apart. You spent a lot of time going by too
fast in a car someone else is driving, and seeing the people
through tinted glass--the parents holding up a child, and the
wave you saw too late and couldn't return. And so many times
I wanted to stop and reach out from behind the glass, and
connect. Well, maybe I can do a little of that tonight.
People ask how I feel about leaving. And the fact is,
``parting is such sweet sorrow.'' The sweet part is
California and the ranch and freedom. The sorrow--the
goodbyes, of course, and leaving this beautiful place.
You know, down the hall and up the stairs from this office
is the part of the White House where the President and his
family live. There are a few favorite windows I have up there
that I like to stand and look out of early in the morning.
The view is over the grounds here to the Washington Monument,
and then the Mall and the Jefferson Memorial. But on mornings
when the humidity is low, you can see past the Jefferson to
the river, the Potomac, and the Virginia shore. Someone said
that's the view Lincoln had when he saw the smoke rising from
the Battle of Bull Run. I see more prosaic things: the grass
on the banks, the morning traffic as people make their way to
work, now and then a sailboat on the river.
I've been thinking a bit at that window. I've been
reflecting on what the past 8 years have meant and mean. And
the image that comes to mind like a refrain is a nautical
one--a small story about a big ship, and a refugee, and a
sailor. It was back in the early eighties, at the height of
the boat people. And the sailor was hard at work on the
carrier Midway, which was patrolling the South China Sea. The
sailor, like most American servicemen, was young, smart, and
fiercely observant. The crew spied on the horizon a leaky
little boat. And crammed inside were refugees from Indochina
hoping to get to America. The Midway sent a small launch to
bring them to the ship and safety. As the refugees made their
way through the choppy seas, one spied the sailor on deck,
and stood up, and called out to him. He yelled, ``Hello,
American sailor. Hello, freedom man.''
A small moment with a big meaning, a moment the sailor, who
wrote it in a letter, couldn't get out of his mind. And, when
I saw it, neither could I. Because that's what it was to be
an American in the 1980's. We stood, again, for freedom. I
know we always have, but in the past few years the world
again--and in a way, we ourselves--rediscovered it.
It's been quite a journey this decade, and we held together
through some stormy seas. And at the end, together, we are
reaching our destination.
The fact is, from Grenada to the Washington and Moscow
summits, from the recession of '81 to '82, to the expansion
that began in late '82 and continues to this day, we've made
a difference. The way I see it, there were two great
triumphs, two things that I'm proudest of. One is the
economic recovery, in which the people of America created--
and filled--19 million new jobs. The other is the recovery of
our morale. America is respected again in the world and
looked to for leadership.
Something that happened to me a few years ago reflects some
of this. It was back in 1981, and I was attending my first
economic summit, which was held that year in Canada. The
meeting place rotates among the member countries. The opening
meeting was a formal dinner of the heads of government of the
seven industrialized nations. Now, I sat there like the new
kid in school and listened, and it was all Francois this and
Helmut that. They dropped titles and spoke to one another on
a first-name basis. Well, at one point I sort of leaned in
and said, `My name's Ron.' Well, in that same year, we began
the actions we felt would ignite an economic comeback--cut
taxes and regulation, started to cut spending. And soon the
recovery began.
Two years later, another economic summit with pretty much
the same cast. At the big opening meeting we all got
together, and all

[[Page S6616]]

