Battleangel

“…a faceless mass, waiting for handouts.”
-Reagan, ‘65, describing Medicaid recipients.

“Because Vietnam was not a declared war, the veterans are not even eligible for the G. I. Bill of Rights with respect to education or anything.”
-Reagan, ‘80

“Taxes should hurt. I just mailed my own tax return last night and I am prepared to say `ouch!’ as loud as anyone.”
-Reagan, ‘70, after approving California’s largest tax increase in history. Reporters soon pointed out that Reagan didn’t pay a cent on state taxes that year. For all his talk about shrinking government, California’s state budget more than doubled under his governorship, from $4.6 billion to $10.2 billion.

“I know all the bad things that happened in that war. I was in uniform for four years myself.”
-Reagan, ‘85, justifying laying a wreath at a Nazi cemetery in Bitburg. Reagan spent WWII in Hollywood, making films.

“They haven’t been there. I have.”
-Reagan, ‘85, justifying his policies on Nicaragua. Ronald Reagan had never visited Nicaragua.

“They have eliminated the segregation that we once had in our own country…”
-Reagan, ‘85, praising the government of P.W. Botha in South Africa, during the height of Apartheid.

“I cannot recall anything whatsoever about whether I approved an Israeli sale in advance or whether I approved replenishment of Israeli stocks around August of 1985. My answer therefore and the simple truth is, ‘I don’t remember, period’”
-Reagan, Feb. ‘87

“Mr. President, why don’t we openly support those 7,000 guerillas that are in rebellion rather than giving aid through covert activity?”
“Well, because we want to keep on obeying the laws of our country, which we are now
obeying.”
“Doesn’t the United States want that government replaced?”
“No, because that would be a violation of the law.”
-Reagan, ”87. At the time of the press conference, the U.S. was giving the indiscriminately murderous Contra guerillas covert aid, in direct violation of the law. Reagan’s lie was so obvious that members of the press corps laughed loudly and openly at his statements.

“A few months ago, I told the American people I did not trade arms for hostages. My heart and my best intentions still tell me that’s true, but the facts and evidence tell me it is not.”
-Reagan, Mar. ‘87

“If the question comes up at the Tower Board meeting, you might want to say that you were surprised.”
-Reagan, ‘87, accidentally reading the notes for his stage directions aloud which told him to act surprised should the issue of arms-for-hostages come up.

“They are the moral equivalent of America’s founding fathers.”
-Reagan, ‘85, referring to the brutal Contra rebels in Nicaragua, who indiscriminately attacked civilians.

“…an example to the world of the ideals we hold most dear, the ideals of freedom and independence.”
-Reagan, ‘85, praising the Afghan Mujahaddin. These “freedom fighters” included prominent leaders of Al Qaeda, such as Osama Bin Laden, as well as many of the leaders for the Taliban.

“Hollywood has no blacklist.”
-Reagan, ‘60. FBI records have since shown that this was a lie, and that Reagan personally informed on several actors, later shown to be innocent, destroying their careers in the process.

“I would have voted against the Civil Rights Act of 1964.”
-Reagan, ‘66

“If there has to be a bloodbath, then let’s get it over with.”
-Reagan, ‘69, prior to having national guard soldiers break up a peaceful protest on the UC Berkeley campus. The protesters were teargassed and fired upon with buckshot, killing one protester and wounding at least 128 others.

“… a tragic illness.”
-Reagan, ‘67, describing homosexuality. When two of his aides were found to be gay that year, he asked for their resignations.

“Maybe the Lord brought down this plague [because] illicit sex is against the Ten Commandments.”
-Reagan, ‘89. Reagan didn’t even mention AIDS until 1987, by which time it had spread into the heterosexual population and over 25,000 Americans had died.

“What we have found in this country, and maybe we’re more aware of it now, is one problem that we’ve had, even in the best of times, and that is the people who are sleeping on the grates, the homeless who are homeless, you might say, by choice”
-Reagan, ‘84.

“For the first time ever, everything is in place for the battle of Armageddon and the Second Coming of Christ. It can’t be too long now. Ezekiel says that fire and brimstone will be rained upon the enemies of God’s people. That must mean that they will be destroyed by nuclear weapons.”
-Reagan, ‘71

“It’s silly talking about how many years we will have to spend in the jungles of Vietnam when we could pave the whole country and put parking strips on it, and be home by Christmas”
-Reagan, ‘65

“Trees cause more pollution than automobiles do.”
-Reagan ‘81

“A tree is a tree. How many more do you have to look at?”
-Reagan ‘66, opposing expansion of Redwood National Park

“I have flown twice over Mt St Helens out on our west coast. I’m not a scientist and I don’t know the figures, but I have a suspicion that that one little mountain has probably released more sulphur dioxide into the atmosphere of the world than has been released in the last ten years of automobile driving or things of that kind that people are so concerned about.”
-Reagan, ‘80. At its peak, Mt. St. Helens released 1/40th as much sulfur dioxide as cars do every day.

“All the waste in a year from a nuclear power plant can be stored under a desk.”
-Reagan, ‘80. (In fact, a single nuclear power plant can produce up to 22,000 cubic feet of of radioactive waste per year.)

“There is today in the United States as much forest as there was when Washington was at Valley Forge.”
-Reagan, ‘83. The US Forest Service estimated only about 30 percent of forest lands of 1775 still existed 208 years later.

“80 percent of air pollution comes not from chimneys and auto exhaust pipes, but from plants and trees.”
-Reagan, ‘79