[jagrmeister]

http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_090903/content/institute.guest.html

The facts disagrees with you. Reagan raised discretionary spending in his first 3 years by 6.8%. Don't believe me, look the chart over which breaks it down by department.

I agree that Medicare and SS are the big ones that need to be dealt with. Ideally we can return the obligation to the individual through personal retirement accounts.

[Reagan Man]

>>>The facts disagrees with you. Reagan raised discretionary spending in his first 3 years by 6.8%. Don't believe me, look the chart over which breaks it down by department.

You better read the chart on Rush`s website again. The facts back me up 100%. You're wrong.

There were actually two different CATO Institute articles and two different sets of charts on this subject matter. One was released in April 2003 and was called On Spending, Bush Is No Reagan. The other article and chart was posted on CATO in August 2003, using the same title, On Spending, Bush Is No Reagan. The August 2003 article was an updated version based on a recently released mid-session review of the 2004 budget by the Bush administration.

Both the early chart and the revamped version clearly indicate that PresReagan lowered discreationary spending his first three years in office.

I'll post both charts for your benefit.

Here's a key part from the August 2003 CATO article that says it all.

"... Reagan cut real nondefense discretionary outlays by 13.5 percent compared to a 20.8 percent increase under Bush."

[Reagan Man]

In addition, SS and Medicare aren't part of the discretionary budget spending. They're part of the mandatory entitlement expenditures.

[Jorge]

The facts disagrees with you. Reagan raised discretionary spending in his first 3 years by 6.8%.

You're right. Reagan had to agree to spending increases in order to get the Dems to pass his programs, including tax cuts.

And while the tax cuts soon resulted in increased revenue to the Treasury, the increased spending still caused a deficit.
The lying Dems have claimed ever since that the Reagan tax cuts caused the deficits.