If you want to know how many lives could have been saved if the Reagan government had just fucking BUDGETED for AIDS research instead of telling AIDS researchers that they had to beg, borrow or steal any money for AIDS from other programs–then read And The Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic, 20th-Anniversary Edition by Randy Shilts. And be prepared to have your heart broken at the unadulterated and wildly irresponsible waste.of time and human lives.
Other shitty things Reagan did:
1) He almost tripled the National Debt. And you need to see the difference with zeroes:
When Reagan took office in 1980: $909,100,000 owed.(909.1 billion)
When Reagan left office in 1988: $2,601,300,000,000 owed. (2.6 trillion)
2) He raised taxes on the middle class and the poor ELEVEN TIMES while in office.
3) Unemployment soared after Reagan passed his tax cuts for the rich, and it took decades to get back down again.
4) He turned the U.S. into an illegal weapons dealer.
5) He funded terrorists, helping create the Taliban and Osama bin Laden. From NewsOne:
After Ronald Reagan was elected in 1981, U.S. funding of the mujahideen increased significantly and CIA Paramilitary Officers played a big role in training, arming and sometimes even leading mujahideen forces.
The CIA trained the mujahideen in many of the tactics Al Qaeda is known for today, such as car bombs, assassinations and other acts that would be considered terrorism today.
6) When his economic policies began wreaking havoc on the government, Reagan stole from Social Security–to the tune of 2.5 TRILLION–treating it for eight years as the private slush fund of himself and his rich friends.
7) [T]he Reagan administration demonized opponents of apartheid, most notably the African National Congress, as dangerous and pro-communist. Reagan even vetoed a bill to impose sanctions on South Africa, only to be overruled by Congress.
They called him the Teflon president for a reason. All this shit–and none of it stuck to him. He got away clean every single time.
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