[Rhodes22-list] Politics and discussion between Slim, Brad, et al.

[DCLewis1 at aol.com]

Philip,
 
You've missed the point.  No one has ever said or implied that there  was no 
borrowing before Reagan.  As Brad has pointed out, there has always  been a 
national debt (although not all Presidents have added to it). The  point is the 
scale of the debts that have been incurred.
The average $/yr of borrowing by Reagan was x3 (that's right 300%) higher  
than his immediate predecessor Carter.  Understand that I'm not holding  Carter 
up as a paragon of virtue, but Carters borrowing was roughly in line  with 
Nixon's and Eisenhower's.  Borrowing was cooking along at an  approximately 
constant level (as I recall corrected for inflation ), but when  Reagan came in 
borrowing went through the roof, and it stayed through the roof,  and it stayed 
through the roof with BushI, and now BushJr is completely off the  charts 
again.  These 3 Presidents have borrowed and spent a huge amount of  $ - far beyond 
ALL their predecessors in nominal terms.  Except for  Roosevelt in WWII, and 
perhaps Lincoln with the Civil war,  their  level of borrowing is without 
historical precedence - it's huge!    Their overspending outstrips anything the 
Dems have done, except for WWII, and  anything other Republicans (Nixon & 
Eisenhower) ever did.   
 
What they or any President/Administration spent the $ on is besides  the 
point for this discussion.  The focus is the huge amount of borrowing  by Reagan, 
BushI and Jr, and the point being made (hopefully) is that it is  really 
excessive by historical standards.
 
Calling people "conservatives" who overspend and take on the as much debt  as 
Reagan, Bush, and Jr seems like a stretch to me.  Do you remember when  
people once talked about a balanced budget?  You've never seen a balanced  neocon 
Republican President's budget.  Balanced is not even a goal in  any of their 
administrations (yeah, they always identify how the NEXT Pres can  do it, but 
they never do it).  These people are not fiscal  conservatives.  
 
Dave