of a sudden, just for a moment, I saw that everyone was just
sitting there looking at me. And then one of them broke the
silence. `Tell us about the American miracle,' he said.
Well, back in 1980, when I was running for President, it
was all so different. Some pundits said our programs would
result in catastrophe. Our views on foreign affairs would
cause war. Our plans for the economy would cause inflation to
soar and bring about economic collapse. I even remember one
highly respected economist saying, back in 1982, that `The
engines of economic growth have shut down here, and they're
likely to stay that way for years to come.' Well, he and the
other opinion leaders were wrong. The fact is what they call
`radical' was really `right.' What they called `dangerous'
was just `desperately needed.'
And in all of that time I won a nickname, `The Great
Communicator.' But I never thought it was my style or the
words I used that made a difference: it was the content. I
wasn't a great communicator, but I communicated great things,
and they didn't spring full bloom from my brow, they came
from the heart of a great nation--from our experience, or
wisdom, and our belief in the principles that have guided us
for two centuries. They called it the Reagan revolution.
Well, I'll accept that, but for me it always seemed more like
the great rediscovery, a rediscovery of our values and our
common sense.
Common sense told us that when you put a big tax on
something, the people will produce less of it. So, we cut the
people's tax rates, and the people produced more than ever
before. The economy bloomed like a plant that had been cut
back and could now grow quicker and stronger. Our economic
program brought about the longest peacetime expansion in our
history: real family income up, the poverty rate down,
entrepreneurship booming, and an explosion in research and
new technology. We're exporting more than ever because
American industry became more competitive and at the same
time, we summoned the national will to knock down
protectionist walls abroad instead of erecting them at home.
Common sense also told us that to preserve the peace, we'd
have to become strong again after years of weakness and
confusion. So, we rebuilt our defenses, and this New Year we
toasted the new peacefulness around the globe. Not only have
the superpowers actually begun to reduce their stockpiles of
nuclear weapons--and hope for even more progress is bright--
but the regional conflicts that rack the globe are also
beginning to cease. The Persian Gulf is no longer a war zone.
The Soviets are leaving Afghanistan. The Vietnamese are
preparing to pull out of Cambodia, and an American-mediated
accord will soon send 50,000 Cuban troops home from Angola.
The lesson of all this was, of course, that because we're a
great nation, our challenges seem complex. It will always be
this way. But as long as we remember our first principles and
believe in ourselves, the future will always be ours. And
something else we learned: Once you begin a great movement,
there's no telling where it will end. We meant to change a
nation, and instead, we changed a world.
Countries across the globe are turning to free markets and
free speech and turning away from the ideologies of the past.
For them, the great rediscovery of the 1980's has been that,
lo and behold, the moral way of government is the practical
way of government: Democracy, the profoundly good, is also
the profoundly productive.
When you've got to the point when you can celebrate the
anniversaries of your 39th birthday you can sit back
sometimes, review your life, and see it flowing before you.
For me there was a fork in the river, and it was right in the
middle of my life. I never meant to go into politics. It
wasn't my intention when I was young. But I was raised to
believe you had to pay your way for the blessings bestowed on
you. I was happy with my career in the entertainment world,
but I ultimately went into politics because I wanted to
protect something precious.
Ours was the first revolution in the history of mankind
that truly reversed the course of government, and with three
little words: `We the People.' `We the People' tell the
government what to do; it doesn't tell us. `We the People'
are the driver; the government is the car. And we decide
where it should go, and by what route, and how fast. Almost
all the world's constitutions are documents in which
governments tell the people what their privileges are. Our
Constitution is a document in which `We the People' tell the
government what it is allowed to do. `We the People' are
free. This belief has been the underyling basis for
everything I've tried to do these past 8 years.
But back in the 1960's, when I began, it seemed to me that
we'd begun reversing the order of things--that through more
and more rules and regulations and confiscatory taxes, the
government was taking more of our money, more of our options,
and more of our freedom. I went into politics in part to put
up my hand and say, `Stop.' I was a citizen politician, and
it seemed the right thing for a citizen to do.
I think we have stopped a lot of what needed stopping. And
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.
Nothing is less free than pure communism--and yet we have,
the past few years, forged a satisfying new closeness with
the Soviet Union. I've been asked if this isn't a gamble, and
my answer is no because we're basing our actions not on words
but deeds. The detente of the 1970's was based not on actions
but promises. They'd promise to treat their own people and
the people of the world better. But the gulag was still the
gulag, and the state was still expansionist, and they still
waged proxy wars in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
Well, this time, so far, it's different. President
Gorbachev has brought about some internal democratic reforms
and begun the withdrawal from Afghanistan. He has also freed
prisoners whose names I've given him every time we've met.
But life has a way of reminding you of big things through
small incidents. Once, during the heady days of the Moscow
summit, Nancy and I decided to break off from the entourage
one afternoon to visit the shops on Arbat Street--that's a
little street just off Moscow's main shopping area. Even
though our visit was a surprise, every Russian there
immediately recognized us and called out our names and
reached for our hands. We were just about swept away by the
warmth. You could almost feel the possibilities in all that
joy. But within seconds, a KGB detail pushed their way toward
us and began pushing and shoving the people in the crowd. It
was an interesting moment. It reminded me that while the man
on the street in the Soviet Union yearns for peace, the
government is Communist. And those who run it are Communists,
and that means we and they view such issues as freedom and
human rights very differently.
We must keep up our guard, but we must also continue to
work together to lessen and eliminate tension and mistrust.
My view is that President Gorbachev is different from
previous Soviet leaders. I think he knows some of the things
wrong with his society and is trying to fix them. We wish him
well. And we'll continue to work to make sure that the Soviet
Union that eventually emerges from this process is a less
threatening one. What it all boils down to is this: I want
the new closeness to continue. And it will, as long as we
make it clear that we will continue to act in a certain way
as long as they continue to act in a helpful manner. If and
when they don't, at first pull your punches. If they persist,
pull the plug. It's still trust by verify. It's still play,
but cut the cards. It's still watch closely. And don't be
afraid to see what you see.
I've been asked if I have any regrets. Well, I do. The
deficit is one. I've been talking a great deal about that
lately, but tonight isn't for arguments, and I'm going to
hold my tongue. But an observation: I've had my share of
victories in the Congress, but what few people noticed is
that I never won anything you didn't win for me. They never
saw my troops, they never saw Reagan's regiments, the
American people. You won every battle with every call you
made and letter you wrote demanding action. Well, action is
still needed. If we're to finish the job. Reagan's regiments
will have to become the Bush brigades. Soon he'll be the
chief, and he'll need you every bit as much as I did.
Finally, there is a great tradition of warnings in
Presidential farewells, and I've got one that's been on my
mind for some time. But oddly enough it starts with one of
the things I'm proudest of in the past 8 years: the
resurgence of national pride that I called the new
patriotism. This national feeling is good, but it won't count
for much, and it won't last unless it's grounded in
thoughtfulness and knowledge.
An informed patriotism is what we want. And are we doing a
good enough job teaching our children what America is and
what she represents in the long history of the world? Those
of us who are over 35 or so years of age grew up in a
different America. We were taught, very directly, what it
means to be an American. And we absorbed, almost in the air,
a love of country and an appreciation of its institutions. If
you didn't get these things from your family you got them
from the neighborhood, from the father down the street who
fought in Korea or the family who lost someone at Anzio. Or
you could get a sense of patriotism from school. And if all
else failed you could get a sense of patriotism from the
popular culture. The movies celebrated democratic values and
implicitly reinforced the idea that America was special. TV
was like that, too, through the mid-sixties.
But now, we're about to enter the nineties, and some things
have changed. Younger parents aren't sure that an
unambivalent appreciation of America is the right thing to
teach modern children. And as for those who create the
popular culture, well-grounded patriotism is no longer the
style. Our spirit is back, but we haven't reinstitutionalized
it. We've got to do a better job of getting across that
America is freedom--freedom of speech, freedom of religion,
freedom of enterprise. And freedom is special and rare. It's
fragile it needs production [protection].
So, we've got to teach history based not on what's in
fashion but what's important--why the Pilgrims came here, who
Jimmy Doolittle was, and what those 30 seconds over Tokyo
meant. You know, 4 years ago on the 40th anniversary of D-
day, I read a letter from a young woman writing to her late
father, who'd fought on Omaha Beach. Her name was Lisa
Zanatta Henn, and she said, `we will always remember, we will
never forget what the boys of Normandy did.' Well, let's help
her keep her word. If we forget what we did, we won't know
who we are. I'm

[[Page S6617]]

warning of an eradication of the American memory that could
result, ultimately, in an erosion of the American spirit.
Let's start with some basics: more attention to American
history and a greater emphasis on civic ritual.
And let me offer lesson number one about America: All great
change in America begins at the dinner table. So, tomorrow
night in the kitchen I hope the talking begins. And children,
if your parents haven't been teaching you what it means to be
an American, let 'em know and nail'em on it. That would be a
very American thing to do.
And that's about all I have to say tonight, except for one
thing. The past few days when I've been at that window
upstairs, I've thought a bit of the `shining city upon a
hill.' The phrase comes from John Winthrop, who wrote it to
describe the America he imagined. What he imagined was
important because he was an early Pilgrim, an early freedom
man. He journeyed here on what today we'd call a little
wooden boat; and like the other Pilgrims, he was looking
for a home that would be free. 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, windswept, 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 8 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.
We've done our part. And as I walk off into the city
streets, a final word to the men and women of the Reagan
revolution, the men and women across America who for 8 years
did the work that brought America back. My friends: We did
it. We weren't just marking time. We made a difference. We
made the city stronger, we made the city freer, and we left
her in good hands. All in all, not bad, not bad at all.
And so, goodbye, God bless you, and God bless the United
States of America.

