[Colonel]

Well, I read your article, and I have to agree that it is totally slanted and a gross misrepresentation of what happened during the Reagan years. For those of you who were not old enough to have been out of school and working during those years, please don't believe misrepresentations like those found in this article. Is any President perfect? No. But it chaps my butt when folks bend the truth to further their agenda. Keep in mind that I voted for President Carter when he ran against Ronald Reagan. Here are my thoughts on this article:

1) the AIDS issue - AIDS took us all by surprise when it first was discovered. Nobody realized the seriousness of it for several years. Is it the President's job to cure the disease? No. Did he increase funding once they realized what was going on ? Yes. To blame President Reagan for not acting faster is the same as blaming New York firefighters for not having evacuated Tower Two faster on 9/11. Hindsight is always 20/20. We would all do things differently if given a second chance, but I believe that folks are doing the best job they can, with the information available, at the moment of decision.

2) Reagan created the homeless problem - that is such a stupid statement that I hate to even reply to it. When President Regan took office, interest rates had been over 20%. Folks were getting their houses foreclosed on because they couldn't make the payments with the rates so high. The source article that is referenced says, "Before Reagan, people sleeping in the street were so rare that, outside of skid rows, they were almost a curiosity." That's the dumbest statement yet. It's just not true.

3) "Ronnie Reagan pillaged the U.S. Treasury and ballooned the deficit more than 100 percent during his term. He gave the wealthy enormous tax breaks " - The fact is that President Reagan's economy increased revenues to the Federal Treasury more than any President in history. Congress spends the money. The problem was, that even though revenues increased, Congress increased spending at an even faster pace. It was like a feeding frenzy. Those bastitches had never seen that much money rolling in and they couldn't control their urges to spend, spend, spend. As for giving the wealthy tax breaks, I wish the left would make up their mind. I have read liberal commentators lately that are trying to say that President Reagan;s tax cuts were a myth because he closed so many loopholes, in capital gains etc. that people actually paid more. How can they say that and then turn around and say he gave too many cuts to the rich? Sounds to me like they are talking out of both sides of their mouths. As for me, during most of those years I made less than $20,000 per year. Definitely not rich. And I got a tax cut.

4) Deregulation unleashed corporate America on the populace - being a supporter of President Carter I am proud of the fact that he was the one to start the trend toward deregulation...not President Reagan. The competition that President Carter started and President Reagan continued, was one of the driving forces that turned this country's economy around. You kids have never had to live through 10%+ inflation rates and 20%+ interest. Don't go badmouthing changes that were made during desperate times unless you have lived through them and did a better job at correcting the problem.

aw crap, I'm too tired to write about every paragraph in this article. The dang thing was obviously written by someone with an ax to grind and who is willing to bend the truth to grind it.