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Pastimes : Let's Talk About Our Feelings!!! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Brumar89 who wrote (73769)	2/2/2000 10:11:00 PM
From: Neocon	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 108807

reagan.webteamone.com Budget Myths President Reagan entered the White House with an attitude of working honest deals with the Congress on spending. He wanted more defense spending, lower entitlement spending, lower tax rates which would boost the economy (and thus revenues) and seemed to achieve that agreement with Congress in both 1981 and 1982. However, despite getting concessions on taxes, congress never once cut spending, and the actual budgets were higher than what Reagan asked for 7 out of 8 years. This attitude of "cut spending later" helped continue the debt trends that began under Ford and Carter. By the end of Reagans terms, debt had increased by $2 trillion. We've all heard the myth: President Reagan asked for far more spending than congress wanted and/or congress actually spent less than what Reagan asked for...yet the truth once again tells a different story. Federal Budget Outlays Proposed (Reagan) and Actual (Congress) and Cumulative Percent Difference (billions of dollars) Fiscal Year Outlays Cumulative Differences Proposed Actual % Difference 1982 695.3 745.8 7.3 0.0 1983 773.3 808.4 4.5 12.1 1984 862.5 851.8 -1.2 10.8 1985 940.3 946.4 0.7 11.6 1986 973.7 990.3 1.7 13.5 1987 994.0 1003.9 1.0 14.6 1988 1024.3 1064.1 3.9 19.1 1989 1094.2 1144.2 4.6 24.5 Totals 7,357.6 7,554.9 Avg 2.8 Avg 3.1 Sources: Budget Message of the President, FY's 81 to 89 Budget of the United States, FY 1993, Part 5, Table 1.3, page 5-18. Proposed outlays for 1981 from 1981 FY 1982 Budget Revisions So there you have it. On average, Congress spent 2.8% more than Reagan asked for, while the cumulative (yearly compounding rate) was a whopping 24.5% more. If the budget in 1989 had been 24.5% smaller (i.e., 280 billion dollars) there could have been a surplus of about 130 billion dollars instead of a deficit. This is equivalent to a constant compounding increase of 2.8% every year during the 8 budgets above and beyond the previous year's spending. Whomever thinks that is not a significant amount should ask themselves whether a balanced budget in 1989 would have been significant.