A recent Eugene Weekly letter to the editor accurately pointed out the minuscule list of President Ronald Reagan’s actual accomplishments (“Reagan Was No Jesus,” 1/9). In fact, Reagan’s legacy was one of deceit, secrecy, unwarranted violence and massive overspending.

Reagan secretly sold arms to Iran to fund the arming and training of Nicaragua Dictator Somoza’s National Guard. These “contras,” whom Reagan deceptively called “freedom fighters,” were mostly brutal thugs largely hated by the Nicaraguan people because they opposed Nicaragua’s democratically-elected Sandinista government.

Even though Iran had been officially designated as a state sponsor of terrorism and contra direct funding had been made illegal by the Boland Amendment, Reagan managed to cover up his trading of weapons for hostages until admitting it in a 1987 TV address (after lying about it in 1986).

Fourteen top-level Reagan administration officials were indicted and 11 convicted (later to be pardoned by President George H.W. Bush) for their roles in the cover-up. Let’s not forget about how George H.W. greased the skids for George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and their abominations destabilizing, horribly destructive lies.

Reagan also foisted his “trickle-down economics” scam on the country by reducing taxes on mega-corporations (sound familiar?) despite the fact that David Stockman, his budget director, admitted later that whereas tax cuts for low-income groups actually strengthens the economy, Reagan’s “trickle-down” mumbo-jumbo did practically nothing.

Selling the scam to the American people worked, however.

Finally, Reagan, in only eight years, mostly through massive weapons overspending, tripled the national debt, which had taken his predecessors 204 years to accumulate. 

Jerome Garger 

Yachats

Comments are closed.