Commenting on the anniversary of President Reagan's birth, Dr. Robert J. Bentley commented, "Thirty years ago next January, President Ronald Reagan took office with the U.S. experiencing double digit inflation, high unemployment, the worst economy since the Great Depression, an aggressive Iranian regime, and a Soviet Union bent on expanding its influence throughout Latin America, the Middle East and Afghanistan at America's expense.  He did not spend an entire year whining about Jimmy Carter's inept tenure as President of the United States.  Instead, he rolled up his sleeves and got to work fixing our ailing national economy and restoring America's standing in the world."  

"As a result of his bi-partisan work with Democrat Speaker Tip O'Neill and 'Boll Weevil' Democrats, he successfully cut taxes, reduced the growth of federal spending, and produced the second longest peacetime economic expansion in U.S. history.  President Reagan's recipe for bringing the U.S. out of its economic doldrums was simple: cut taxes on individuals and corporations and reduce the rate at which the government spends money.  He knew that government spending alone would not create the jobs necessary to bring down unemployment from double digits like currently face in Alabama." 

"President Reagan was also committed to ensuring that the American people retain all the liberties for which our revolutionary forbearers fought.  He understood that 'we are a nation that has a government, not the other way around,' and that 'the Federal Government did not create the States; the States created the Federal Government.[1]'  He also understood that the American people are far more capable of managing themselves and their money than a 'little intellectual elite in a far-distant capital[2].'" 

"I'm sure I speak for a majority of Alabamians when I say that I miss President Reagan and his common sense approach to curing America's problems.  The lessons of the Reagan Administration are ones which the current President would be wise to study.'