Posted 7:12 PM by steve

Trivia (but not trivial) question: In what ways are Reagan and Bush II alike that hasn't gotten much discussion?

Answer: (1) They both stood by and let Congress spend money like a drunk sailor on shore leave to keep from having - and losing - a 'guns or butter' battle with Congressional Democrats which would have kept them from pursuing their defense buildups, and (2) And both were succeeded by Democrats (yeah, I'm sort of counting Bush I as a continuation of Reagan) who not only cut defense spending and raised taxes (no, Obama hasn't done so... yet), reversing most of what Reagan and Bush tried to accomplish, but also expanded domestic spending far beyond the already too-high levels of Reagan and Bush.

Reagan wanted to rebuild the military after years of neglect under Carter. Bush wanted to fight wars in both Afghanistan and Iraq. Both needed billions and billions and billions of dollars. Both were averse to raising taxes. And both were terrified that the public, if forced to choose, would choose domestic spending over the abstract benefits of more spending on the military.

And they were terrified for good reason. The Democrats were sure to make sure any 'cut' in domestic spending (even 'cuts' that were merely reductions in the growth rate) were such that the public would very much oppose. There would be no below the radar cuts in spending, they would make sure cuts were in programs like police and fire prevention, schools (and not the administrative staff but rather the teachers and custodians who are seen every day by students and parents) and libraries and homeless shelters that were forced to close and cuts in health care benefits that left people unable to find a doctor and so on.

Against this, Reagan and Bush both knew the only way they could keep the money coming for defense programs was to let the Democrats have what they wanted, the last thing they wanted to hear was a complaint that there was 'money for bombs but not for babies'. So the domestic spending took off and never slowed down, with money not only being spent on babies, but on old folks and young folks and poor folks and not so poor folks.

And now with Obama, the Republicans who stood by while Bush stood by are unable to legitimately protest the huge hikes in domestic spending that Obama is proposing. Obama is taking advantage of GOP silence while Bush was in office.