I would only add, God bless Ronald and Nancy Reagan, and God bless
the United States of America.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Voinovich). The Senator from Wyoming.
Mr. ENZI. Mr. President, this past weekend, the news quickly made its
way across the country and around the world. Ronald Reagan, our 40th
President, had died. For many of us, we received the news with a
mixture of sadness together with a sense of relief that his long battle
with illness was now over and he had now found peace at the end of his
life.
I first met Ronald Reagan when I was president of the Wyoming Jaycees
at the national convention which was held in California, and he was the
Governor. I next met the President when I was mayor of Gillette, WY,
and the National League of Cities held its national meeting and the
President flew to California and addressed it.
Now the greatest thinkers and writers will take up their pens in an
attempt to determine his place in history and his significance as one
of our greatest Presidents. For those of us who observed his service as
our President and admired his leadership, those questions had been long
since answered. For us, his place in history was long ago determined by
his place in our hearts.
Many of those who will examine his life in detail will tell a story
about a man who was born without the great privileges and trappings you
might expect of such a successful life. That is true, but there is so
much more to the story.
Ronald Reagan was born in Illinois, the son of a traveling shoe
salesman. Growing up he was strongly influenced by his mother who
taught him how to read at an early age. She urged him to read good
books that would encourage him to dream and set goals in his life. She
knew that he could be anything he wanted to be if he was willing to
work hard and expect more of himself than anyone else had any reason to
expect. That, more than anything else, really determined his character
and ultimately mapped his destiny.
His natural confidence and determination began to show itself during
his school years and again, later, when he began his career as an
actor. He was a natural leader and he took a leadership role at
virtually every stage of his life. In his college days he served as
student body president. In his acting days he served as the president
of the Screen Actors Guild. In between he worked hard and built a
career as a successful actor in film and on television.
If that had been all he had done, it would have been a remarkable
life. He would have earned the rags to riches label and inspired others
to follow his path just by his success in Hollywood and on television.
That would have been enough for just about everyone. It was not,
however, enough for Ronald Reagan.
With his beloved wife, Nancy, by his side, Ronald Reagan began to
pursue his dream. He wanted to make a greater impact on the world than
he could by being a television and movie star, so he began to take a
more active role in politics. He discovered he had a talent for that,
too. After a great deal of thought and deliberation, he decided to put
his vision for America to the test. He took his case to the people and
began a run for Governor of California.
People thought it was an impossible dream and he could never win a
State like California. Ronald Reagan proved them wrong. He put together
a coalition of both Republican and Democratic voters and, when all the
votes were counted, he had made it happen and he was elected Governor
by almost a million votes.
Reagan then set his sights on the Presidency of the United States
and, after a narrow loss to Gerald Ford, he spent the next few years
traveling around the country, sharing his dream for a better United
States with the people who came to hear him speak. Many doubted he
could do it, but once again, he found the support he needed to win the
Republican nomination. The contest for the Presidency put him up
against an incumbent who talked about the serious problems facing the
Nation. Ronald Reagan, on the other hand, spoke with passionate
certainty that working together the Nation could overcome them. When
the votes were counted, Ronald Reagan had won the presidency in a
landslide.

As President, Ronald Reagan proved himself to be a man of principle,
someone who said what he believed and believed what he said. He had
excellent communication skills, and his speeches on television were
extremely effective.
When he took the oath of the office as our 40th President, he took
over the reins of a country that had great problems. He had often
referred to our economic woes as the ``misery index.'' There was high
inflation, high interest rates, and high unemployment. Perhaps worst of
all, the Nation seemed to have lost its confidence in its ability to
dare to do great things--and succeed.
There was a lot of doubt and cynicism that any one individual could
do much to change things and re-energize the Nation. Again, Ronald
Reagan proved the doubters wrong. As President, his spirit of optimism,
patriotism and personal pride in his country proved to be infectious.
Before long, there was a new spirit in the United States, a renewed
sense of pride and excitement about our Flag and our Nation that hadn't
been around for a while. Ronald Reagan was just what we needed. He
inspired a generation to look toward the future with hope and a renewed
commitment to the principles upon which our Nation was founded. It is
still alive today. It is his legacy that he left with us, his gift to
the younger generations of the Nation.
During his two terms in the White House, Ronald Reagan spoke the
truth, regardless of the sensitivities of those who might not want to
hear it. It was over the objections of much of his staff that he
challenged Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to ``tear down this wall''
when he was in Berlin. It was against the advice of much of his staff
to refer to the Soviet Union as an ``evil empire.'' For Ronald Reagan,
it was simple. If it was the truth, it must be said. For him, there was
good guys and bad guys in the world. If the good guys worked hard and
were determined to succeed, they won. In Ronald Reagan's world, we were
the good guys. And, during Ronald Reagan's Presidency, more often then
not, we won.
For historians and the history books, Ronald Reagan will be
remembered as the President who brought a successful end to the cold
war; had a great deal to do with the collapse of communism in the
Soviet Union and the destruction

[[Page S6618]]

of the Berlin Wall; and, dramatically turned the Nation's economy
around. For those of us who observed his style as our President, he
will also be remembered for his spirit, and his attitude of patriotic
optimism, which rejuvenated the Nation when our spirit was low. He was
a great leader and a great American. His words and his actions will
long be remembered.
Ronald Reagan dared to do the impossible, not because it was easy but
because it had to be done. The challenges he encountered in his life
brought out the best in him, and the challenges we faced as a Nation
under him brought out the best in all of us. His is a legacy that we
will always cherish. We will miss him.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Oklahoma.
Mr. INHOFE. Mr. President, does the Senator from Florida wish to
speak about the subject of the day?
Mr. NELSON of Florida. That is correct.
Mr. INHOFE. I yield for the Senator and ask unanimous consent that I
follow the Senator from Florida.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
The Senator from Florida.
Mr. NELSON of Florida. I will be very brief. I thank the Senator from
Oklahoma.
Mr. President, on this occasion, when the Nation is mourning the loss
of President Reagan, I wish to bring to the attention of the Senate a
couple of stories which are fresh in my memory about President Reagan.
I had the privilege during his two terms as President of serving in
the House of Representatives, representing a district from the State of
Florida.
The first story I wish to share is of a time of great loss to this
country, the loss of the Space Shuttle Challenger. The American people
could hardly believe it. The entire technological prowess of our
country was symbolized by America having a very successful space
program. We were the first to the Moon. This new contraption called a
space transportation system was reusable, with new technologies that
had been developed. America was quite proud.
I had the privilege of flying on the 24th flight of the space
shuttle, 6 days in orbit, returning on January 18, 1986. Only 10 days
later, the crew that we had stayed with in quarantine--we had been one
of the most delayed flights in the history of the space program--was
the crew of the Challenger.
We all know the story. Ten miles high in the Florida sky, the
Challenger's solid rocket booster had hot gasses escaping from a field
joint in that rocket. They happened to come out at a place where the
strut was burned. That caused the solid rocket motor to then cantilever
and it punctured the big apricot-colored fuel tank that held all of the
liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. The whole space shuttle then
disintegrated.
Naturally, the feelings I had were very raw and very emotional on
that day, having trained with that crew and having just returned from
space 10 days earlier.
America's feelings were as raw and as emotional because our whole
symbol of technological and scientific prowess had suddenly
disintegrated in front of our eyes on our television screens.
At a time of a grieving nation, there can be only one person who can
speak for the country. That is the President. President Reagan rose to
the occasion. That speech on television that night, delivered from the
Oval Office, was a masterpiece, in which he ends up quoting a Canadian
pilot from World War II--a pilot who had experienced the joys of
flying--and those immortal words that ended the poem that he had
reached out and he had touched the face of God.
President Reagan applied that poem to the feelings of the country at
the time about what the seven astronauts had experienced. That is
political genius. That is a leader. That is a leader who has the
ability through communication to connect, to inspire, and in this
particular case, on January 28, 1986, to help the Nation through the
process of grieving, to accept what had happened and then pick up and
move on, which we have.
And of course, 17 years later, we had another very similar kind of
experience when we lost an additional seven astronauts.
That speech, in my mind, was only exceeded by the speech that
occurred 3 days later by President Reagan at the Johnson Space Center
in Houston in a memorial service for the astronauts, the astronauts,
whose bodies at that point still had not been recovered from the floor
of the Atlantic Ocean where, hopefully, they had perished before they
ever hit the water. Hopefully, somehow that crew compartment had been
punctured at that altitude and therefore there would have been instant
decompression and there would have been instant loss of consciousness.
But with all of that swirling in all of our minds, with all of that
swirling in the minds of that NASA community--NASA really is a family--
again, the leader of the Nation had to rise to the occasion to
summarize and to continue the process of healing in the time of grief.

