Notre Dame Commencement Address: President Reagans Source of all Strength Speech, 1981

[1506frank]

What a remarkable speech, he was a great President we will never see someone like him again. This country sure could use his leadership now.

[Gaius8666a]

He was the first President I voted for, and he was the BEST President I voted for. It has been a precipitous and sad decline since him.

[bigamble]

I appreciate both Regan and Obama. A very difficult job in challenging times. Two different political ideologies but very great communicators of their ideas. Obama would have been only the 7th President to address Notre Dame and Regan 5. Very inspirational to many American people. Both are great joke tellers, love sports, both in love with their supportive wives, their fathers were immigrants, and they knew very little about their fathers as they grew up. Also, they have ties to IL.

[twistedfocus100]

How good it would be to have a commander with a real Vision for the US people..... Oh how good it would be....

[rodjs08]

Thank You... That was a great speech. LOL

[jeepthing98]

hilarious moment at 7:15



[47esq]

My first President and nobody has come close since ....A true American and a patriot..I salute to my heroe...

[Tsnore]

Dr.? What was that?

[jesusthroughmary]

@Tsnore He had just been awarded an honorary doctorate at this ceremony.

[kynes333]

17-18:01 & 22:30-23:09

[dubshar]

Ron Reagan was a great visionary and a great President really worth hearing.I think he laid a good foundation for United States. He is one president I admire most and I listened to Inaugurals,State of the Union addresses and his comments through VOA when I was then a student. His remarks still linger in the mind, his voice still ring in my mind. Actor turned President, he is strong in his ideals and his policies keep the budget intact by which Americans enjoyed the stable economy.

[bmaverick1978]

This is a real President Notre Dame not that fake one who sits in office playing is it time for another vacation already!

[pmirish47]

thank you for posting this, so much better than my commencement in 2009!

i wish ND had replayed this video instead of bringing in un-american rubbish

[Ransomonious]

How beautiful to have a President like Reagan in office who understood the American tradition of freedom, local governance, and limited government. If only the principles he possessed would rise again to reside in the Oval office.

[saclover]

Reagan is in heaven shacking his head at what is happening to America

[monkeywho]

That was a very inspiring speech. I was only 4 years at the time this was given. After reading the full transcript of President Obama's recent Commencement Address and then watching this one, I was struck by the complete night and day difference between President Obama and President Reagan.

I wonder what happened in the almost 30 years since President Reagan gave that speech. It's up to us, today's Americans, to take up the torch and press on.

[Prilpril21]

If I were one of the graduates, I'll be thrilled to hear him speak before me!!!

[ensignbay]

11:58 - 12:50 No one can ever doubt that Reagan loved this country and rightly honored our courageous and visionary founding fathers.

[richcook99]

Boy do we miss him.

[RockyBalboa211]

Now this is the Notre Dame that I remember! :D

[grendel7777]

A thoroughly authentic man and leader. Something you can't fake. RIP.

[prsteveowens]

Wow.. I miss humility in politics.

[KupoChan123]

Ronald Reagan was selfless, he came to Washington not for power but for the American people. Obama comes to Washington for power and to push his liberal socialist agenda on all American.

[Timmy4AU]

We don't even have a "President" now. I'm not sure of what we've got. A man whom I saw bowing to a Saudi King yesterday on the news....President Reagan would have never done that!

[mdbarnes21]

Reagan researches for thoughtful complements. Obama gives away DVDs that you can't even play. What a disgraceful mistake our country has made by electing this big lie.

[mdbarnes21]

I can only pray for another statesman like the great Ronald Reagan to lead this great nation, that has been adrift from the founding principles which were spoken of each and every time by this great President.

[fomoco13]

Odumma cant even begin to hope to be a fraction of what PRESIDENT Reagan was!!!

[saintpeeter]

Listening to a Ronald Reagan speech makes me realize for certain that Obama is a complete phony and a media creation.

[grendel7777]

The one and the only. God, bless Ronald Reagan. May he rest in peace.

[mackela30]

Were there protesters at this commencement?

[keithstkd1]

President Reagan was Pro-Life

[livelovebe1970]

AMEN!

[KampfgruppePeiper]

pls come back President Reagan

[soicuw]

I'd be willing to swap him for Obama anytime

[marknolan5553]

You people don't get it. He was President. Now Obama's President. Things change, but you don't.

[mdbarnes21]

Principles don't change. They are used to address issues no matter what time in history and address them with careful deliberation with the goal of expanding and protecting freedom and individual liberty.

[willnotfalter]

How sad for Notre Dame to have diminished itself to the level of the leader of the Culture of Death, Barack Obama. Our Lady is weeping.

