On Reagan Day, His Principles are Still Tested

Today is Ronald Reagan Day -- one which deserves to be recognized around the world for the impact this Californian continues to have on the lives of hundreds of millions of people.

While some sophisticates dismissed him as simplistic, in truth Ronald Reagan understood the inherent strengths of freedom and self-determination, and the inherent weaknesses in government coercion and totalitarianism. When some predicted the Berlin Wall would last for a hundred years, it could barely stand for more than a few months after he left the White House because Reagan's view was right and the liberal view that "detente" was the best the world could hope for was wrong.

Here at home, Americans keep more of what they earn because President Reagan was determined to bring tax rates down out the stratosphere, not only to help the economy but out of a commitment to a solid principles of liberty and free enterprise.

Those same principles are being tested today. When President Reagan took office the nation was truly in its greatest crisis since the Great Depression. His leadership and beliefs steered America through the crisis not with bailouts and takeovers, but by cutting burdensome government regulations and slashing taxes to increase incentives to work, save and invest.

The result was the longest peacetime expansion in American history.

Our party's challenge now is not to hark back to an earlier time when the Gipper was in the White House, but rather to find new ways to adapt Reagan's solid principles to today's world, and demonstrating how when applied, the tenets of conservative governance produce a better quality of life for people.

For these reasons, among many more, we recognize today as Ronald Reagan Day.