| Illustration by Barry Blitt from Vanity Fair article |
See the article here. As noted in the piece, the Federal government actually expanded during his presidency:
Under President Reagan (1981–89), the size of the federal government increased by any measure. Executive-branch civilian employment, which covers almost everything except the uniformed military and the Postal Service, was 2.109 million in 1981 and 2.129 million in 1989. Total federal-government employment rose during this period from 4.9 million to 5.3 million.
...Reagan inherited a federal budget of $599 billion in revenue, $678 billion in spending, and a deficit of $79 billion. He left office with a federal budget of $909 billion in revenue, a little less than $1.1 trillion in spending, and a deficit of $155 billion.
For myself personally, I always noticed that this hero of the Christian right didn't seem to put much emphasis on the issue of abortion. Indeed, as Governor of California, he expanded abortion procedures, and while he courted pro-lifers by paying lip service in support of a Constitutional amendment that would have restricted abortions, he certainly didn't put much energy behind it (see here for source).
...If you’re looking for a good bureaucracy slasher, try Bill Clinton. In his eight years, the size of the executive-branch workforce dropped more than 10 percent, from 2.9 million to 2.6 million.
I recognize that Reagan's sunny optimism and positive outlook restored the confidence of many Americans and made him a hero to those who believed in American exceptionalism. But talk about a Telfon president! To many on the right, Reagan remains one of the last truly "pure" heroes, which makes it all rather pathetic when one sees much of it is nothing more than self-delusion and wishful thinking.
