Special Edition: Rare 1990 Reagan Recording

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Welcome to a special edition of The Texas Take. As I promised in our last episode, I'm going to share with you the entirety of a rare recording of President Ronald Reagan at a speech I attended in 1990. He was nearly two years out of office, and within four years, he would stop making formal remarks completely as he battled Alzheimer's.

This was delivered in Chicago in a speech to about 400 recent high school graduates from around the nation. I was there as a journalism student who had won scholarships and was part of the program. You will hear him talk about wanting to repeal the 22nd Amendment to allow presidents to run for a third term, and his disdain for gerrymandering, among other topics. Pretty relevant to today's news these days, right? My copy is one of the only...

only remaining copies of this speech, which I have actually agreed to donate to the Ronald Reagan Library out in California. Well, anyhow, enjoy the speech, and I'll be back with a new full episode of The Texas Take next week. Thanks a lot, y'all.

Thanks to all of you, I'm pleased to be in such a distinguished company. I'm not going to make a speech here. I'm going to have to say a few words because I was asked to about what I'm really here for is a dialogue. with all of you and I have a few remarks I have to make because they thought in view of the situation and the makeup of the group being honored here that I ought to say a few things about

Well, for example, going to high school 90 miles west of Chicago in Dixon, Illinois, my hometown. And as a matter of fact, I think really... The itch for the theater began there because I was in a junior into senior high school plays while I was there and found I enjoyed that very much. And then I wound up a student body president, and I had no idea what that might lead to. But I followed that with going to college about 100 miles south of Dixon.

Here in Illinois, Eureka College. There, as I had in high school, I played football. In high school, I'd also run the 440 on the track team and been one of the 80s. When I got down to Eureka College, though, I found out that I had to make a decision. My other sport was swimming. And as a matter of fact, during those high school and college days, I spent seven summers lifeguarding. And I found out that training the muscles for track and trying to train them for swimming didn't work out very well.

So I made a decision and switched to swimming. We were limited in means in our family and back there in the Great Depression, I had to work. As a matter of fact, I... My hunger for higher education wasn't all it should be, but the minister's daughter, whom I had a great fondness for, was going down to Eureka College. I didn't want her to go alone. But I did work my way through school there.

And as a matter of fact, one of the better jobs that I've ever had was part of that working my way through. I washed dishes in the girls dormitory. But college was over. I realized that the entertainment world had planted a desire within me. The radio was brand new then. And with my also love of... of athletics, I decided that maybe the entree for me would be by way of sports announcing. And so I set out to try to become a...

sports announcer on radio. And I thought maybe that would open the world of entertainment. I wasn't going to live here in the middle of the country in Illinois with Broadway that way. Hollywood the other way and say anything about being an actor because they'd throw a net over me if I did. But anyway, I also became president of the student body in college also.

I want to tell you young people something. Don't worry if you're having trouble deciding what you want to do or be. My degree in college was in economics. And yet I had to say down deep inside me, and until that itch for the theater began, I didn't know. And when I chose that as a major in college.

I made no decision on what I wanted to be. I think, of course, part of that time it was that terrible depression and what you thought was, I just want to somehow be able to get a job. My own father had lost his. in the terrible days of that time. But you are the brightest and the best in all America. And keep on with that seeking an education.

because you can see what can happen with it. But also, I want to tell you something else. Those others who have gone ahead of you have failed in something. and I want you to be the ones that'll bring it back. We had a dinner party one night at the White House, and about 40 of us had tables for 10, four tables there in the room. The Crown Princess of Japan was at my table, and the Crown Prince was at Nancy's table, and they are both now the Emperor and Empress of Japan.

But the people at our table got a discussion about the Constitution, and I couldn't help but interject. And I said, you realize, I hope, how unusual our Constitution is. I said, all the nations of the world practically have constitutions, but ours is the only one that is a document in which the people tell the government what it can do. All the others are documents in which the governments tell the people what they're allowed to do.

And a quiet voice to my right said, our constitution is we the people also. And I turned my head and it was the crown princess. And I said, your constitution? She said, yes. Ever since General MacArthur and your occupation of our country, our Constitution is we the people tell the government what it can do. Well, that was a happy surprise for me.

