[Dane]

Yes, it is true that the Republicans controlled the Senate for six of his eight years. But the House was solidly in Democrat hands for all eight years. I'm just trying to point out that Reagan faced even more of an institutional bias towards government growth than either Bush did

Huh? Bush41 had a Jim Wright(then a Foley) led House and a Mitchell led Senate to deal with.

[B Knotts]

I mean that Reagan inherited 15+ years Great Society-inspired thinking, and a Republican Party that was still dominated by the Rockefeller wing. There were still a lot of liberal Republicans in those days. By the time Bush 41 took over, with his promise for a "kinder, gentler America" (boy, that ticked me off), there was a more significant conservative domination in the Republican Party.