[zorak2025]

You all are bickering about economics. Is your heart incapable of being broken over the fact our nation has fallen to this lowly state of rejecting the Almighty Creator and embracing a culture of death? If it isn't then you have your answer to why God is placing His hand of judgment on us economically. If you can't acknowlege that then you don't acknowlege the Word of God and how and why He judges nations to fall. It's denial to think the US can't be judged or fall like Rome & others did.

[pholland]

Keep telling yourself all of this. Revenues increased dramatically under Reagan. So much so that if domestic spending growth had been kept at 3% per year by the Democratic Congress between '81 and '89, we'd have had budget surpluses under Reagan just like we had under Clinton. The reason we had surpluses under Clinton, of course, was because Congress was controlled by Gingrich and true conservative Republicans (unlike the ones now), who actually did keep spending under control.

[pholland]

Reagan's economic record would have been far better without public spending and borrowing. Whenever government spends money, it deprives that same money from being used by the private sector. And because governments are not driven by competition or the profit motive, they have no incentive to cut costs or produce anything of real economic value. So the economy expands in SPITE of public spending and borrowing. Private hands are far more efficient than public ones.

[ipbalkenende]

GDP was used before Keynes he was the one that advocated for the distinction between private and public investment though. Anyway you can act like government spending is fake money or magical money all you want in the end it's a direct derivative of the productive capabilities of a nation. Micronesia cannot simply borrow and spend tens of trillions of US dollars the fact that the US can is a derivative of it's economic productive power and public spending is thus completely legitimate.

[pholland]

Government spending is not "fake" money. It is money that the private sector could and would have used but now cannot. Government spending destroys potential jobs from being created in the private sector. It diverts resources from productive to unproductive uses. It crowds out private investment. And, finally and worst of all, it crowds out private borrowing, which leads to higher interest rates and prompts inflation of the money supply by the Fed.

[pholland]

Wrong. Keynes was the first economist to advocate use of a GNP statistic. For the umpteenth time, you have failed to counter my arguments that GDP merely measures growth in government and consumer spending. Neither of which are the source of economic growth.

Supply side theory states that lower tax rates yield higher revenues. And tax revenues doubled during Reagan's tenure. They also shot up after Kennedy and GWB cut taxes. So I've yet to see supply side theory discredited.

[ipbalkenende]

"Supply side theory states that lower tax rates yield higher revenues. And tax revenues doubled during Reagan's tenure. They also shot up after Kennedy and GWB cut taxes. So I've yet to see supply side theory discredited."

These are arbitrary nominal values, in a growing economy with a growing population revenues always go up. However they went up severely slower than trend after Reagan's tax cuts thus Laffer was discredited. Come on don't act this stupid.

[ipbalkenende]

Honestly doesn't it bother you you have to be so intellectually dishonest to defend your ideological record? I only assume it does because you do seem to make an effort.

[ipbalkenende]

At the end of the day your argument is taxes were cut in year X and growth in arbitrary year Y is the result of it while stagnation in year Z has nothing to do with it because that is what my economic ideology (and it really is ideology not theory) dictates. While I say growth during president X was Y and this gives us an aggregate record, my way of measuring is systematic and not open to distortion or bias while yours is completely arbitrary and subjective. You don't have a leg to stand on.

[ipbalkenende]

Heck even your way of explaining away years of prosperity that goes against your ideological instincts is ad-hoc and frankly laughable. You say WW2 caused the spectacular boom we saw, while this is not strictly true as 8% annual growth before it is spectacular WW2 certainly did cause a boom. Yet you make no effort to explain it. WW2 was government spending on a scale that makes the New Deal look like child's play (as evident in the debt) but you simply ignore that fact.

[pholland]

"You say WW2 cause this spectacular boom we saw."

No I didn't. Where did I say that? We didn't come out of the Great Depression until AFTER WW2 when Truman slashed spending and taxes and scrapped much of the New Deal. Didn't I just SAY that? I guess you aren't bothering to read what I'm saying.

[ipbalkenende]

@pholland

You have failed to set up any credible criteria to replace GDP except your blanket statements. The economy actually sagged for a little after WW2 which was to be expected.

[pholland]

I don't have to set up any mathematical criteria for anything. The advance of individual liberty and its effect on the human experience need not be justified by assigning numerical values crunched with a calculator, or relegated to some statistic with decimal points. Tax rates, interest rates, inflation, and government intrusion into the economy all fell sharply during Reagan's eight years. For these reasons alone his tenure was a clear success.

