Let’s get one thing straight — INCREASED SPENDING UNDER REAGAN IS NOT ENTIRELY HIS FAULT.
His investments in national security ended the Cold War and made possible the subsequent defense spending reductions that are largely responsible for the subsequent federal surpluses ( To which the Gingrich congress gets greater credit than Clinton himself, who had to be dragged kicking and screaming to agree to the budget ).
His efforts to restrain the expansion of federal government helped to limit the growth of domestic spending despite the efforts of the Tip O’Neil congress to INCREASE IT.
If Reagan’s critics had been willing to work with him to limit domestic spending even further and to control the growth of entitlements, the budget would have been balanced five to ten years sooner and without the massive tax increase imposed in 1993.
Actually none of the spending increases were his fault. The military/national defense portion of the budget, or when measured as a % of GNP, scarcely moved in the 1980s. What grew were “Payments to individuals,” by about 15%. Straight from the government’s own budget books.
The left, and libertarians, are purist. They always point to his deficits. By today’s standards they were nothing.
His last three fiscal years the deficits were around $150B a year. Today they are over $1 Trillion a year.
You are absolutely correct. To get his military spending (and intelligence, which Carter decimated), Reagan compromised with O’Neal agreed to allow automatic entitlement escalators.
In his second term, however, military spending DECREASED. Reagan won the Cold War, launched an economic boom that lasted through the Clinton administration , and rebuilt our military. Now Bush an Obama have unwound it all. The Shining City on a Hill is now sliding into oblivion.
I do not think the issue is how much Reagan spent but how much he accomplished. We had an economic recovery under Reagan, The Berlin Wall came down, and too many other things to name.
I can’t think of a thing Carter accomplished, he even failed at getting the hostages out....so no accomplishment should equal no expense.