But there was context. I was around back then; Reagan was pushing to flatten the tax code (which he succeeded at) , but he needed Democrat votes to do it , so thats why he talked about closing loopholes in the context of lowering overall tax rates.
Context is everything. The fact that you are "shocked" that he would speak about loopholes this way in order to get a revision to the tax code that would deliver exactly that, shocks me that you are such a blithering nincompoop.
I think you need to re read what you responded to and then retract your post. the president I was shocked by was the current one. NOT reagan.