1. Reagan and the national debt
Year Debt Level
09/29/1989 2,857,430,960,187.32
09/30/1988 2,602,337,712,041.16
09/30/1987 2,350,276,890,953.00
09/30/1986 2,125,302,616,658.42
09/30/1985 1,823,103,000,000.00
09/30/1984 1,572,266,000,000.00
09/30/1983 1,377,210,000,000.00
09/30/1982 1,142,034,000,000.00
09/30/1981 997,855,000,000.00
http://www.treasurydirect.gov/govt/reports/pd/histdebt/histdebt_histo4.htmSince budgets are submitted a year in advance (e.g., FY1981's budget was submitted in 1980), Reagan's budgets run from 1981-1989. As you can see, the national debt nearly tripled during this period, starting out at $997.9 billion and ending up at $2.8 trillion. The last tripling of the debt had taken 31 years.
2. Reagan and spending as a percentage of GDP
Year GDP Population Spending % of GDP
1981 3126.8 228.670 33.64 %
1982 3253.2 230.815 36.25 %
1983 3534.6 232.979 36.31 %
1984 3930.9 235.164 34.44 %
1985 4217.5 237.369 35.48 %
1986 4460.1 239.595 35.71 %
1987 4736.4 241.842 35.09 %
1988 5100.4 244.110 34.73 %
1989 5482.1 246.399 34.93 %
http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/downchart_gs.php?year=1900_2010&units=p&title=Spending%20as%20percent%20of%20GDPThese numbers are slightly different than my original post because this man in particular used interpolation. In any case, he derived the values from the appropriate governmental sources as far as I can tell; his findings are in line with what everybody else discovers: government spending as a percentage of GDP only went up under Reagan (by 3.7% according to these numbers and 2.8% according to my other post's numbers).
This guy is apparently a conservative author, tea party sympathizer, and climate skeptic.
3. Reagan's amnesty, in addition to his growth of the federal workforce, are commonplace news items and therefore I don't think I need to provide sources. You can easily find them in a moment's notice online in your free time.
4. Reagan's "tax cuts"
Reagan cut taxes early on, but all the while the overwhelming majority of the cuts were balanced out by the elimination and reduction of deductions, plus tax increases later on.
Year Receipts As Percentage of GDP
1981 599.3 19.6%
1982 617.8 19.2%
1983 600.6 17.5%
1984 666.4 17.3%
1985 734.0 17.7%
1986 769.2 17.2%
1987 854.3 18.4%
1988 909.2 18.2%
1989 991.1 18.4%
http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/taxfacts/displayafact.cfm?Docid=200The overwhelming majority of government revenue comes from taxes; as you can see, the government derived only a little less tax revenue from the American people under Reagan than when he first came into office (a little over 6% less by the end of the Reagan era). In other words, Reagan kept the percentage above the historical average of 18.1%, and never seriously considered pushing it below the average.
5. Finally, a favorite of liberal presidents, entitlement spending
Year Billions spent on SS and Medicare As % of GDP
1981 179.1 5.9%
1982 203.1 6.3%
1983 224.0 6.5%
1984 237.0 6.2%
1985 256.1 6.2%
1986 270.7 6.1%
1987 285.0 6.1%
1988 302.5 6.0%
1989 324.4 6.0%
Avg percentage of GDP: 6.14%
Avg percentage under Carter: 5.44%
http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/Historicals/ (Tables 15.4-15.5)
Reagan increased entitlement spending by hundreds of billions of dollars, doing so at a clip Carter would have been envious of (as evinced by the percentage of GDP values).
In short, your idol was a very "liberal" president, based on your own criteria of liberalism. The man went hog wild with governmental spending, increasing the share of GDP the government spent, tripling the deficit (the previous tripling had taken 31 years), expanding the federal workforce, granting amnesty to millions of illegals, pumping up entitlement spending in absolute and relative terms, and doing precisely nothing to decrease the amount of tax revenue the government siphons from the people below its historical average.
