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To: KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle
Reagan was a bulldog, completely, implacably right-wing on every issue.

Not every issue. As Governor, he gave California both legal abortion (before Roe v. Wade) and no-fault divorce; as President, he talked about shrinking the size of the federal government, but actually left it larger than he had found it.

30 posted on 06/09/2004 5:01:47 PM PDT by Lurking Libertarian (Non sub homine, sed sub Deo et lege)
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To: Lurking Libertarian
as President, he talked about shrinking the size of the federal government, but actually left it larger than he had found it.

That may be true, but it was because of the abosolute need to build up our military. Something that is within the Constitutional power and duty of the federal government. The only way he could get that done was to not simultaneously cut spending on all the liberal pork barrel and give away programs, in return for support from labor Dems and Country Club Republicans. As he saw it, it was about survival of the country.

Clinton, and to a lessor degree the Bushes, OTOH, cut defense (pre 9-11) and increased domestic spending. The federal "take" in terms of fraction of the GDP was higher at the end of Clinton's terms, than it had been at the end of Reagan's.

75 posted on 06/09/2004 6:41:35 PM PDT by El Gato (Federal Judges can twist the Constitution into anything.. Or so they think.)
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