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WITH THE FEDERAL DEBT spiraling out of control, many Americans sense an urgent need to find a political leader who is able to say “no” to spending. Yet they fear that finding such a leader is impossible. Conservatives long for another Ronald Reagan. But is Reagan the right model? He was of course a tax cutter, reducing the top marginal rate from 70 to 28 percent. But his tax cuts—which vindicated supply-side economics by vastly increasing federal revenue—were bought partly through a bargain with Democrats who were eager to spend that revenue. Reagan was no budget cutter—indeed, the federal budget...

Calvin Coolidge and the Greatness of a 'Not Great' President Written by Jack Kenny If brevity is the soul of wit, it is unfortunate that Calvin Coolidge (shown) is remembered more for his greatly exaggerated brevity than for his frequently overlooked wit. Indeed, two of the famous quotes attributed to Coolidge have often been cited to suggest dullness rather than keenness of insight. "The business of America is business," our 30th president said, suggesting to some people a too narrow view of the meaning of life and politics in this blessed Republic. Worse, a badly worded statement about unemployment ("When...

Conservatives long for another Ronald Reagan. But is Reagan the right model? He was of course a tax cutter, reducing the top marginal rate from 70 to 28 percent. But his tax cuts—which vindicated supply-side economics by vastly increasing federal revenue—were bought partly through a bargain with Democrats who were eager to spend that revenue. Reagan was no budget cutter—indeed, the federal budget rose by over a third during his administration. An alternative model for conservatives is Calvin Coolidge.

Speech on the Occasion of the One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence Calvin Coolidge July 5, 1926 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania  We meet to celebrate the birthday of America. The coming of a new life always excites our interest. Although we know in the case of the individual that it has been an infinite repetition reaching back beyond our vision, that only makes it the more wonderful. But how our interest and wonder increase when we behold the miracle of the birth of a new nation. It is to pay our tribute of reverence and respect to...

Derided by New Dealers, Coolidge gets long-overdue respect in Shlaes’s biography. For years, most Americans’ vision of history has been shaped by the New Deal historians. Writing soon after Franklin Roosevelt’s death, Arthur Schlesinger Jr. and others celebrated his accomplishments and denigrated his opponents. They were gifted writers, and many of their books were bestsellers. They have persuaded many Americans — Barack Obama definitely included — that progress means an ever-bigger government. In their view, the prosperous 1920s were a binge of mindless frivolity. The Depression of the 1930s was the inevitable hangover, for which FDR administered the cure.That’s one...

For years, most Americans' vision of history has been shaped by the New Deal historians. Writing soon after Franklin Roosevelt's death, Arthur Schlesinger Jr. and others celebrated his accomplishments and denigrated his opponents. They were gifted writers, and many of their books were bestsellers. And they have persuaded many Americans -- Barack Obama definitely included -- that progress means an ever bigger government In their view, the prosperous 1920s were a binge of mindless frivolity. The Depression of the 1930s was the inevitable hangover, for which FDR administered the cure. That's one way to see it. But there are others,...

My phone rang late on a Friday evening. The number was from an area code with which I wasn’t too familiar. Would I be able to attend a dinner in Manhattan honoring Amity Shlaes on the occasion of the publication of her new Calvin Coolidge biography? Well, yes — yes, I would. Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2013/02/20/my-dinner-with-calvin/#ixzz2LdOsACmC

Before Ronald Reagan traveled the 16 blocks to the White House after his first inaugural address, the White House curator had, at the new president’s instruction, hung in the Cabinet room a portrait of Calvin Coolidge. The Great Communicator knew that “Silent Cal” could use words powerfully — 15 of them made him a national figure — because he was economical in their use, as in all things.

Civility to oneÂ’s opponents, certainty, restraint, federalism, economy, thrift, and respect for faith: these and other Coolidge ideals are needed today. Debt takes its toll. To no one had this ever seemed clearer than to a 61-year-old farmer named Oliver Coolidge, who languished in Woodstock Common Jail in Windsor County, Vermont, in the spring of 1849. Oliver was behind bars because he owed a neighbor, Frederick Wheeler, $24.23. He had not honored a contract because he lacked the money to honor it. Now his debt had climbed to $29.48 because the justice of the peace had ruled that he had...

Action is something Americans of both parties demand of their presidents these days. This is natural for Democrats, whose heritage is all action, starting with Franklin Roosevelt and his Hundred Days. But Republicans like energy and a big executive as well. Over the course of the campaign this past year, any number of political stars, including Governor Mitch Daniels of Indiana, argued that only an energetic candidate would be up to the job of managing the U.S. fiscal crisis. Mitt Romney worked hard to let voters know his party could beat the Democrats in the legislative arena. He swore up...

