[DoughtyOne]

Speaking of getting facts straight, Reagan didn't run a deficit over $200 billion that I remember. I'm sure you know what this year's deficit looks like. Look, some of what Bush is having to spend is justifiable. Quite a bit of it isn't.

[Fledermaus]

Yes he did. Just not for very long.

Also, Bush 41's deficits were mostly due to the horrible 1986 tax policy Reagan signed. He traded off a 28% upper tax rate for all kinds of other tax increases (FICA) and bad policy like screwing with profit/loss determinations that devalued real estate and started the S&L slide.

Take out the funny S&L's found as the government had to bail them out, and the majority were the cause of Congress who were forced to honor their backing of deposits.

Reagan was suckered by the likes of Bob Dole on that one and Bush paid the price with very high deficits and later his presidency.