Under Regean, the US went from largest creditor to largest debtor

[Kulindahr]

The causes matter. The debt would have tripled regardless of who was president and regardless of the tax rate.

Nonsense. Reagan deliberately engaged in deficit spending for several reasons, the main being to "bid up" the arms game until the Soviets folded. He didn't have to spend as much as he got for the military, he didn't have to dump money into military research meant mainly to scare the Soviets (though the fact that he really believed in some of it, like the "Star Wars" stuff, scared them even more). He did it to force them to either give up the fight or crack their economy trying to keep up.

And thinking that the tax rate makes no difference is just arithmetically ridiculous.

 

[Kulindahr]

If you believe that, I think you weren't there. Reagan spent billions on a crackpot scheme called SDI ("Star Wars"), which never worked. And debts don't go up as far with higher tax rates, obviously.

This isn't magic. He spent more on his wars and hobbies than he was willing to take in in revenue. Ergo, debt goes up. He did that more than any POTUS before or since.

Any proponent of "fiscal responsibility" must regard Reagan as a villain, if they're to be consistent.

We did get a lot of good science out of "Star Wars" -- a lot of it negative, which is just as value as positive, scientifically; it's good knowing what paths lead nowhere, or lead to technology too costly to be of much use. One result was a design capable of launching steel bars into orbit.... which, if we manage to develop fusion power for a serious energy source, could conceivably save the earth from an asteroid strike.

Anyway.... His biggest problem was his naive faith that presidents and Congresses after him would understand that once the Soviet Union folded, there was no need to keep throwing so much money in the pot, and would act to pay off that debt. Bush I actually grasped that, but was sort of constrained by neocons who didn't get it; Clinton got started on it... then the neocons who didn't get it drove us into the pit.

In terms of revenue, he passed up (I'm not sure he grasped the idea) a proposal for providing revenue for his vast 'poker game' with the Soviets, one that is still a good idea: a fractional tax on all single financial transactions above some fixed amount.
Maybe someone should have drawn him a pretty curve on the back of an envelope or something.

 

[BostonPirate]

The causes matter. The debt would have tripled regardless of who was president and regardless of the tax rate.

so the current politicians are, by your estimation, free of blame for any of the financial mess?

Or is this just an exception for Ronnie?