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Yow! Now just what was the makeup of the house and Senate under Reagan? (Here's a hint: Democratic!) Did the House and Senate then approve a spending spree of a nearly unprecented nature (Yes!). Simply noting that Reagan presided over a tax cut and this was followed by a program of deficit spending does the facts no true justice!
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Yes, I do remember that the House was majority Democratic in '71. The Senate, however, was majority GOP. And, if Reagan was the great, fiscally-responsible conservative that he claimed, then you'd think that once- not even more than once, but only once- he could have submitted to Congress a budget which wasn't more out of balance than the previous fiscal year's. To my knowledge, every Reagan- and perhaps every Bush Sr.- budget was more in the red than the one previous to it. As I noted, it took a tax-and-spend liberal (Booga! Booga! Booga!) to show the GOP some fiscal responsibility.
Does the post-'94 GOP-dominated Congress get some credit for the run of balanced budgets turned in in the '90s? Absolutely- after all, if they had wanted to lard down each of Clinton's balanced budgets with pork, then there was little which could have been done about it (pre line-item veto at least, and that might not pass Constitutional muster anyhow). But, the fact remains: Clinton submitted balanced budgets to Congress, while Reagan and Bush Sr. never even came close to doing so. Saying otherwise indicates a complete denial of reality.
Not unusual in the US political realm, I'll admit,
Z