28 Days of Ronald Reagan – Day 9

“In my eighty years, I prefer to call that the forty-first anniversary of my thirty ninth birthday, I’ve seen what men can do for each other and do to each other, I’ve seen war and peace, feast and famine, depression and prosperity, sickness and health. I’ve seen the depth of suffering and the peaks of triumph and I know in my heart that man is good, that what is right will always eventually triumph and that there is purpose and worth to each and every life.”

November 4, 1991: Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush and Charlton Heston were present when Reagan spoke these words at the dedication of his Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California.

Ronald Wilson Reagan
February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004
40th President of the United States

February 6, 2011 marks the Centennial of Ronald Reagan’s birth.  Reagan was unquestionably the greatest President of my lifetime, and in my opinion, the greatest President of the 20th Century.  For the month of February, 2011, we present “28 Days of Ronald Reagan” featuring a daily tribute.  We’ll include his wit, and his wisdom and some of our favorite stories.

Pants on Fire

In Sunday’s interview with Fox’s Bill O’Reilly, the President said “I didn’t raise taxes once. I lowered taxes over the last two years.”

The Wall Street Journal offers this correction:

‘I Didn’t Raise Taxes Once’
Refreshing the President’s memory.

As for tax increases on individuals, perhaps he forgot the health-care bill’s new 0.9 percentage point increase in the Medicare payroll tax for families making over $250,000 and singles over $200,000. That tax increase takes effect in 2013, as will the application of what will be a 3.8% Medicare surtax (up from 2.9% today) to “unearned income” for the first time. This is a tax hike on investment and interest income, which will reduce the incentive to save and invest.