Reagan signed budgets with tax cuts, and some tax increases with a big growth in spending and yes it resulted in a net loss called a deficit. It cannot be proved what those tax cuts produced on their own because they were not implemented on their own.
Yes, I have heard it all before, Reagan cut taxes, democrats increased spending (he signed), all good came from the tax cuts, all bad from the spending. Rush has a whole chapter saying that in his first book. That is a neat trick to draw that imaginary line. Most people wont buy that line.
If the government cuts your taxes 1$ but hires a new government employee for 10$ but he payes $3 dollars in new taxes even without speculating about economic growth that looks like a net revenue increase of $3-$1 = $2 on the surface. But it still results in 10$+1$-3= 8$ of new deficits. But Rush includes that $2 in increased revenue paid by the government employee (which he gets from deficits) as resulting from the tax cuts, that he cant prove.
Some tax cuts can reduce the deficit, but others will increase it.
You can try to spin those years any way you like. Most folks accept that tax cuts spurred economic activity. Reagan took over an economic mess, and turn things around. Kennedy cut taxes and got big economic growth. Obama has refused to cut taxes, and we’ve got one of the worst periods of stagnation I’ve seen in my lifetime.
If you wish to blame large deficits on Reagan, go ahead.
The fact is, government receipts doubled under Reagan. He cut taxes, and the economy skyrocketed.
Explain that away if you can. Nobody else has been able to.