[Dr. Sivana]

Ahhhhhh, I think you're forgetting those "pesky" tax increases, not to mention amnesty for illegals.

The 25% cut across the board in income taxes and especially INDEXING (HUGE under JC inflation) plus accelerated depreciation schedules for businesses more than offsets the fee and tax increases (mostly under the '86 TEFRA bill, which I agree he was snookered on, and perhaps precipitated the later S & L crisis). (And at least the 5 cent fuel tax increase, mostly used for roads and bridges, was actually needed.)

Reagan never had the House, and the RINOs were MUCH stronger in the Senate in those days (Warner, Percy, Packwood, Weicker, Specter, Heinz, Wilson, Kassebaum just off the top of my head)

[Vigilanteman]

Reagan never had the House, and the RINOs were MUCH stronger in the Senate in those days.

Exactly correct. Reagan managed to flip the Senate with his landslide election in 1980 to 53-47. He got it up to 54-46 the following congress mainly by managing to flip Senator Phil Gramm from Democrat to GOP. But the GOP lost the Senate (55-45) in 1986.

The Democrat dominated House (unlike the feckless GOP house majority in our current congress) was not afraid to use the power of the purse to get what they wanted. They correctly calculated that 1986 would be a flipping point in the Senate for two reasons:

1. Fatigue almost always sets in during the final two years of a president's two term presidency. Voters have largely forgotten about the last administration and grown more cynical and critical of the one in office.
   
2. The six year cycle is up for many marginal Senators barely pulled across the finish line by the president's coattails.

[princeofdarkness]

My God, we were infested with RINOS back then. I know guys like Lugar, Brown, Collins, and Snowe sucked, but man go to the ACU ratings site and look at the ratings for House and Senate members during the 80’s. Many of them were truly horrible like Packwood, Weicker, Heinz, Hatfield, etc... Reagan definitely was governing under a burden back then.