I saw rough, tough test pilots who were some of the best of the best
of our astronaut pilots grabbing each other and hugging in that time of
grief. And President Reagan, in the moment, gave comfort to all of
those, especially to the families of that crew who were lost, led by
the commander of that mission, Dick Scobee.
Another story I wish to tell about President Reagan is very personal
to me as well. It was just about the middle of the decade of the 1980s.
I was a Member of the House of Representatives. There was a particular
vote coming up that was critically close. I had already made up my mind
that the way I was going to vote in this particular case was the way
President Reagan had wanted the vote to go but had not telegraphed that
to the leadership of either side because there was something I wanted
to tell the President.
There was a 6-month-old infant in my hometown of Melbourne, FL, who
was dying because he needed a liver transplant. Mind you, this is 20
years ago. Twenty years ago we did not have the very sophisticated
system we have set up today which allowed people to exchange
information about organ donors. Twenty years ago it was catch as catch
can. Twenty years ago, if a donor became available, it was just almost
accidental that you found out if there was a donor of a particular
organ. And when it involved an infant, like a 6-month-old infant, you
not only had to match the blood type for a liver transplant, but the
liver had to be the exact size in order to successfully transplant. You
can see the difficulty. You can see this child lie dying, with only
hours to live.
The preparation had been made for the jet airplane to fly the child
to the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center where all the surgeons
were standing by. They kept waiting and waiting for a donor. No donor
was produced because we did not know when any became available. There
was not an exchange of information.
So at my home in Melbourne, on a weekend, the call from the President
of the United States came. He said: Bill, this is President Reagan. We
are going to have a close vote and I need your vote. I said: Mr.
President, I have already decided that I am voting with you. Now there
is something that I would like to ask you, to help in the saving of the
life of a child. I told him the story, and he said he would have
Margaret Heckler, the Secretary of HHS, call me the next day and get
the particulars, which he did.

Margaret Heckler immediately held a press conference, and because of
that press conference, within 3 days, a tragic death of a child on the
west coast of the United States that we would have never known about
was known, and the parents donated the child's liver, which was of the
same blood type and the same size. That liver was packaged and cooled
and flown to Pittsburgh, arriving at the same time Ryan Osterblom
arrived, as they wheeled him into surgery.
Mr. President, as you can see, I have a catch in my voice because
that little boy is going to college this year. He wants to be a
surgeon. After that successful transplant, the President had called the
mother, Karen Osterblom, and for years he continued to correspond with
them.
It is going to be my pleasure to have the family come up here on
Thursday as the President is lying in state and have them walk through
the line in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol to show their respects to
President Reagan.

[[Page S6619]]

Thank you, Mr. President. I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Oklahoma is recognized.
Mr. INHOFE. Mr. President, we have heard so many stories about a
great man, the Gipper, and none of them are surprising because he was
always such a gentle person. I have to share with you that I had the
honor, about a month ago, of giving the commencement address at Oral
Roberts University. When I did, I used a lot of the 1964 speech ``A
Rendezvous With Destiny.'' I said it should be required reading for
anyone to graduate at any level in America to read ``A Rendezvous With
Destiny.'' It is a speech that changed my life. Ronald Reagan gave it
in 1964. I remember I almost memorized that speech. In fact, I still
have most of it memorized. As a result of that, the next year I
decided, well, if he did it, if he really feels this concerned, I
should, too, and I went and filed for office and ran for the State
legislature. So that is how I happened to get started.
But that is not as far back as we go. I believe I have had the honor
of knowing Ronald Reagan longer than any other Member of this U.S.
Senate. In fact, I am sure that is true. Even though I represent the
State of Oklahoma, I moved to the State of Oklahoma when I was 8 years
old. I moved from Des Moines, IA. We were enjoying the poverty of the
Depression at that time. Everyone was poor, not just us.
My dad was an insurance adjuster. Ronald Reagan was a sports
announcer for WHO Radio in Des Moines, IA, and they shared the same
office. They became very close friends, and they used to play the
pinball machine at that time. You guys would not know what that is. I
guess they don't have those anymore. On Saturdays they would play cards
for a couple hours. All I know is, it was a room above the drugstore.

But the man I had seen occasionally at that time I thought of as a
giant. He was a very large person. We were not all that large. I
remember that when I was growing up.
Well, we moved to Tulsa, OK, shortly after that. But we did not lose
contact. As the years went by, Ronald Reagan, who my dad affectionately
referred to as ``Dutch,'' ``Dutch Reagan''--every time there was a
``Dutch'' Reagan movie we would see it. You see, we never went to
movies. In those days, we just didn't go to movies except when there
was a ``Dutch'' Reagan movie. It did not matter what it was conflicting
with.
One time we went to Durant, OK, in the southern part of Oklahoma. My
home was in the northern part. I remember driving on those roads at
that time. I say to my good friend from Minnesota, the roads were--if
you could average 30 miles an hour, you were doing well. So we drove 5
hours down, watched a ``Dutch'' Reagan movie, and drove 5 hours back.
We never would consider missing a ``Dutch'' Reagan movie.
Then, of course, the famous speech took place in 1964. That is when
he expressed his interest in politics. But at that time my father had
gotten to where he was much better off, our family was. So when
``Dutch'' Reagan was going to run for Governor of California, my father
became one of his first large contributors. Again, the friendship had
never stopped at any point. So he won.
At the time, after he served in that capacity and ran for President--
I know that the Presiding Officer right now knows what I am talking
about because he and I were both mayors of major cities back at the
same time in 1980 when Ronald Reagan was elected President. I was the
mayor of Tulsa, OK, for 4 years. Ronald Reagan and I were closer
together than we had ever been before--I was out in Oklahoma--because
he had me do his domestic policy stuff. He would have me on TV. At that
time, they did not have CNN and Fox, but they had ``Good Morning
America'' and the ``Today'' show. So I would be debating all these
liberal Democrat mayors on the Reagan policy, which was the dynamics of
the free enterprise system as opposed to the Government doing
everything, and they worked beautifully. So I am sure I spent 10 times
as much time with him at that time than I do with George W. today, and
I am here in Washington. But it was a real pleasure.
Those of us present--and right now I see in the Chamber the Senator
from Minnesota, Mr. Norm Coleman, and the Senator who is presiding, Mr.
Voinovich--all three of us were mayors. We understand what a hard job
it is. When I was mayor, I was able to build a low-water dam, and
President Reagan referred to it in his speeches as the largest totally
privately funded public project in America. That was the dynamics of
Ronald Reagan. That is what he thought, that Government should be doing
less, people doing more. And it worked.
What a visionary the guy was. When I see things that are going on
today and I remember things that he said many, many years ago--right
now, we have a serious problem in America. Probably one of our most
serious problems is we do not have an energy policy. So we make
speeches. All of us make speeches on a regular basis about why we do
not have an energy policy and why we should have one. I would like to
read to you what Ronald Reagan said. This was in 1979. Listen carefully
because this applies to today, but it was 1979:

Solving the energy crisis will not be easy, but it can be
done. First we must decide that ``less'' is not enough. Next,
we must remove government obstacles to energy production. And
we must make use of those technological advantages we still
possess.
It is no program simply to say ``use less energy.''

