ShmoopTube

00:03

Reagan ran for office in 1980 as a harsh critic of what he

00:07

called tax and spend liberalism he solemnly vowed that a president he would [Raegan using a shrink ray on a government building]

00:13

shrink the size of the federal government and cut government spending

00:15

he probably really meant it to like we mean it when we say we're not going to [Man slobbering on a sofa eating Lays]

00:20

eat the whole bag of chips. once in office Reagan found it impossible to deliver on

00:25

all of his promises while he did cut some programs some of the largest chunks of the [Person using a small axe to cut wood]

00:29

federal budget went to pay for Social Security and Medicare.. well please provide

00:33

retirement income and health care for the elderly so Reagan had long

00:37

criticized both programs he found it politically impossible to dismantle them

00:41

they're actually the two most popular government social programs in American

00:44

history and for good reason and even though Reagan hated them he knew granny

00:48

wasn't going to vote for him if he snatched her med after Social Security [Old woman deciding note to vote for Raegan]

00:52

and Medicare the next largest government expenses on the military while Reagan

00:57

would rather slices his own arm off and really cut defenseman well he was a

01:00

serious commie hating cold warrior remember rather than cutting military [Raegan throwing piles of cash to a military vehicle]

01:04

spending he bumped it up a few notches he's even quoted as saying to the

01:08

planners of Pentagon defense is not a budget item you spend what you need to

01:11

but defense was and is in fact a budget item and a really big one well sorry [Raegan stood in front of an American flag discussing military budgets]

01:17

Ronnie weapons aren't cheap even when they're on sale at Walmart but they've

01:20

got to pay for it. So with Social Security Medicare and defense all off the table

01:24

for cuts well there wasn't much left to cut it was like somebody was told to cut [Raegan sat at an empty table alone]

01:29

the grass just not the green leaves, well those three programs combined with

01:33

unavoidable payments on the national debt accounted for fully eighty-five

01:36

percent of the federal budget during Reagan's presidency and congressional

01:40

Democrats were just not into snipping the remaining fifteen percent this [Congressional democrats in a meeting]

01:44

included many liberal social programs instituted by Democrat idols like FDR

01:48

and LBJ and Reagan never really went to the mat to strong-arm them into it the [Two people arm-wrestling]

01:53

result well government spending continued to rise surprise surprise

01:57

Reagan's presidency produced huge annual federal budget deficits of more than 100

02:02

billion dollars and it'd go to about 200 billion today if you adjust for

02:05

inflation it was an ironic result for a man who'd spent his entire

02:09

political career criticizing deficit spending by the government yet

02:13

the national debt tripled under Reagan's watch reaching 2.7 trillion by the time [Baseball player strikes the ball and it smashes]

02:17

he left office of course it's easy to criticize from afar we're pretty sure

02:22

leaving that kind of debt pained Raegan like a kidney stone these days the [Raegan clutching his kidneys as he walks out of the room]

02:26

deficit is over 19 trillion and counting say that every time it thunders in

02:31

Washington it probably is Reagan waking up in heaven bashing his head against

02:35

a wall [Raegan in heaven smashing his head against a brick wall]

Full Transcript