A Tribute to Reagan's Words
 

Here's a list of quotes I did *not* research. Bash away!

Timeless quotes from former President Ronald Reagan

"Facts are stupid things.."
—Reagan, '88

"...a faceless mass, waiting for handouts."
—Reagan, '65, describing Medicaid recipients.

"Because Vietnam was not a declared war, the veterans are not even eligible for the
G. I. Bill of Rights with respect to education or anything."
—Reagan, '80

"Taxes should hurt. I just mailed my own tax return last night and I am prepared to
say `ouch!' as loud as anyone."
—Reagan, '70, after approving California's largest tax increase in history. Reporters
soon pointed out that Reagan didn't pay a cent on state taxes that year. For all his
talk about shrinking government, California's state budget more than doubled under
his governorship, from $4.6 billion to $10.2 billion.

"I know all the bad things that happened in that war. I was in uniform for four years
myself."
—Reagan, '85, justifying laying a wreath at a Nazi cemetary in Bitburg. Reagan spent
WWII in Hollywood, making films.

"They haven't been there. I have."
—Reagan, '85, justifying his policies on Nicaragua. Ronald Reagan had never visited
Nicaragua.

"They have eliminated the segregation that we once had in our own country..."
—Reagan, '85, praising the government of P.W. Botha in South Africa, during the
height of Apartheid.

"I cannot recall anything whatsoever about whether I approved an Israeli sale in
advance or whether I approved replenishment of Israeli stocks around August of 1985.
My answer therefore and the simple truth is, 'I don't remember, period'"
—Reagan, Feb. '87

"Mr. President, why don't we openly support those 7,000 guerillas that are in
rebellion rather than giving aid through covert activity?"
"Well, because we want to keep on obeying the laws of our country, which we are now
obeying."
"Doesn't the United States want that government replaced?"
"No, because that would be a violation of the law."
—Reagan, ''87. At the time of the press conference, the U.S. was giving the
indiscriminately murderous Contra guerillas covert aid, in direct violation of the
law. Reagan's lie was so obvious that members of the press corps laughed loudly and
openly at his statements.

"A few months ago, I told the American people I did not trade arms for hostages. My
heart and my best intentions still tell me that's true, but the facts and evidence
tell me it is not."
—Reagan, Mar. '87

"If the question comes up at the Tower Board meeting, you might want to say that you
were surprised."
—Reagan, '87, accidentally reading the notes for his stage directions aloud which
told him to act surprised should the issue of arms-for-hostages come up.

"They are the moral equivalent of America's founding fathers."
—Reagan, '85, referring to the brutal Contra rebels in Nicaragua, who
indiscriminately attacked civilians.

"...an example to the world of the ideals we hold most dear, the ideals of freedom
and independence."
—Reagan, '85, praising the Afghan Mujahaddin. These "freedom fighters" included
prominent leaders of Al Qaeda, such as Osama Bin Laden, as well as many of the
leaders for the Taliban.

"Hollywood has no blacklist."
—Reagan, '60. FBI records have since shown that this was a lie, and that Reagan
personally informed on several actors, later shown to be innocent, destroying their
careers in the process.

"I would have voted against the Civil Rights Act of 1964."
—Reagan, '66

"If there has to be a bloodbath, then let's get it over with."
—Reagan, '69, prior to having national guard soldiers break up a peaceful protest on
the UC Berkeley campus. The protesters were teargassed and fired upon with buckshot,
killing one protester and wounding at least 128 others.

"... a tragic illness."
—Reagan, '67, desribing homosexuality. When two of his aides were found to be gay
that year, he asked for their resignations.

"Maybe the Lord brought down this plague [because] illicit sex is against the Ten
Commandments."
—Reagan, '89. Reagan didn't even mention AIDS until 1987, by which time it had spread
into the heterosexual population and over 25,000 Americans had died.

"What we have found in this country, and maybe we're more aware of it now, is one
problem that we've had, even in the best of times, and that is the people who are
sleeping on the grates, the homeless who are homeless, you might say, by choice"
—Reagan, '84.

"For the first time ever, everything is in place for the battle of Armageddon and the
Second Coming of Christ. It can't be too long now. Ezekiel says that fire and
brimstone will be rained upon the enemies of God's people. That must mean that they
will be destroyed by nuclear weapons."
—Reagan, '71

"It's silly talking about how many years we will have to spend in the jungles of
Vietnam when we could pave the whole country and put parking strips on it, and be
home by Christmas"
—Reagan, '65

"Trees cause more pollution than automobiles do."
—Reagan '81

"A tree is a tree. How many more do you have to look at?"
—Reagan '66, opposing expansion of Redwood National Park

"I have flown twice over Mt St Helens out on our west coast. I'm not a scientist and
I don't know the figures, but I have a suspicion that that one little mountain has
probably released more sulphur dioxide into the atmosphere of the world than has been
released in the last ten years of automobile driving or things of that kind that
people are so concerned about."
—Reagan, '80. At its peak, Mt. St. Helens released 1/40th as much sulfur dioxide as
cars do every day.

"All the waste in a year from a nuclear power plant can be stored under a desk."
—Reagan, '80. (In fact, a single nuclear power plant can produce up to 22,000 cubic
feet of of radioactive waste per year.)

"There is today in the United States as much forest as there was when Washington was
at Valley Forge."
—Reagan, '83. The US Forest Service estimated only about 30 percent of forest lands
of 1775 still existed 208 years later.

"80 percent of air pollution comes not from chimneys and auto exhaust pipes, but from
plants and trees."
—Reagan, '79

Hey, and did you hear, Jack Kennedy was a womanizer who was addicted to painkillers and only got where he was because his father pulled the right strings.

Yes he was :)

He not only did Monroe but a WH intern named Mimi.

Decades before Bill made it cool.