Brad, normally I respect your intellectual honesty, but this 1993 piece about Reagan "presidential" deficits is either shockingly naive or intentionally deceptive. It ignores the compounding nature of the "congressional" deficit, and seems to assume that each year Reagan should have submitted a budget that pretended his previously-requested spending cuts had not been ignored. And of course, it does not take the time to explore the real causal factors: entitlement spending, declining inflation, the 1982 recession, the tax cuts, and the defense buildup. Readers interested in the whole story should see:

http://www.ipi.org/ipi/IPIPublications.nsf/PublicationLookupFullTextPDF/4D0C4F5676D56DA1862567F40051B077/$File/reagandf.pdf?OpenElement
http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa-261.html
http://reagan.webteamone.com/reagan_budgets.html

Posted by: Brian Holtz on February 28, 2003 11:32 PM