“Government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.... We've been tempted to believe that society has become too complex to be managed by self-rule, that government by an elite group is superior to government for, by, and of the people. Well, if no one among us is capable of government himself, then who among us has the capacity to govern someone else? All of us together, in and out of government, must bear the burden. The solutions we seek must be equitable, with no one group singled out to pay a higher price.”

A gobbledegook paragraph like most of what Ronnie wrote and said. He did however nail it in his second to last sentence, "All of us together must bear the burdern." But if he is here insinuating that those who have all the wealth should not help more than they who have none he is and I suggest he did set in motion bad public policy. As Brad Pitt, who gave a million, and others recently proved in the Haiti effort the rich should help more and the Cell Phoners give $10.00. If we can do that for others why can we not do it for ourselves in reference to out national debt.

Excellent quote / Excellent sentiment. Would Reagan have actually been able to act on his thoughts had there not been an entrenched socialist bureacracy running the USSA? Sadly we'll never know.

A faulty line of logic... government IS the people. When government does not rule, then the large corporations rule (facism), which is really to say that the few powerful and wealthy are in control via their backroom deals... and the small person ends up paying for this.

Waffler and Reston, these quotes from Reagan were probably written by some rookie attorney - sorry attorney's. And yes Reston we will pay the price for the fascist government for many years to come, at a cost yet to be accounted, but trust me learn quickly to cut everything in half.

Waffler and Reston say the rich should pay more, but they would be against a Flat Rate- no deductible income tax system to insure they do.

Our government creates most of the problems and then tells us they will solve the problems they create.

When large corporations have power in their hands and competition is made sure to be among them, then there is prosperity.

It's shame that people believe Reagan actually meant what he said! He increased gov't exponentially. Gov't grew at a greater rate under Reagan than any president since Roosevelt. He was just another lying POS like every prez since Lincoln!!

Reston I like your construction and I agree that Government is the People, we have been derelect in following false leaders you get elected by saying "read my lips no new taxes" then spend spend spend and borrow borrow borrow. So thus here we are today right where we put ourselves by following idiots like Reagan.

Reagan was right. BTW, it is Congress that spends and Reagan did what he could to live up to the ideals of Liberty. Look what a runaway Democrat president and Congress does!! Government is about taxes -- i.e. power. It spends and spends without limit. Government makes men rich -- very rich. Few of our representatives represent the protection of individual rights as per the Consitution. Most are in office so that they can funnel some of those billions into their own states and businesses. It is ALL about money now. And the best way to keep people from revolting is to continually come up with 'problems' that need to be solved -- i.e. more money taken from the people either directly or via inflationary debt-creation. We the People are not the government -- we have chartered a government that is subservient to the People and their individual rights. The government is but an organization of fellow People that have been hired and entrusted to protect the rights of the People and their respective states. Whenever the government assumes powers it was not granted, it is a form of tyranny. And after a long train of abuses becomes an insatiable leviathan hell-bent on its perpetual growth at the expense of us all. Its future is thus to destroy or be destroyed. Like a fire burning out of control, the solution is to get out of the way and/or do everything in one's power to put it out.

Government wasn't the problem, but what Ronald Reagan did with it was a HUGE PROBLEM. He sold our great weapons to Iran shortly after its leaders had taught their people to shout "Death to America." Worse yet, he took the ill gotten cash and gave it to the "Contras" (they who are against) who were nothing but the very same killers who had protected the Anastasio Samosa, the dictator that the people had overthrown in Nicaragua, who then used it to slaughter the Nicaraguan people whom they had not to kill before. Samosa had bombed the cities of his own country in his efforts to hold onto power. Reagan would have been impeached and removed from office for his "Iran Contra" crimes, but for the Special Counsel, a Republican retired judge, who concluded that Reagan simply could not remember the events of that hideous sequence. By the way, Reagan ran against Carter by pointing out the 7% inflation rate during Carter's administration, but 8 years later, Reagan left the USA with a 15% inflation rate! He also doubled the deficit AND the national debt. And he wasn't even trying to cure a recession, which might have excused it.