But now what does it mean and what do I want to tell you young people before we open this dialogue here? Here we are, the principal country in the world, and only now one of two. in which we, the people, govern. And that was the great revolution. All the revolutions that preceded ours were revolutions that just traded one set of rulers for another set of rulers. Ours is the only one that changed the very system of government. And so what has happened?

I could stand here all night and criticize the Congress of the United States for the way it's been behaving for a great many years. But what have we done? We've now made them full-time. They weren't supposed to be full-time. They were supposed to spend most of their time back in their district, keeping track of what the people wanted. And now, here we are. Virtually the only people were not anymore. Now there's been a big change. But the people, freedom to vote. No risk in voting.

And suddenly we have a presidential election and senators and congressmen and state and local officers. And 53% of the eligible voters turn out to vote. That is not representative government. And what we need is to get back to where we turn out as close to 100% as possible to vote. to let our representatives in Washington know what we want and that we are the boss. We, the people. So...

Now that the voting age is 18, those of you who've reached it, and then the others who still have a little way to go, make up your minds that you are not only going to all vote. But you're going to tell your neighbors and your friends and your relatives that they're betraying themselves, their people, and their country if they don't join you in going to the polls every election.

and letting government know who's in charge. Well, I maybe talk too much about all of that, but I just think that... Maybe when we get into some questions and answers, I can answer some things for you about what we can do now. And I thank you, and God bless you. Now let's have that dialogue. I see that there are microphones out here for you to use. Please use them because I've listened to Congress so much that I'm hard of hearing.

President Reagan, Mr. Gorbachev and Perestroika will help to determine the type of world that we America's youth will live in. I'd like to ask you this. Do you believe that Mr. Gorbachev is honest in his wants for a peaceful world? Or do you believe that he is trying to make Russia seem like something that it is not so the American people will drop their guard?

At first I entered into that contact with that belief because I had known some of the previous leaders of the Soviet Union. And yes, they were of a different... But this man inherited that job, being in charge there, and then discovered that he had an economic basket case on his hands. And it was so because of the vast spending.

They had made on military. I also think another thing has happened that has caused him to review his thinking. And that is that there are thousands and thousands, tens of thousands of Soviet citizens. who cannot return to their homes after that nuclear explosion at the nuclear power plant there in the Soviet Union. And he's had to think.

of what it would be like if there was a war now with an exchange of that kind of weapon. Who could win such a war? The truth of the matter is, a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought. And I think that he is somehow aware of that also. But also, I have insisted on something else. We're not going to be guided by words, only deeds.

And we have held out for those deeds. Every meeting that I've had with him, I've handed him a written piece or a piece of paper with my handwriting on it and the names of some people that have come to me of Russians who have wanted to emigrate.

One, a man whose wife has lived here in this country for six years and they won't let him come even see her. And I would write these names as I got them and just hand it to him at the beginning of our meeting and say, look, I don't want to talk about that, but I just want you to know I'm interested. in those people and then i wait and watch on every list and within a few weeks those people are on their way to our country

I won't go on this long every time, but two more points. He is the first Russian leader who to this day has never said to the Soviet, the great Congress of the Soviet, that their goal is the Marxian goal of a one-world communist state. That's what over the years they've been doing, infiltrating other countries, expansionism.

Because they believed that that's what was to be a one-world communist state. He has never asked for that. The second thing is he is the first Russian leader to enter into an arms treaty and... actually agree to and destroy weapons they already have. Previous efforts at arms treaties always resulted just in talking about, well, how many more will we each build? But this time...

They have actually They were actually destroying weapons that they already have and we're still negotiating for other further for the treaties now one last thing about him and I do think there's a chemistry that's developed between us. When we met in San Francisco a short time ago, he enveloped me in a bear hug. And I learned one Russian phrase that I'd used to him over and over again.

And he's gotten it so that he claps his hands over his ears and starts to laugh when I say it. Doviyai noviyai. Trust, but verify.

Thank you, Mr. President. Mr. President, I'm from your home state of Illinois, and I'd like to just quickly preface my question by telling you that you are my hero. I have a picture of you on my locker at school.

Thank you very much. Mr. Reagan, I'd just like to know if you feel that your administration has gotten the proper credit it deserves for the fall of communism in Eastern Europe. Yes, I have to say it has. I would... was scheduled to be this coming month on a trip there, invited by several of the countries there, including Germany and Poland and so forth, Romania.

