Reagan never had a "9/11".
Yeah, Reagan just had those pesky Russians.
If he'd have had a 9/11, he might have been passing huge Medicaid intitlements as well. (/sarc)
If he did, don't you think he would have used a couple of brain cells (something which Bush has been unable to do on this matter) and sealed the border? I'm confident that he would have. "A nation without borders is not a nation." - Ronald Reagan
Additionally, how is bursting the seams with uncontrolled non-defense, discretionary spending something that must be done post-9/11? Logic says that such pork spending should go down and defense spending should go up after such a devastating attack and the ensuing war. Bush wants it both ways and our grandchildren and their children are going to get the bill. Similarly, he wants it both ways with the border - he wants us to believe that he's serious about stopping another terrorist attack in the United States but at the same time he wants people to believe that he is somehow compassionate by not sealing the borders.
I hesitate to think that Reagan would have played it like this - especially if Reagan enjoyed a Republican controlled Senate and House.
He also didn't cut one dollar from the year to year funding of any of lbj's "Theft Society" programs. That's after a 49 state win. Not a lot of "R"s that want to do more than talk about cutting spending?
Very true. He simply had thousands of Soviet nuclear warheads aimed at the United States, insurgencies in Grenada, Nicaragua, and El Salvador, revolution in southern Africa, war in Afghanistan, chaos in Lebanon, the constant threat of war spreading throughout the Middle East. Yep, ol' Ronnie had nothing much to deal with.