candycorn
Diamond Member
Yes, GWB really limited government quite a bit...didn't he?
If you think I'm a big fan of GWB and his massive expansion of government, you're wrong.
Well, gee, who was the last Republican President to trim the size of government?
Reagan would have, congress kept blocking him. If he had is way we wouldn't have wasted another trillion on the DOE.
But he didn't. The same guy you say would have shrunk government what...quadrupled military spending. In his book "My American Journey", Colin Powell talks about how him and Cap Weinberger moved from their budget to their "wish" list to their "dream" list at the behest of the White House.
It worked...don't get me wrong.
I've often commented that Reagan doesn't deserve a place on Mt. Rushmore...he deserves his own mountain (I predict in the next 100 years or so, he'll have a memorial in DC on the mall somewhere--if MLK deserves one, Reagan most assuredly does for ending communism as we knew it).
But please don't sit there and tell us he was some sort of small government fundamentalist.
Carter decimated our military, Reagan knew defense is the primary function of the federal government. When Reagan was elected morale was in the tank, military equipment was falling apart, hell were still driving 1940's jeeps. Like you said, most every dime spent on the military was worth it. Unfortunately the dems didn't learn the lesson of Reagan, every one since has undermined the military. Just a note, I served under Reagan, Bush 41 and Clinton. Reagan did a lot of good with Tip O'Neill but reducing the size of government wasn't one of them, even though he tried.
So basically he gets 100% of the credit and the Dems in Congress got 100% of the blame. Amazing.