Sound familiar?

Of course waste must be eliminated and efficiency promoted,
but for the government simply to tell the people to conserve
is not an energy policy. At best it means we will run out of
energy a little more slowly. But a day will come when the
lights will dim and the wheels of industry will turn more
slowly and finally stop.
The answer obvious to anyone except those in the
administration it seems, is more domestic production of oil
and gas. We must also have wider use of nuclear power within
strict safety rules, of course. There must be more spending
by the energy industries on research and development of
substitutes for fossil fuels.

And on and on and on. That speech very well could have been made
today because the problem still exists today. And he knew it was
coming.
When he talked about the SDI, the Strategic Defense Initiative, that
was something no one seemed to care about. They did not see there was
any great risk facing the American people. Yet he saw that risk. The
risk was there. We all know now the risk is very real, even today. So
he looked back at the ABM treaty that was put in place in 1972.
He said: This is senseless now. It may have made sense in 1972 when
Henry Kissinger and Richard Nixon put this in, but the policy of mutual
assured destruction is not a good policy. So he said: What we will have
to do is have a very strong country. And he was quite scriptural. He
quoted from Luke: If a strong man shall keep his court well guarded, he
shall live in peace. And that is exactly what he was doing in his
rebuilding of the defense system of America. We are so thankful he did
that in those days. But he was saying we must do away with the ABM
treaty. Finally, after all this time, we recognized 2 years ago he was
right, and we got rid of the ABM treaty--how prophetic.
Tax cuts, this is something that he gave credit to his predecessors.
He said: We do need more money. The best way to get more revenue for
Government is to reduce tax rates. He said: That is what President
Kennedy did 25 years ago. He said: He reduced tax rates. And keep in
mind, that was a Democratic President. And by reducing tax rates, he
almost doubled the revenue coming in at the end of his term. It gave
people the freedom and money to invest and to breathe and to reinvest
in the country. So that is the problem. That is what this President
George W. Bush has been trying to do. That is the reason we are out of
the recession he inherited, and we are now coming out because we have
reduced some of those marginal rates. We know we need to do more. This
is what the President did.
If you remember, in 1980, the total amount of revenue that was
generated from marginal rates, taxes paid by people, was $244 billion.
In 1990, it was $446 billion. It almost doubled in that 10-year period.
Yet that 10-year period was the period where we had the largest
reduction in taxes, thanks to Ronald Reagan, of any 10-year period or
8-year period in our Nation's history: marginal rates going down from
70 percent to 28 percent. Yet it had the effect of doubling the
revenues. This guy

[[Page S6620]]

knew it, and he did it. That is good advice for us today.
I have mentioned quite often that it should have been required
reading for all of our graduates to read ``Rendezvous With Destiny.''
Let me read a couple things to remind us on this very solemn occasion
how grateful we are now to have had a President who was so prophetic.
In talking about the freedom of our country, he told a story about
Castro and how a Cuban had escaped Cuba in a small craft and had
floated over to the south shores of Florida. As his small craft came up
there was a lady there, and he told the lady about the atrocities of
Castro's Communist Cuba. After he was through, she said: I guess we
don't know how lucky we are in the United States.
He said: How lucky you are? We are the ones who are lucky. We had a
place to escape to.
That is what Ronald Reagan said, that we would be the beacon of
freedom, the last place in the world to escape to. If we lose it here,
there is nowhere else to escape to.
On the recognition of the dynamics of the free enterprise system, he
said:

They also knew, those Founding Fathers, that outside of its
legitimate functions, government does nothing as well or as
economically as the private sector of the economy.

He practiced that. It worked. His domestic policies worked.
He was prophetic. He accurately described such things as:

We have so many people who can't see a fat man standing
beside a thin one without coming to the conclusion that the
fat man got that way by taking advantage of the thin one.

Ronald Reagan talked about bureaucracy, how difficult it would be for
him to cut down the size of Government. He is the one who said, in that
very famous speech in 1964, there is nothing closer to life eternal on
the face of this Earth than a Government agency once formed. And he
went on to explain the reason for it. The reason for it is very simple.
Once a Government agency is formed to respond to a problem, the problem
goes away, and the bureaucracy stays there. The longer they stay there
with nothing to do, the stronger they become. So that happens. He was
able to cut that down by reminding people that that problem did exist.
He said in 1964:

Let's set the record straight. There is no argument over
the choice between peace and war, but there is only one
guaranteed way that you can have peace--and you can have it
in the next second--surrender.

That was the message he had. You had to be strong. You had to have a
Nation that believes in God, and you had to stand up for those things
and not lie down and surrender. That is what people were trying to do
at that time.
He said in that speech:

There is a price we will not pay. There is a point beyond
which they must not advance.

That was his rendezvous with destiny.
I look at American heroes like the senior Senator from Hawaii who
fought so valiantly and is very familiar with what this President did
for our U.S. military.
I will say this: The rendezvous with destiny was a very real one.
Military historians have looked at us and said there is no way we could
have won the Revolutionary War. Here we were, a handful of farmers and
trappers with crude weapons and the greatest army on the face of the
earth was marching toward Lexington and Concord, and they fired the
shot heard round the world.
As Ronald Reagan would reflect on that great speech by Patrick Henry,
he said there are three sentences in that speech that answer the
questions of military historians, but people have forgotten about it.
We are not weak when we make the proper use of those means which the
God of nature has placed in our power. Armed in the holy cause of
liberty in such a country as that which we possess, we are invincible
by any force our enemy will send against us. And besides, we will not
fight our battles alone. There is a just God who reigns over the
destiny of nations who will raise up friends to fight our battles with
us.
Those are the favorite three sentences out of the ``give me liberty,
give me death'' speech Patrick Henry made.
For me, I think about the honor to be able to stand here in the
Senate and, on behalf of the American people and on behalf of my wife
and myself and our family of 20 children and grandchildren, to say we
thank Ronald Reagan for his sacrifices. We thank God for Ronald Reagan.
We thank God for his life. We thank God for allowing us to share that
rendezvous with destiny with Ronald Reagan.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Minnesota.
Mr. COLEMAN. Mr. President, I share that sense of humility that has
been so eloquently expressed by my friend from Oklahoma, to be able to
stand on this Senate floor and to thank God for Ronald Reagan, for what
he gave us and what we learned from him. I must admit to being a bit
envious to be in the Chamber with my friend from Oklahoma who knew
Ronald Reagan when he was a young man.
My friend, the Presiding Officer, on the way to the Chamber--again,
we were all fellow mayors--talked about when he was mayor of Cleveland.
There were some difficult times, and he talked to the President. He
talked about what a good man the President was. What a good man, that
he really cared, that he listened, and that he wanted to do things,
wanted to make a difference. Sometimes when those around him were not
making a difference, he took care of it and got it done. I think my
colleagues were part of history being made.
I was able to watch history during that time. But I am honored and
humbled to be here today. To those of us who grew up in the Midwest and
for those like myself who made it our home, Ronald Reagan has a very
special significance. Places like Dixon, IL have been dubbed fly-over
zones by sophisticated, powerful people who live on the coast. But we
know places like that are the heartland, strong, simple, and true. That
was Ronald Reagan.
What we love about the Midwest is what America and the world came to
know and understand and love about Ronald Reagan.
To go on and on in flowery rhetoric about Ronald Reagan would not fit
the subject matter. Like he did so well, his life deserves a few well-
chosen words.
Oscar Wilde once said:

Life is not complex. We are complex. Life is simple and the
simple thing is the right thing.

