LESSONS FROM REAGAN

Today our nation pauses to mourn and remember Ronald Wilson Reagan, who passed away Saturday at the age of 93. Mr. Reagan will long be remembered for his sunny optimism and unfailing faith in the greatness of American and the inherent goodness of its citizens. Praised for his tough image and strident conservatism, our 40th president should also be remembered for knowing when to temper both, a lesson not yet learned by the current administration.

While publicly taking a tough stance against the Soviet Union, President Reagan quietly pursued d?tente with Moscow. The same year he dubbed the country the “evil empire,” he met with the Soviet ambassador for a secret chat. His willingness to negotiate with foreign leaders paid off. During his eight-year tenure as president an historic arms reduction agreement was signed and the collapse of the Soviet Union was hastened. President Bush, who likes to say he models himself after Ronald Reagan yet has disdain for international diplomacy, should take note.

So, too with tax cuts. As a candidate for president, Mr. Reagan promised to cut taxes and quickly did so, but when it became clear that this was leading to economic disaster, not the salvation he had hoped for, he reversed course and raised taxes twice. The first, in 1982, was a rollback of the corporate and individual tax cuts, undoing about one-third of his promised cuts just a year earlier. The second was part of the Social Security Reform Act of 1983 and involved an increase in the payroll tax that pays for Social Security and Medicare hospital insurance.

The point is that when President Reagan realized his tax cuts were irresponsible, he undid some of them. Still, Mr. Reagan left office with a faltering economy and having tripled the federal deficit, leaving his vice president and successor, George H.W. Bush, with the unpleasant – and ultimately politically detrimental – task of further raising taxes. As George W. Bush continues to push to expand and make permanent his tax cuts, despite a record deficit and increasing demands for government services such as Medicare and Social Security, he may want to keep this lesson in mind.

While Ronald Reagan was a darling of legions of Republicans (and many Democrats), he understood that political ideology often must be tempered with pragmatism. This, too, is an important lesson when America, led by President Bush, is increasingly divided over issues ranging from the U.S. intervention in Iraq to gay marriage and abortion.

Historians and political analysts will long debate President Reagan’s legacy. Whatever conclusion they reach, there is no doubt that this country had lost a beloved leader whose optimism and can-do attitude served America well when these qualities were needed. Nearly a decade before his death, when he announced to the world in a hand-written note that he was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, President Reagan perfectly described his impending departure: “When the Lord calls me home, whenever that may be, I will leave with the greatest love for this country of ours and eternal optimism for its future.”