On the recordFebruary 4, 1998
Ronald Reagan is, in my estimation, the greatest president in our times. He came in fighting big government. In fact, he noticed that the government in Washington had the notion that, if it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. If it stops moving, subsidize it. But things would be quite different under Ronald Reagan. His administration was an administration of ideas and one idea in particular, that freedom should be the watchword of our policies at home and abroad. He believed that the explosive growth of government in the 20th century was depriving Americans of the freedom to keep more of their hard-earned money and to make decisions for them and their family, and he believed that abroad the rise of communism was the biggest threat to freedom that we have seen in the history of the world. He set about correcting both of those problems.
Source
govinfo.gov