[pholland]

The productivity gains made in the 90's, just like those made in the 80's, were the result of the private sector and R&D investment. Reagan deserves credit for this because he unleashed the private sector, by giving people and businesses more incentives to work, save, and invest. Prosperity continued in the 90's because Clinton merely sat back and followed Reagan's model. Although he would never publicly admit that.

[ipbalkenende]

"The productivity gains made in the 90's, just like those made in the 80's, were the result of the private sector and R&D investment"

You are so pathetically transparant xD, I guess Carter was thus responsible for the mid 80s boom? And Hoover for the depression recovery? Give me a break!

[pholland]

Carter was in no way responsible for the 80's boom because R&D investment didn't start to kick in until after the 1981 tax cuts. If you ask Michael Dell, Steve Jobs, and other Silicon Valley CEO's, they will tell you that it was during the early 1980s when investment really began to surge. This is because money that would have otherwise been sucked into the government was now free to flow into truly profitable ventures in the private sector.

[ipbalkenende]

@pholland

More money was sucked into government during Reagan than Carter so again you make no logical sense. The development of the IT was the driver of economic productivity not the other way around, this is nonpartisan as both Reagan and especially Clinton benefited from it. Btw what caused the mid late 80s early 90s recession? I guess Carter huh?

[pholland]

The early 90's recession was caused by the bursting of a real estate bubble and a savings and loan crisis. Bush's tax increases in 1990 didn't help much either.

[ipbalkenende]

@pholland

S&L which can be directly traced back to Reagan's deregulatory policies.

[pholland]

Recovery from the Great Depression didn't start until after WWII. So neither Hoover nor FDR deserve credit for that. Truman's scaling back of the New Deal, his spending reductions, and his tax reductions are what freed the private sector brought us the growth of the late 40's, 50's, and early 60's.

[ipbalkenende]

"Recovery from the Great Depression didn't start until after WWII. So neither Hoover nor FDR deserve credit for that"

You really have no respect for the facts do you? Inflation adjusted GDP grew by 8% annually between 1933-1940.

I mean honestly you are simply picking and choosing rather than following an empirical, structural model of observation. You simply seek an economic policy you like then you credit it with whatever good news came in the decades after that while excuse it of the bad news.

[pholland]

Of course GDP shot up between 1933 and 1940 because the government was spending boatloads of money. Once again, you fail to counter my argument that gross domestic product is not an accurate measure of economic growth.  It merely measures how much money is being SPENT. According to this logic, having a world war would be the absolute best way to have economic growth. We could build ships and planes and aircraft carriers galore and, according to your logic, that would be economic prosperity.

[ipbalkenende]

What prosperity btw? The only post depression democrat to do (marginally) worse than Reagan was Carter with 3% growth instead of 3.3% growth. You don't have one empirical fact to stand on so just keep sticking to your fantasies and myths instead.

[pholland]

Again, you are relying on Keynsian statistics like "GDP" as if that is somehow a measure of prosperity. All GDP does is measure how much money the government and the private sector is spending. It doesn't measure investment and it doesn't measure productivity growth. Again, according to your logic, if a president spent $5 trillion on pyramid construction, which would cause GDP to go up 40%, that would be 40% "economic growth" according to you.

[pholland]

Reagan tried to cut spending but Democrats controlled Congress. The deficits he ran were also necessary to bankrupt the Soviets. Money well spent I think, because we no longer go to bed at night worrying about world war III.

[ipbalkenende]

"Reagan tried to cut spending but Democrats controlled Congress. The deficits he ran were also necessary to bankrupt the Soviets."

So at the one hand the deficits were the democrat;s fault (never mind it was Reagan who wanted to spend a gazillion dollars on lasers and all the extra spending) but it was also necessary to bankrupt the Soviets (who never increased defense spending in the 80s)? Nice contradiction in there and another case of transparent covering.

[pholland]

There is no contradiction whatsoever. The Democrats refused to slow the growth in domestic spending during Reagan's tenure. At the same time, Reagan doubled the size of the military in attempt to bankrupt the Soviets. Both were responsible for the deficit, but Reagan's deficit spending actually made sense while the Democrats' did not. Spending additional $ on social programs did not end the Cold War. Spending additional $ on the military did.

[bunnyluv41]

RIP, Mr. President. We love you and miss you very much!

[masterkillian]

If only everyone could aspire to be such a great American. He was truly an inspiration.

[aksana1976]

I love you RONALD REAGAN! Miss you!

[sc2win]

Back when Catholics were proud of what ND stood for. Now they are a platform or Pro-Choicers.  Sad.

[FenderBaum23]

I use to miss the 80's because of quality T.V. shows. Now I miss it because of leadership we had and desperatley need now.