I had a little episode with the doctor for a few days, and we had to postpone it. It'll be in September now. But we'll be going, and this time we're also now including Russia at Gorbachev's invitation. He wants me to add that to the schedule. But, yes, I have had word from people there that over and over again they are giving me some credit for what has happened.

But I think the credit belongs to this system of ours and to you, the people. The main thing that I think I did in the eight years I was there is, and forgive me if I'm... sound a little rough now in saying it but i enjoy saying it this way i think i just got the government the hell out of the way and turned the people loose Mr. Reagan. Mr. Reagan. First, I'd like to tell you that I, too, have a great admiration for you and what you've done for the United States.

I know that during your two terms in office, you did some work with Dr. Dawson and his focus on the family organization on the fight against pornography. And I was wondering how much blame you think should be laid on the breakdown of the nuclear family for the drug and alcohol and gang-related problems that this nation has. What I should blame the drug and the...

alcoholic problems and so forth. I was wondering just, you know, how much blame you lay on his family, you know, the lack of a family unit for this problem. Well... I think there are probably more American families that are trying. should not be blamed as much, but all of us should look at this whole situation that has come upon us. And let's take the matter of drugs. Now, you know what Nancy has done.

And I don't know how many of you know this, but Nancy got interested in the drug program. She was speaking in a school in Oakland, California. And a little eight-year-old girl stood up and said, well, what do we do when someone offers us drugs? And Nancy said, just say no. And you know that now there are 15,000 just-say-no clubs in schools across the United States.

Now, what have we done legally? Our administration in its eight years, the drug problem growing as it has been and is, our administration confiscated more drugs, arrested and convicted and sentenced. ...into confinement and into prison, more drug dealers than any previous administration in the nation's history. We confiscated more money. I tell you, the first sight of something that...

I've only had one look at it once, was I stood in Miami, Florida, and looked at a table that contained $20 million in cash stacked on that table. I've never seen anything like it. But it was drug money that had been confiscated and taken by the government. And yet the drug problem grows, which tells me that there's one thing that we haven't yet.

succeeded in doing and the only thing that is really going to lick the problem with coastlines of the thousands of miles that we have with borders of the thousands of miles it is virtually impossible for us as I've just stated here, to end this problem by taking the drugs away from the users. We've got to start programs from the neighborhood on up. Programs aimed at taking the user away from the drugs, convincing them that they don't want them.

convincing them that they should walk away, turn away, and that in neighborhoods, if necessary, or wherever, turn on those people that are peddling them and turn to the people that are using them and say, look, we'll help you. We'll give you all the help that is needed to let you break that habit. But we're not going to stand by and see you continue to be a drug addict and to take others with you. And this is what we need is that kind of a crusade.

starting at the ground level in this country. You know what the people of America can do? Two years ago, it's the last time I have the figure for it. Two years ago, the people of this country... In just cash, not in service, not in clothing or bedding or food or anything of that kind, but in just cash, gave $107 billion. to the needy people and to the worthy causes of this country. And now people that can do that can also turn to their neighbors and say, how are we going to fix it?

so that our people are going to turn away from drugs. It can be done, and that's the way we must do it.

And how do you feel about his lie to get the American people to vote for him by saying no new taxes? Do you feel at all responsible? I'm glad that you asked me that question because... Now, let me point something out that the media has not been going all the way and saying what they should be saying about this. He meant that with regard to taxes, and I'll have a few remarks about that.

Before I'm finished here. But what we are trying to get together with the Congress on is how a program to end the budget deficit. to get it paid off and then to be in a situation in which we don't run into debt anymore. But the Congress has told him they're not going to engage in any negotiations unless taxes. are a feature of the negotiations also. He could not, his budget and aid of mine were submitted to Congress, as the Constitution says we must do as presidents, and every one of them.

The Congress said, it's dead on arrival, and put it on a shelf and never looked at it again. And then sent us what they call a continuing resolution that we're supposed to sign so that the government can continue. Now, this, what he had to do is say, all right, taxes also will be a part of what we're going to negotiate. Because if he didn't...

The Congress said, we won't negotiate with you, and the budget deficit would just go on. Now, the truth of the matter is, the President of the United States can't spend a dime. Only the Congress can spend money. And let me give you an example of a good practical reason why in the negotiation we are hurled out with regard to taxes and going back to that way. When we...

