Talk:Presidency of Ronald Reagan

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[edit] Iran-Contra

Did Reagan say he was unaware of the entire Iran-Contra fiasco, or just the funding of the Contras? Trey Stone 01:04, 16 Nov 2004 (UTC)

He said he was unaware that some of the proceeds of the sale were being diverted to funding the Contras (whether or not he actually was unaware is a matter for some dispute -- however, there has never been any conclusive evidence that he was informed). Reagan always admitted to being aware of (and giving authorization for) the broader initiative to free the hostages via arms sales. Neilc 01:55, 16 Nov 2004 (UTC)

[edit] AIDS

[edit] Generally

Changed the sentence in the header about the AIDS epidemic being ignored. The budget for AIDS research, treatment and prevention increased from $200,000 in FY 1981 (the last budget of the Carter administration), to more than $900 million in the Reagan administration's last budget (FY 1988, which closed on September 30, 1988). That can hardly be equated with "ignoring" the situation. Ellsworth 21:22, 8 Jan 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Response to

Removed this sentence:

His administration approached the epidemic as a series of local and state issues rather than with a national strategy, and politicians for the Department of Health and Human Services pleaded behind the scenes for adequate funding.

I would like to see this documented: as mentioned above, the AIDS research budget skyrocketed during the '80s and the CDC took the lead on the issue. Ellsworth 00:25, 15 Jan 2005 (UTC)

And also removed this sentence from para. about the Watkins commission:

but its recommendations for increased funding went largely ignored by the Reagan and the subsequent Bush administration.

Incorrect: see the report below. Funding for AIDS research, prevention and treatment increased every year during both the Reagan and the G.H.W. Bush administrations. Ellsworth 21:49, 31 Jan 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Source on funding data

Analysis of AIDS spending by Federal government (PDF document) Ellsworth

A couple of comments on this report: a) The report shows that AIDS funding doubled within 2 years after Reagan left office. b) Shouldn't funding be somewhat proportional to the number of AIDS cases, which ballooned even more under this administration? User: anon

a) Agreed, but so what? AIDS funding increased by 25-fold in Reagan's first budget and by 5-fold in his second. (FY 82-83)
b) Not sure what "this administration" means, but there's no magic "proportionality" in determining whether spending on a problem like this is necessary or desirable with respect to its numerical scope. Ellsworth 02:28, 24 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Busted links

I dropped these links about when Reagan mentioned AIDS: one was a policy address and the other was a press conference.

http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/resource/speeches/1985/91785c.htm http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/resource/speeches/1986/20686c.htm

I'll find the sources again one of these days....

Ellsworth 02:28, 24 January 2006 (UTC)

I got a reply "The links below should get you to these speeches. I should mention however, that the second link does not lead to either a speech or press conference. Rather, it was a message transmitted to Congress in a letter or report form."

http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/speeches/1985/91785c.htm http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/speeches/1986/20686c.htm Brian Pearson 21:51, 17 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Found one

This Sullivan blog entry contains an unsourced quote from September 1985 by Reagan on AIDS funding. It'll do until I can run down a source. Ellsworth 20:54, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Drats

Now this one is down to - redirects to his Atlantic blog page. I'll find some perm. links eventually. The busted link: http://www.andrewsullivan.com/index.php?dish_inc=archives/2004_06_06_dish_archive.html#108667202656741224 Ellsworth 00:51, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

I did some looking, myself. Couldn't find the links at the library, but I did write. I imagine they get a lot of email, though, so I haven't gotten my hopes up. Brian Pearson 03:01, 17 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Domestic Policy

I see the NPOV section dispute, and agree in part, but could someone cite specifics? In the mean time I will try and remove some of the more tendentious phrases. Ellsworth 01:02, 28 February 2006 (UTC)

I took out some weasel words about economic program. Ellsworth 16:36, 28 February 2006 (UTC)
The section seems fair enough now and not too many other users have chimed in. I have removed the dispute marker, if you disagree please comment. Ellsworth 22:03, 23 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Should this article be deleted/merged

(formerly Administration pages)

Why is it that some presidents have two pages about them, one for the person in general and one for just the administration. See Ronald Reagan and Reagan Administration. The administration pages seem redundant as the information is mostly the same on both pages. I have also posted this on the Ronald Reagan talk page.

