Remembering Ronald Reagan

I never liked Reagan—not as a candidate, not as president, not now.

Because he was "the Teflon president," the press never had the guts to criticize him—so we began to hear about all the bad things he had done only once he had left office.

When he was campaigning for the presidency, his speeches had a blatant appeal to Americans' racism. Also while a candidate, he negotiated with the Iranians—in violation of U.S. law—so that they would not release the American hostages they were holding until the campaign and election were over with. Sure enough, the hostages were released on the day of Reagan's inauguration.

Also on his Inauguration Day in 1980, he immediately halted all government funding for alternative energy research. If, 30 years later, we still don't have much in the way of alternatives to petroleum-based fuels, that's directly and simply due to Reagan.

There was an anecdote that on the eve of a big international conference, his aides provided him with a lot of briefing papers; but instead of reading them and doing his "homework," he spent the evening before the big conference watching movies.

Also, he greatly undermined environmental regulation by the EPA; and regulation of our food supplies, our medications, and so forth by the FDA. We are still suffering from inadequate governmental oversight of public health because of him.

The best thing I can sat about Reagan is that the Religious Right folks who helped elect him were sorely disappointed that he did not deliver for them everything they had hoped or wanted.

Update, August 24, 2011
A recent PBS TV program on energy showed an expert who stated that, as I indeed said here, Ronald Reagan set back US alternative energy programs by 30 years.

Copyright © 2011 by Richard Stein

What to Expect from Republicans in the New Congress

The Republicans' aims for the new Congress include convening many hearings in which government department heads will be asked to justify their regulations and their spending.

Well, the spending part certainly is going to sound okay to most Americans and be hard to object to.

But, according to an article entitled "GOP Agenda May Have Bigger Impact on 2012 Than on Daily Life" in AOL News: Politics,

The next chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Republican Fred Upton of Michigan, says he'll work to stop over-zealous government regulators. A big target for him is the Environmental Protection Agency.

So here we have the Republicans again showing that they favor business (industry), which wants to go on polluting with no regulation, over the environment and over the health of the American public. Do they need any more proof than what has come to light over five or six decades, that air and water pollution is not good for people or for any living things?

Copyright © 2011 by Richard Stein

Reagan (and Bush) on Energy and Consumer Protection

News has it that President Obama is installing solar energy-producing panels on the roof of the White House.

This item, and earlier ones, reminded us that President Jimmy Carter had also installed solar panels on the White House roof—and then Ronald Reagan removed them. Why would he do this, when it must have cost taxpayers money to remove them? My guess is, simply to thumb his nose at environmentalists.

Also, as is not very well known, on the day of his inauguration, Reagan froze all funding of alternative energy research by the Department of Energy. I can tell you that a lot of alternative energy research that is being called for today or has recently been started up, was going on in 1981 when Reagan halted it. On the smaller scale, Reagan's move cost many jobs (including, ultimately, mine—so yes, I have a personal axe to grind here) but it also set back the efforts to find new energy sources by 30 years.

Many of the bad things that Reagan did (okay, bad at least from my perspective, or any liberal perspective) were not publicized at the time. Reagan was very popular—remember, he was called "the Teflon President," and the Press was afraid to criticize him because of that popularity.

For example, he gutted federal regulatory agencies such as the EPA and FDA that were intended by Congress to safeguard our food, water, air, and so forth. He appointed as heads of these agencies industry-sympathetic people or even industry insiders who had no intention of allowing these agencies to function effectively.

Similarly, Congress passed laws to beef up (no pun) government inspections of food-processing plants. Had these measures taken effect, they might have prevented some of the recent outbreaks of food-borne illnesses such as Salmonella and E. coli from eggs, peanut butter, and so forth (there have been many in the last few years). But the stiffer inspection schedules were never implemented, because of eight years of foot-dragging by the Bush administration.

Update, August 26, 2011
I recently learned that Rodger Mudd, of CBS TV news, did at the time report on Reagan removing the solar panels from the White House. It was a very brief news item and didn't mention any possible explanation.

Copyright © 2010 by Richard Stein