Ronald Reagan could have said that because, surely, he lived it.
Democracy is superior to communism. America is the world's best hope.
Liberty requires limited government. The best is yet to come. Those
were Ronald Reagan's moral anchors from the start of his public life to
the end. Without deviation, they shaped his outlook and actions for
half a century.
He certainly didn't originate any of them, but we all know they are
far more prominent in the fabric of American life today because of the
power of his witness, as he lived his life, the power of what he did
with those moral anchors as part of him.
In the last few days, we are hearing a lot about Reagan as the Great
Communicator. I think we put too much emphasis on the craft. As far as
Ronald Reagan was concerned, the key to being a good communicator was
having something to say. He was the message he delivered, and so he
touched hearts and changed minds.
He understood the key to American progress was our spirit. Resources,
wealth, and past accomplishments have ruined more people and nations
than they have made. He knew we needed a sense of the heroic, a
stirring of our souls to rise above selfishness, division, and fear. He
inspired us.
He restored our confidence in the idea of leadership. Vietnam,
Watergate, inflation, gas lines, and the hostage crisis were causing
many to wonder if the American hour had passed. Not Ronald Reagan. He
stubbornly held onto a wonderful vision of the future rather than focus
on temporary negative circumstances. He led us.
And perhaps of greatest importance, by his own choice, Ronald Reagan
was not the star of our dramatic national resurgence. Neither was
Government. In Reagan's mind and words, the heroes who restored the
American economy and won the cold war were ordinary Americans doing
simple things, doing their duty--kind of like a national bond raising.
He united us.
Mr. President, I also grew up as a Democrat. President Reagan deeply
inspired me, and he had a lot to do with

[[Page S6621]]

the fact that I am standing on this side of the aisle today. He
inspired me with ideas, such as if you want to grow an economy, you cut
taxes and put money in people's pockets; they will spend it on a
product or service, and there is a job connected to that. He understood
that. He showed the power of it. I understood that. It wasn't just
about policy, it was about optimism.
When I ran for mayor in St. Paul in 1993, my slogan was ``St. Paul's
best days are yet to come.'' When I switched parties in 1996, Jack Kemp
came over to my house, and I made the announcement. It was that spirit
of hope, optimism, entrepreneurship, and opportunity that he showed
worked. That was the key, by the way. For him, it was not about
politics; it was about results.
My friend from Oklahoma quoted President Reagan saying that solving
the energy crisis wasn't easy, but that it can be done. He understood
the importance of getting it done.
I think Ronald Reagan would be honored to know we are shutting down
the Federal Government on Friday. His only concern might be that we are
starting it again on Monday. He changed us and transformed the world,
without a doubt. Some days, Mr. President, I get concerned that we are
changing back.
As we remember his life, I hope we all remember that the simple
things are the right things: Freedom, hope, liberty, and optimism.
I thank God that he gave us Ronald Reagan when we needed him most.
Now, this is our time. I pray that we will courageously follow his
example and embrace America's destiny in this challenging hour.
I yield the floor.
Mr. McCAIN. Mr. President, the strength of Abraham Lincoln's resolve
to restore the Union, whatever the terrible cost to do so, was his
unshakeable faith that in America any father's child could come to
occupy the same place that his father's child had attained. That
uniquely American conviction also inspired Ronald Reagan to reach his
great place in our country's history and in the hearts of his
countrymen. I doubt Ronald Reagan was much surprised to become
President, despite his humble origins. And I know for certain he never
took for granted a single day he occupied the office. He believed such
an honored privilege was within the reach of any American with
principles, industry and talent, and that once attained, it was to be
held with great care to preserve for succeeding generations the
blessings of liberty that had so enriched his own life. His patriotism,
which he expressed eloquently and often in his public remarks, was
never affected. He believed every word. Nor was his unfailing good
humor and optimism an actor's performance. He lived in a shining city
on a hill, and he never forgot it.
I first met President Reagan and his lovely wife, Nancy, not long
after I returned from Vietnam. But I knew of him in the years before I
regained my liberty, when my fellow prisoners-of-war and I would
discuss in tap codes and whispered conversations the Governor of
California who was giving such eloquent voice to the convictions we
believed we had been sent to war to advance. In the more than 30 years
that have passed since I first met him, I have never lived a day that I
wasn't grateful for the privilege of the Reagans' friendship, and the
strength of his faith in America that inspired my own, and so many
others.
His accomplishments in office were historic, and will be long
remembered as will the humility, grace and decency with which he
achieved them. It was an honor to have known him, and Cindy and I shall
miss him very much. We offer our sincerest condolences to Nancy, and to
Michael, Patti and Ron, and pray that God grants this good man eternal
life, reunites him with his daughter, Maureen, and with all his loved
ones who have preceded him.
Mr. HOLLINGS. Mr. President, at a luncheon with Bernard Baruch, Mr.
Baruch commented that Harry Truman ``had a good memory'' and ``he also
had a good bad memory.'' We are hearing both at the passing of former
President Ronald Reagan. There is no question that if a President is to
be credited for the end of the Cold War that credit should go to Ronald
Reagan. We were anxious about the depletion of our defenses in the U.S.
Senate in the year preceding President Reagan's administration so we
passed a 5 percent across-the-board increase in the Defense budget. But
President Reagan came on board and really moved to strengthen our
defenses, building a 600-ship Navy and not hesitating to deploy
intermediate missiles in Europe. He also moved to formalize our
ballistic missile defense system, calling it the Strategic Defense
Initiative and increasing its support. President Reagan can also be
credited with a competitive trade policy. Though he had the power to
rescind the anti-dumping order on the importation of motorcycles, he
let the order stand; reviving as we all know the Harley Davidson
industry. Moreover, he imposed voluntary restraint agreements in steel,
semiconductors, machine tools and automobiles. There is no question,
for example, that Intel would have had a hard time surviving had it not
been for Sematech and Reagan's VRA on semiconductors.
But at this time of praise, those with ``good bad memory'' forget it
was Ronald Reagan who started supply side economics. Former Senator Bob
Dole led the opposition to its forerunner, Kemp-Roth, and former
President George Herbert Walker Bush characterized this cutting
revenues to increase them as ``voodoo.'' With Reagan looking for an
issue at a low point in his administration, he locked onto supply side,
ignoring his campaign pledge to ``balance the budget within one year.''
It is good to note that in this country after 200 years existence, with
the cost of all the wars from the Revolution up to the War in Vietnam,
the national debt stood at less than $1 trillion. Reagan's supply side
or ``voodoo'' gave us the first trillion dollar debt and he left office
having increased the national debt $1.7 trillion. Under Bush 41, in 4
years the debt increased $1.4 trillion. President Clinton over 8 years
slowed the increase of the debt to $1.6 trillion with spending cuts and
tax increases, leaving a projected surplus. President George W. Bush,
with three tax cuts or Reagan ``voodoos,'' has eliminated the surplus
and increased the debt over $2 trillion in 4 years. As his chief
counselor Vice President Cheney said, ``Deficits don't matter.'' Since
the beginning days, this country has shown sacrifice at a time of war
by adopting a tax measure to pay for the war. But not for the War on
Terrorism. We in the Congress need a fourth tax cut, voodoo, to get
reelected. Today the GI fighting the war is also going to have to pay
for the war. At this time of remembrance, let's not forget that Reagan
dignified ``voodoo.''
Mrs. FEINSTEIN. Mr. President, on Saturday, our Nation lost a strong
leader and the State of California lost an adopted son.
As a citizen, Ronald Wilson Reagan embodied the American dream. He
personified the image of California--can-do, risk-taking, cutting-edge.
Ronald Reagan was all of those things.
As a President, he unified a country and helped bring an end to the
cold war, the premier struggle of his time in public life.
My fondest memory of President Reagan took place while I was mayor of
San Francisco at a March 1983 dinner the President and First Lady
hosted for Queen Elizabeth II in San Francisco. The Queen was thrilled
to visit California for the first time and especially pleased to be
welcomed by a President from California.
During that trip the Queen quipped at one point that she knew England
had exported many traditions to the United States, but she hadn't
realized the weather was one of them.
San Francisco's London-like weather aside, as Mayor I was enormously
proud of the wonderful welcome we had provided for the Queen of
England.
Growing up in small-town central Illinois in the years leading up to
the Great Depression, President Reagan was instilled with the values
that would guide him as a person and as a leader. There he learned the
importance of hard work and optimism as the key ingredients for
success.
It was this optimism combined with his ever-present sense of humor
that characterized him best, enabling him to both ``fill the screen''
and make a stellar entrance wherever he went.
After 4 years at Eureka College, where he was known as a gritty,
though undersized tackle on the football team, he began searching for a
job in broadcasting. In 1932, at the height

