RANCHO DEL CIELO - Today, Senator Mike Lee delivered a speech at the Reagan Ranch to commemorate the 33rd anniversary of President Reagan signing into law one of his first major economic reforms, the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981.
 
In the speech, Lee argued that while Reagan’s legacy may be best remembered by what he accomplished in office, such as passing the Recovery Act, it was in the years prior to becoming president where Regan built the foundation for his future policy successes.

The following excerpts are from the speech:

Reagan wanted to build a new Republican Party, a new majority coalition, a new conservative movement that would not just cut across party lines... but permanently redraw them.

He knew that abstract theories and negative attacks weren’t going to cut it. Reagan needed to make conservatism new, real, and relevant.

He rebuilt conservatism with a concrete agenda of innovative reforms to directly help and empower all of the forgotten Americans whom liberalism always leaves behind.

A real conservative reform agenda has to do more than just cut big government. It has to fix broken government. Reagan did just that a generation ago. Since then, new challenges have emerged, demanding repair – and conservative principles can once again point us toward exciting, innovative solutions.

His agenda was designed to give ordinary Americans even more power to make those decisions. He respected them and trusted them, and thought the government should simply get out of the way.  He knew the answer was not to get America to trust Washington; it was to get Washington to trust America.

Click here to read the full text of the speech