[CallMeKnowBody]

I Love Ronald Reagan.. We Need another Reagun.

[lefte3]

It is absolutely astounding that this speech could be given again today, with only very minor alterations in wording (terrorist for Communist, etc.) and be totally timely.

I pray America will not give in to the fear and lack of hope the Obama administration and Congress is peddling, and remember these words. As President Reagan says, every generation needs to be taught them again.

[raz0rsvids]

This man is why I registered as a Republican when I became eligible to vote. Sadly I wasn't old enough to vote for him.

[franklinjefferson]

Liked the speech? Read The 5000 Year Leap. From the back of the book: Discover the 28 Principles of Freedom our Founding Fathers said must be understood & perpetuated by every people who desire peace, prosperity, & freedom. Learn how adherence to these beliefs DURING THE LAST 200 YEARS HAS BROUGHT ABOUT MORE PROGRESS THAN WAS MADE IN THE PREVIOUS 5,000 YEARS.

[franklinjefferson]

My brother has a great idea: The ND Class of 2009 & their parents should load this speech on their iphones & play it when Obama is speaking. Who would you rather listen to: a man who opposed the Born Alive Infant Act, who is trying to rescind conscience rights thereby forcing doctors & nurses to perform abortions,& using our taxes to create life just to destroy it even though adult stem cells are more promising & usiing our taxes to kill babies overseas OR RONALD REAGAN? I choose the Gipper!

[ipbalkenende]

@franklin

Well why Reagan is an excellent speaker in my opinion better in the art than our current president he's also a horrible human being so I think I would prefer Obama over a man who hated and mocked the poor.

[pholland]

A politician's refusal to confiscate other people's money and redistribute it to those that don't earn any does not constitute "hate."

[ipbalkenende]

"There's hunger in America, Sure they are dieting!"

Equals a clear disdain which I label hate.

And was perfectly in line with his poor hating 'Cadilac queen' fantasies and policies.

But at least he managed the 'fantastic' 3.3% annual growth before the economy collapsed again under his VEEP that was so much better than Carter's 3.0% growth mailaise or JFK & LBJ's 6% annual growth, never mind FDR's 9% annual growth.

[pholland]

It's not hard to get nice, big, fat GDP figures. All the government has to do is spend lots of money, build some really big aircraft carriers or some pyramids. Maybe dig some big ditches and fill them back in like FDR did.

The true measure of an increase in economic growth and living standards is by looking at the productive capacity of the economy. And under Reagan, productivity experienced fantastic growth. As a result, all classes of society were far better off in 1989 than in 1981.

[mdbarnes21]

what "growth" are you speaking of? growth of government? if so, i think your estimates are low for FDR, LBJ, and the misery metric of Jimmy (put on your sweater) Carter. disgraceful.

[ipbalkenende]

@mdbarnes

Inflation adjusted GDP growth, the most commonly, universally acceptable metric. Not good enough for you? Should we tweak the numbers to make your guys look better? What is this affirmative action? What do you propose then?

[mdbarnes21]

inflation kills wealth, tax on everyone as your dollar is worth less. that's a good thing? i am for not tweaking the numbers...not nationalizing the housing industry to create a house of cards and a house of cards industry (all began with gov't intervention and mandates, then the market reacted and adapted...). Affirmative action?

[ipbalkenende]

@mdbarnes

Are you illiterate? "Inflation adjusted GDP growth" notice the 'inflation adjusted'? It's not hard to figure out what that means.

[WeekendWarrior1210]

Obama is a failure, and in time the American people will realize it.

[benfranklin96753]

This made my weekend! How in the world can anyone think that the government can fix our current problem? They got us into it, and their tampering will only make things worse! We the people are the only ones that can get us back on the road to prosperity!

[MThound]

What a great American.

[pearlmonster]

My God, where have these type of President's been. Obama couldn't tie Reagan's shoes. This is how you talk about America. You don't Trash it and apologize for it like Obama and deny that it's a Christian Nation. I pray people will wake up and see he is another/worse then Jimmy Carter and we will only be subjected to one term.

[smeidlin1]

Amen brother!!!

[pearlmonster]

Thanks my Man. I appreciate that. Happy Easter to you and all. Hit them Tea Party's everyone....

[porkchops20]

We can't sit around wishing he were still here. We do need to pick up the baton and get back in the race, though. How far off the track we have gotten.

[johnsteiger]

If only we had another Reagan...

[Hiraghm]

We don't deserve another President Reagan.

He saved us once, and we took our eye off the ball.

[aclishem]

Our current president isn't fit to hold the Gipp's jockstrap.

[phineastbuster]

This was a fantastic speech.