[[Page S6622]]

of the Depression, he headed into the job market confident that a job
would be his soon.
After several years as a broadcaster covering University of Iowa
football games and later recreating Chicago Cubs' games based on
telegraph reports, a young Ronald Reagan traveled to California to
cover the Cubs' spring training.
It was his first trip west of Kansas City and it nurtured his
fascination with Hollywood. While he was there, he used his
considerable charm to convince a movie agent to arrange a screen test
for him at Warner Brothers Studios.
Before long, he returned to the Midwest, packed his bags and started
the quintessential American journey westward in search of opportunity.
Of course, he found it as a movie star.
He won many fans through his on-screen charisma. The optimism he
inspired was exemplified by his role as Notre Dame football player
George Gipp in the film ``Knute Rockne--All-American.'' Years after
Gipp's death, Coach Rockne gave a pep talk to his team urging them to
``win one for the Gipper'' one of the more memorable lines in American
sports history.
But President Reagan's greatest impact on the world was as a
politician. As a labor leader with the Screen Actors Guild, his roots
as an activist were shaped significantly by a deep concern about
communism.
Yet despite his strongly anti-communist views, he condemned the
unfair smearing of many liberals by Senator Joseph McCarthy and the
House Un-American Activities Committee. He refused to reveal names
publicly, but exposed some people to the FBI privately.
As Governor of California he had a strong record of environmental
protection: adding 145,000 acres to the State's park system, protecting
Lake Tahoe from rampant development, blocking the construction of dams
on the Dos Rios and Eel rivers, and stopping the paving of a federal
highway through the Sierra Nevada Mountains that would have cut through
the John Muir Trail.
He also signed legislation to protect rivers on California's north
coast and approved strict car emissions standards that forced the
Nation's automakers to manufacture cleaner-burning cars. But he lobbied
against the Coastal Protection Act approved by voters in 1972 and
resisted air pollution controls imposed by the federal government.
Despite his personal opposition to abortion, Governor Reagan loosened
an 1872 statute to allow abortion in cases of rape, incest, when a
mother's health was at stake, or when there was a high risk that a baby
would be born with birth defects. Many States followed Governor
Reagan's lead on this important issue.
However, his move to close down mental health facilities in
California resulted in widespread homelessness in urban areas. Though
he sought to steer the mentally ill into community-based mental health
facilities the end result was a spike in homelessness, a problem that
we continue to deal with to this day.
While in Sacramento, he generally approached fiscal policy as a
moderate, first presiding over a $1-billion tax increase to balance the
State budget and another subsequent increase. He eventually lowered
taxes, but in his two terms as Governor, State spending doubled overall
and the State's workforce grew by 34,000.
As President, he was a unifier and an optimist. His infectious,
upbeat attitude rallied people to his goals. He was extremely
successful in passing legislation by joining that optimism with a
willingness to compromise with a Democratic Congress.
In his dealings, he was tough, but ready to negotiate. There is no
better example of this than his relationship with former Soviet leader
Mikhail Gorbachev. He often used harsh rhetoric in challenging the
actions of our cold war adversary, but it was always backed by his core
beliefs.
Once, as he prepared for his first summit with the Soviet leader, he
met with a room full of foreign policy advisors, each offering their
suggestions about what he should say. After a half-hour of discussion,
President Reagan turned to his advisors and said, ``Gentlemen, I've
been thinking about what I'm going to say to this man my whole life.
And I know exactly what I'm going to say.''
Gorbachev described Reagan as ``a great President, with whom the
Soviet leadership was able to launch a very difficult but important
dialogue.''
His tough negotiating stance yielded some important accomplishments
including signing treaties reducing intermediate-range nuclear missiles
and limiting strategic arms. These acts of diplomacy combined with his
relentless advocacy for freedom played a major role in bringing about
an end to the cold war.
At the same time, Reagan had a tendency to overreach in the area of
foreign policy. The invasion of Grenada, the intervention in Lebanon
that left American soldiers uncertain of their role and vulnerable to
attack, and, above all, the Iran-Contra scandal--were all cases in
which the Reagan Administration went too far in seeking to reshape the
world.
At home, President Reagan sought to limit the size of government and
tap the entrepreneurial spirit of the American people. And though he
was famous for cutting taxes, he approved two tax increases during his
first term in the White House.
Unfortunately, the tax cuts were coupled with sharp increases in
defense spending that resulted in massive deficits. The Federal budget
finally recovered from those years of deficit-spending during the late
1990s, but the surpluses that were generated disappeared in the blink
of an eye under the current administration's fiscal policies.
President Reagan's cuts to public housing, job training, and the
broader social safety net were another serious blow domestically. And,
as cities and mayors across the country were reeling from the advent of
AIDS--no place suffered more than San Francisco--President Reagan
failed to act. He would not even publicly comment on the AIDS crisis.
Though people did not always agree with his policies, it cannot be
denied that President Reagan redefined politics through his tremendous
skills as a communicator. In particular, his ability to define clear
goals and persuade others to support those goals earned him the
admiration of many Americans.
As we all know, President Reagan suffered from Alzheimer's Disease
during the last decade of his life.
As we honor his memory in the days and weeks to come, it is my hope
that we will consider what we can do here in Congress to battle this
terrible disease.
A good first step would be to approve legislation that supports
embryonic stem cell research. This research offers tremendous hope, not
only to those who suffer from Alzheimer's, but also the millions of
people with cancer, diabetes, Parkinson's, multiple sclerosis and
spinal cord injuries. What a fitting tribute passage of this bill would
be to President Reagan.
In closing, there probably is no American who has more fully lived
the American dream from actor to Governor to President than Ronald
Reagan. Today, we mourn his loss, but recognize that his was a full
life.
Thank you for your service to this country, President Reagan.
Mr. FEINGOLD. Mr. President, today I pay my respects to a beloved
leader who, with grace, wit, and charisma, led our country through some
of the great challenges of the twentieth century. President Ronald
Wilson Reagan was a dedicated public servant whose confidence and
optimism reinvigorated the American people and made him one of the most
honored and respected Presidents in our Nation's history.
Although he lived most of his life in California, President Reagan
was a fellow Midwesterner. Born in 1911 in Tampico, IL, Ronald Wilson
Reagan attended high school in nearby Dixon and worked his way through
Eureka College. There he earned his B.A., played on the football team,
and participated in school plays. He eventually won a contract in
Hollywood and appeared in 53 films over two decades.
The father of four children became increasingly involved in politics
and in 1966 was elected the governor of California, and was reelected
in 1970. His optimistic message, at a time when the country was beset
by inflation and by the taking of American hostages in Iran, helped him
to win the presidency in 1980. Four years later, he was reelected in a
49-state sweep.
In foreign affairs, it is impossible to separate President Reagan's
legacy

