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>>Reagan was great on tax cuts and growing the overall economy. As far as the overall budget goes however, it didn’t get smaller. It grew just like under every other President. Deficits also exploded under Reagan. Of course, he also had to contend with a Democrat congress.<<

Reagan was a compromiser in the best sense of the word. He came into office promising to lower the personal income tax rates (and did he ever!) and rebuild a military that Carter had seriously compromised. He did both and managed to do so because he was willing to compromise. That compromise involved letting the Democrat-controlled Congress continue the normal rate of spending.

The deficits that resulted were huge for the time, leading many to consider the tax cuts a mistake. And along with that, inflation was rampant and the economy was re-entering recession due to Volcker’s tight money. By 1982, I watched President Reagan give a speech where it was obvious that the weight of the world was on his shoulders and he was feeling every pound of it.

Fortunately, Volcker got the job done, the tax cuts worked as advertised, and the military was rebuilt. The result was that Bush I got to preside over the demise of the Soviet Union and Clinton got to preside over an economy so strong that even with record spending, he was able to reduce deficits to near zero. Neither of those would have happened without Reagan’s being willing to compromise to get what he knew he needed.

As for Rand Paul, I suspect he’s right in what he said, but that his quotes are being carefully selected to disadvantage him.