The letter dismissing the Reagan presidency as "pure fantasy" offered no examples other than a cutesy throwaway quote from Dick Cheney about the "Reagan deficits."
Dick Cheney, an establishment Republican, was not a Reagan man. He was a Gerald Ford (liberal Republican) aide who claimed, along with Ford, in 1976 during the Reagan vs. Ford primary that Reagan could not win a general election. Ford repeated the ridiculous charge in June 1980, five months before the Reagan landslide. Of course, Reagan won blowouts every election : four for four in November, two for governor, two for president. He also got stronger as he got older. It was never close. He swept many Republicans into office, embarrassing the clueless pollsters. So much for the loser Ford and Cheney's predictions.
Check instead what Dick Cheney's wife Lynne said about the "Reagan deficits" while she served under President Reagan as chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH).
As department head, Lynne Cheney (more politically savvy than Dick Cheney) had to submit her annual NEH budget to the congressional committee chairman, always a Democrat throughout the 1980s. She pointed out that each time, the Democrat would generally double the amount she requested, not to help her but to buy more votes for congressional Democrats : tax, spend, elect. Democrats controlled spending for forty years straight until 1995. Remember, since 1974, the president has been unable to "impound" bloated budgets but must spend all money appropriated. The changed law (by Democrats) required Reagan to spend it all. All revenue and spending bills originate in the U.S. House of Representatives. Reagan never controlled the House, neither did Nixon or Bush I.
Of course, you will not learn any of this by reading such liberal news sources as the Washington P--- , the AJC, Time or News "weak." Regarding the 1980s, one should remember the ten words : Democrat spending, not tax cuts, blew up the eighties deficit.
Marshall Miller
Lilburn, Georgia
