Political Quotes

“20 years ago, the United States was mired in an economic malaise. As a Nation, we were experiencing the worst economic chaos since the Great Depression. Interest rates were as high as 21 percent, making owning a home an impossible dream for most Americans. Inflation rates were 12 rac{1}{2} percent. They ate into savings. We had an unemployment rate of 7 rac{1}{2} percent. Eight million Americans were out of work. We had oil shortages, a stagnant economy. And we even had something that economists said could never happen, high inflation at the same time as low economic growth. A new term had to be coined by economists. That term 'stagflation.' To restore the economic vitality, President Reagan championed a four-point solution: reduce tax rates across the board, regulatory reform, slow the growth of Federal spending, and focus monetary policy on price stability. As a result of his economic program, we had 92 straight months of economic expansion, the second longest period of peacetime economic growth in the history of the country; and, indeed, this was the start of a period of economic growth which, with the exception of a 9-month recession during the early 1990s, has continued to this day.”