[[Page S6623]]

from the astounding change in world affairs that began while he was in
office: the collapse of the U.S.S.R. and the end of the Cold War.
President Reagan spoke frankly and frequently about the bankruptcy--
both moral and economic--of the Soviet regime. His words and actions
energized dissidents and activists struggling for change and for
justice in the face of Communist repression and tyranny. His optimism
helped to give them confidence that they were, indeed, on the right
side of history.
President Reagan not only recognized the monstrous nature of
Communist totalitarianism, but he also understood the horror of a
geopolitical reality that made the entire world hostage to the threat
of nuclear annihilation. He had the courage to act, to reach out to the
Soviet leadership and to craft landmark arms control agreements,
including one that, for the first time, eliminated a class of nuclear
weapons.
On the domestic front, it was under the leadership of President
Reagan that the solvency of the Social Security program was extended
through reforms to the existing program. Although modest in their
overall scope, those reforms were seen by many as politically risky,
and President Reagan provided critical leadership that helped assure
both a reluctant Congress and an uncertain public. Today, we should
build on the Reagan reforms, and strengthen the existing program, as he
did.
Another significant domestic policy challenge that President Reagan
tackled was the simplification of our tax code. In the face of special
interest pressures, and under the leadership of his Secretary of
Treasury, Donald Regan, as well as a bipartisan group of members of the
House and Senate, President Reagan was able to push through the last
significant reforms to our increasingly complex tax code in 1986.
At the time, I was the Chairman of the Taxation Committee in the
Wisconsin State Senate and we were holding a variety of hearings around
the State, addressing parallel reforms. These hearings and reforms were
driven by President Reagan's proposal. Though far from perfect, that
reform effort is another model for action we need to undertake again.
And policymakers in Congress and the executive branch would do well to
follow President Reagan's example in this matter.
Of course, no review of President Reagan's legacy would be complete
without acknowledging his Alzheimer's disease which, sadly, defined the
last 10 years of his life as well as the lives of his family. As the
author of Wisconsin's Alzheimer's program, I have become all too aware
of the heartbreaking tragedy that this dread disease brings to a
family.
President Reagan's brave, public acknowledgment of the disease, and
the wonderful efforts of his wife Nancy, have done a great deal to
educate the country about this horrible affliction. They have also
helped to spur government investment in the research needed to find a
cure, and to raise awareness of the need for long-term care services
for those suffering from Alzheimer's.
President Ronald Wilson Reagan helped to transform America and the
world. He and his achievements will forever be honored and remembered.
Mr. PRYOR. Mr. President, the Capitol today is overflowing with
visitors, flags stand at half-staff, and the Nation has collectively
stopped this week--all to honor a remarkable man who accomplished
remarkable things during a remarkable time.
President Ronald Reagan gave his life to public service and has left
a legacy of leadership that will always be remembered.
We remember President Reagan's strong vision for political and
economic freedom which was instrumental in the fall of communism and
the spread of democracy in Eastern Europe. The world held its breath as
America stared communism in the face, but in the end we peacefully won
over the respect and cooperation of our enemy. Less than a year after
Reagan left office, Mr. Gorbachev stepped down, the Berlin Wall fell
and the cold war ended.
I will never forget President Reagan's historic speech on June 12,
1987, in front of the Brandenburg Gate near the Berlin Wall when he
called on Mikhail Gorbachev to ``Open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear
down this wall.''
Today, the United States is working with Russia to replace tyranny
and fear in Iraq with peace and stability.
Of President Reagan, Gorbachev said, ``A true leader, a man of his
word and an optimist, he traveled the journey of his life with dignity
and faced courageously the cruel disease that darkened his final years.
He has earned a place in history and in people's hearts.''
We also remember Dutch, the Great Communicator, the Gipper as a man
of great optimism and humor. My kids' history books recall the dates
and facts of this time, but they do not convey this Hollywood actor
turned President's good-natured spirit or genuine optimism for a better
tomorrow. Nor can they express his unyielding dedication and love for
our country. However, I believe the outpouring of respect and affection
shown by the American public this week says we will forever remember
his character and personality.
Finally, we remember a man who never stopped believing, never stopped
advocating America's ability to succeed and prosper. He stuck to his
convictions and his visions for America, whether popular or not.
Ronald Reagan's initiatives didn't please all Americans and Democrats
and Republicans did not always agree on President Reagan's foreign
policy or domestic agenda, but he never encouraged or played the biting
partisan games that exist today. Even with those people whom he had
genuine ideological differences, President Reagan always showed a level
of respect and acknowledged that we are all Americans and we are in
this together.
Years ago, President Reagan and Speaker of the House Tip O'Neill used
to joke that, ``between 9 and 5 we are enemies, but at 5 o'clock let's
go have a cocktail together.'' To truly honor and remember President
Reagan--this man of great accomplishment, optimism, and oratory--
perhaps we could find ways to work better together for a better
tomorrow.
I extend my deepest sympathies to the Reagan family in their time of
sorrow, and I hope it is of some comfort that Americans and many others
throughout the world mourn by their side.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. COLEMAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

____________________