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You really need to learn more details. Soviet Union was already in a decline with central planning, and communist methodology. Star wars was just a very small portion of spending. I was directly involved in working on a star wars project so I have a fairly good idea of money spent. Majority of spending bills signed by Reagan were for social services and welfare. That was exactly what the majority democrat congress wanted.

From the American Enterprise Institue:

Everyone talks about the Reagan tax cuts, yet there is more to President Reagan’s legacy than tax cuts. There is also his courageous and largely unappreciated willingness to fight for reductions in domestic spending.

Ronald Reagan sought–and won–more spending cuts than any other modern president. He is the only president in the last forty years to cut inflation-adjusted nondefense outlays, which fell by 9.7 percent during his first term (see table 1). Sadly, during his second term, President Reagan did not manage to cut nondefense discretionary spending, and it grew by 0.2 percent. But his record is still quite remarkable if compared to other administrations. Every other president since Lyndon Johnson serving a full four-year term did not even do as well as Reagan in his less-impressive second term.

President Reagan understood economics, and he knew an unjustified economic subsidy when he saw one. He believed that the federal government had usurped private, state, and local responsibilities, and consequently he thought that most department’s budgets should be cut. Table 2 shows how many agencies’ budgets were cut (in real terms) during each presidential term going back to the one full term President Johnson served. These interesting facts are revealing of the president’s philosophy.
•President Reagan cut the budget of eight agencies out of fifteen during his first term, and ten out of fifteen during his second term.
•President Clinton cut the budget of nine out of fifteen agencies during his first term but cut none during his second term.
•President George W. Bush has cut none of the agencies’ budgets during his first term.

It is also interesting to see which president cut what and how much. Table 3 shows the change in real spending for each agency during each full presidential term served since President Johnson. Here are some other interesting facts about President Reagan:

•President Reagan is the only president to have cut the budget of the Department of Housing and Urban Development in one of his terms (a total of 40.1 percent during his second term).
•President Reagan is the only president to have cut the budget of the Department of Transportation. He cut it by 10.5 percent during his first term and by 7.5 percent during his second term.
•During his first term in office, President Reagan cut the real budget of the Department of Education by 18.6 percent, while President Nixon increased it (that is the education part of what was then the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare) by 19.1 percent. That budget increased by 22.2 percent under Bush 41 and by 38.5 percent under Carter. Our current president has increased it by a whooping 67.6 percent.
•Reagan managed to cut the budget of the Department of Commerce by 29 percent in constant dollars during his first term and by 3 percent during his second one. President Clinton by contrast increased the department’s budget by 24 percent in his first term and then by 96.7 percent in his second term.
•President Reagan cut the real budget of the Department of Agriculture by 24 percent during his second term in office.
•President Reagan never cut the budgets of the departments of Defense, Health and Human Services, Justice, or State.

And what's really amazing, and which you refuse to acknowledge, is that he did this without the GOP being in control of the House during both his terms, and the Senate for part of the time he was President.

Given what he was handed, and what he accomplished, with the resources he had, I'd say the Tea-Party was extremely proud of Ronald Reagan and what he accomplished. Now to the Ron and Rand Paul, irrational Libertarians and their supporters, I realize that this was not adequate.

DO not get me wrong Reagan was 100 times better than the alternative at the time, Jimmy Carter.

But any president who allows federal spending to triple during 8 years flunks my requirements of a fiscal conservative. That list you presented completely ignores that fact. Cutting federal departments was very good, increasing social welfare spending was very bad. Net result was very bad. Spending increased during Reagan more than any previous president since WWII.

It is the NET RESULT which counts. If you cut your personal spending by 50% in clothes but then spend 200% more on a fancy car resulting in your total spending to triple, is the similar to what took place during Reagan’s 8 years.

I understand he had to deal with Tip O’Neill and democrat congress. But he did not exercise veto on all those increases in spending. He should have forced the democrats to override his vetoes. Them Reagan would have been a real hero in my book.