Progressivism is an utterly bankrupt ideology, and Calvin Coolidge knew it. In his Speech on the Occasion of the 150th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, he said the following: About the Declaration there is a finality that is exceedingly restful. It is often asserted that the world has made a great deal of progress since 1776, that we have had new thoughts and new experiences which have given us a great advance over the people of that day, and that we may therefore very well discard their conclusions for something more modern. But that reasoning can not be applied...

Patriotism is easy to understand in America. It means looking out for yourself by looking out for your country. In no other nation on earth does this principle have such complete application. It comes most naturally from the fundamental doctrine of our land that the people are supreme. Lincoln stated the substance of the whole matter in his famous phrase, "government of the people; by the people, and for the people." The authority of law here is not something which is imposed upon the people; it is the will of the people themselves. The decision of the court here is...

I think it was Calvin Coolidge. He had a budget surplus every year and the national debt was reduced from $22.3 billion in 1923 to $16.9 billion in 1929. He cut the top tax rate from 56% to 25%.

The American public may be about to do something it has not done in 88 years: elect a former governor of Massachusetts as president of the United States. In anticipation of this election, we can only hope that some of Governor Romney's advisors will introduce him to his predecessor, Governor Calvin Coolidge. Coolidge was one of the most popular presidents in U.S. history, but historians have tended to underestimate his importance. However, with the advent of Reagan and the revival of conservatism, Coolidge's place in history has been re-appraised. Historian Paul Johnson has called Coolidge "[t]he most internally consistent and...

Theodore Roosevelt seems to be in vogue among certain Republican contenders -- but his Republicanism might not be the most conservative brand available. In fact, a big ideological contender against Roosevelt is Calvin Coolidge, another Republican stalwart of the 20th century. Though these two men occupied the same political party, each embodies one side of a struggle between philosophical factions that continues today. In summarizing his view of the proper role of the presidency, Roosevelt in his autobiography writes, "I declined to adopt the view that what was imperatively necessary for the Nation could not be done by the President...

America no longer enjoys a peacetime economy. I speak not of Iraq or of Afghanistan. I speak of the class warfare economy officially imposed on the nation in Barack Obama’s Osawatomie speech. I say “officially” because this speech is merely a logically outgrowth of Obama’s long-held redistributionist ideology, finally manifested in the “spontaneous” “Occupy Wall Street” movement—the phony rage aimed at “one percenters” who fail to “pay their fair share in taxes”—phony, because if it were real, it “Occupy Wall Street” would move uptown and become “Occupy General Electric.” Such class warfare is much older than Obama or OSW or...

Conservatism is a negative philosophy. I don’t mean “negative” in the sense that it proposes something undesirable. I mean that it seeks to negate objectionable aspects of the human condition. Man has a propensity for evil. This means that men must be restrained in some fashion — which is precisely why conservatives have typically stressed religion, conventional morality, humility, etc. But conservatives have also stressed that any government designed to be powerful enough to restrain men will also be run by men, whose collective propensity for evil is to be feared even more. Conservatives have never argued that man should...

Perry's America may seem familiar to centenarians By JOE HOLLEY August 28, 2011 At first glance, it would seem that the 30th president of the United States and the man who would be the 45th have little in common. Famously silent Calvin Coolidge, after all, not only had little to say but also hated to campaign, unlike White House aspirant Rick Perry, an indefatigable campaigner whose tongue occasionally runs ahead of his brain. Coolidge was a rectitudinous New Englander presiding, paradoxically, over a raucous Jazz Age; Perry is a gregarious Texan who, paradoxically, stands to inherit a nation shaken by...

20 minutes, but he's already delivered one of the best lines in the campaign: "I'll work every day to try to make Washington, D.C., as inconsequential in your life as I can." This will be grand news to Schylar Capo of Virginia. The 11-year-old made the mistake of rescuing a woodpecker from the jaws of a cat and nursing him back to health for a couple of days and, for her pains, was visited by a federal Fish and Wildlife gauleiter (with accompanying state troopers) who charged her with illegal transportation of a protected species and issued her a $535...

Presidential scholar David Pietrusza reflects on the legacy of the 30th president at a symposium hosted by the Calvin Coolidge Memorial Foundation. Mr. Pietrusza considers the influences that shaped President Coolidge’s political philosophy and why “Silent Cal” never wasted or minced words.