  • Grhs126student 21:33, 23 May 2006 (UTC)
I believe people working the Ronald Reagan article were unaware of the Ronald Reagan presidency article. It is hoped by some at least, that the Ronald Reagan article will go more into "who" Reagan was, what his philosophies were, where they came from, and so forth -- and focus less on his presidency. It's possible this examination could extend to his younger years. Any thoughts? Brian Pearson 23:06, 15 September 2007 (UTC)
My thought is that this article shouldn't exist, and anything of value here should be rolled into the Ronald Reagan article.--Paul 06:25, 17 September 2007 (UTC)
I utterly disagree. This article focuses on the 8-year presidency of the man, whereas the main article will eventually be focusing on the man himself. This is actually developing on the Discussion page there. Brian has the right idea, and the two articles should remain distinctly separate. The main article contains wikilinks to not only this page, but at least four other wikilinks to other Reagan-related pages, like Reaganomics, the assassinations attempt, etc. Therefore, there is ample precedent for keeping this article a distinct and encompassing source of specific info about Reagan's terms as president. - Arcayne (cast a spell) 06:44, 17 September 2007 (UTC)
If y'all have ideas about 'Reagan the man', his philosophies, and so forth, come on over. I personally think we should be patient and do a bang-up job on it, take our time getting all kinds of good stuff, including paper sources, biographies, and so forth. As someone has said, the article has been re-written three times, already, but that was when we were completely unaware of the Reagan presidency article, and they were trying to roll everything into one article. Brian Pearson 23:01, 21 September 2007 (UTC)
I agree that this article should be merged with Ronald Reagan unless we're willing to make "Presidency of..." articles for every two-term president in U.S. history. I just did a search for presidents of the 20th Century and William McKinley, Woodrow Wilson, Calvin Coolidge, FDR, Lyndon Johnson, and Richard Nixon are all missing articles, despite the fact that they all served for two (in FDR's case more than 3; in LBJ and Nixon's case 1.5) terms. I didn't even look at 19th Century Presidents but I did a search and George Washington even has one. George W. Bush has one even though he also has his own article and the article on "Bush Administration;" all three articles repeat one another to some extent. We need some kind of consistency.--Antodav2007 22:23, 9 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Reagan Revolution

I came by this site searching for the term "reagan revolution", yet it is not defined in the text. Perhaps this should be added. 84.169.217.197 19:27, 2 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] What a really swell guy

This article reads as hagiography and/or propaganda. I question the bias of an article that portrays a highly controversial leader in an overwhelmingly positive light. Further, many items stated as fact seem to be clipped from campaign slogans, but are not supported by the record. ~~ Michael J Swassing 06:37, 7 March 2007 (UTC)

...and?
Was that a rant, or was there any specific issue that you wanted addressed?
68.15.226.72 20:00, 26 June 2007 (UTC)

He was one of the most popular Presidents in modern history, I don't know that I'd call him "highly controversial", albeit he had critics and controversies, suggest we focus on some particular issues...certainly there were enough non-Reagan Democrats out there...

[edit] "Ash Heap of History" quote

My apologies if no-one else regards this as significant. But upon reading the actual script of Reagan's 1982 address to the House of Commons (available at[1], I note that he announced his plan to leave "Marxism-Leninism on the ash heap of history", whereas this article suggests he wanted to committ the Soviet State (described using Reagan's terminology Evil Empire) to said ash heap.

Isn't the actual text much less provocative? I think the difference is worth noting. Hydeparkblvd (talk) 19:34, 16 March 2008 (UTC)