Reduce the taxes. Early in my administration, this was the principal thing that brought us out of the Great Depression, brought us out of the inflation period that was in double digits. Interest rates were, the prime rate was 20.5%. All of these things had happened, and suddenly, in a few years, after the taxes were cut, The revenues for the government increased $372 billion. But in the same period, the Congress increased the spending $450 billion.

Now, this is what we must get at and what we must do. Let me just tell you a little something. Today, you keep hearing the congressman talking about the rich, and we've got to get at them and the people that are in the top earnings. We've got to raise their taxes again. Well, they got the biggest cut when we cut the taxes. I can remember in pictures when I was there, and you know that if money that they pay you for making a movie, there was a 94% tax bracket. And...

They could have offered me going with the wind and I wouldn't have made it when I got in that bracket. I'm not going to work for six cents on the dollar. So what happened was the top 1% of earners in the United States. The top 1% in 1980 were paying 19% of the total revenue in taxes. Well, we cut their rates. And today, the top 1% is paying 22% of the total tax burden in the United States. I don't think they're getting away with anything that I think we should think about.

The truth of the matter is, usually a good tax cut ends up with more money. Now, I told you that my course in school was in economics. Well, I learned about a man in Egypt called Ibn Khaldun. who back in 1440 made this statement he said at the beginning of the empire the rates were low and the revenue was great He said at the end of the empire, the rates were great and the revenue was low. So wait and see whether there is a tax increase. I claim that what...

The president has said is he's calling the Congress on what they demanded because their threat was there wouldn't be any negotiations if they couldn't talk about taxes and reducing.

increasing taxes. Now, I don't know whether that was the end or whether there's another one in the end. I didn't know I was taking up all that much time because I see so many of you want to ask questions. You're willing to stay, and they're willing to stay, but your staff says you have another appointment. I don't know. I've been living with that for eight years. Thank you. No, I know it happens that way.

But I know that you probably had a lot of questions you wanted to ask and that I would have enjoyed answering about what it was like to be there and be in or what it was like to get out. But let me tell you what I'm going. I'm back in the mashed potato circuit. I'm out speaking around the country as much as I can. And I'll just tell you briefly, as briefly as I can, the things that I'm advocating. First of all,

Give the President of the United States a line-item veto. Thirty-three governors have it. This is the ability to go through one of those big continuing resolutions and go through and find the spending items that are ridiculous and veto them. I had it when I was governor of California, and in eight years I used it 943 times and was never overridden once. Now, that's one thing we want changed. We want a congressional...

or a constitutional amendment to forbid the government from going into debt. And that can be done. The first man who asked for that was Thomas Jefferson. The first time he read the Constitution, he said, it's glaring omission. is that it does not contain a provision preventing the government from borrowing. Then there is another one that I want to get, and that is I want to get something that us Republicans are responsible for.

We got past the 22nd Amendment, limiting the president to two terms. That isn't a limit on one man. That is an invasion. of your right to vote for who you want to vote for in as many times as you want to vote for them, and that amendment should be repealed. Now, I'm asking for those, and I'm asking also, again, I'm campaigning for what I said first. Please, take up again the thing that too many of our people have just laid aside.

Your responsibility, we the people, to govern. This system of ours is government by, for, and of the people. And we have to return to that. So I'm going to keep preaching as long as anybody will come in and listen and try to get these things done. And you can do it by leaning on your congressional representatives and on your state representatives. Because the state legislature is one. Because there is one last thing that must be done.

That is, we must have a new system of every 10 years reapportioning the congressional and legislative districts. There is gerrymandering going on no end today. in which in the last election, 98% of the incumbents won re-election. It's a conflict of interest. The people who are elected by you are laying out the district lines. In such a way that that's why for 55 of the last 59 years, the Democratic Party has had the majority in the Congress. There have only been four years.

Only four years in which a Republican president had a Republican Congress. Ike had one for two years, and the other one was in the administration of Harry Truman, a Democrat. The president is the only person elected by all the people's votes. And then the people vote for one on the basis of what he said he'd do. And then they go home and the congressmen get elected who are pledged.

to eliminate everything that this president says he would do. We've got to get that changed also. I'll go back now and face the sullen faces of my... staff but thank all of you very much and god bless you