Reagan’s problem was spending by congress in the 1980’s. Looking at the revenue side of the ledger tells the real story. In 1980 revenues to the US treasury were around $500B annually. By 1988 that had almost doubled to $1T annually. An amazing fact that was the results of tax cuts lowering the top marginal rates.
” In 1980 revenues to the US treasury were around $500B annually.”
You may remember that the economy was in the tank and interest rates were up to 22% in 1980 and for a time thereafter. I remember that very well as I left the firm I had been with for 4 years and hung out my own shingle. My wife was my secretary and was typing until 5:00 pm the evening she went into labor with our first son. We got by in some measure by bartering because no one had any money. It wasn’t a good time economically. By ‘88, things had gotten rather dramatically better.
Congress did do the spending under Reagan. It has under Obama too.