Uh, jack, you ARE aware that the Reagan increases in “defense” especially things like the B-1 which Carter cancelled because it was junk (over half are now at Davis Montham) but Reagan reinstated, then there was “star wars” and other things that bankrupted us just as badly as Soviet’s much reduced spending. Then there’s that little element of we got to the moon first, but now we have to get Russian taxi service to the ISS. It wasn’t just the excess spending while cutting taxes, it was the fact we let infrastructure fall apart while a few defense contractors got very wealthy by selling the taxpayers pure junk- then throw in a couple wars with Halliburton and contractors being the only real “winners”.
Uh, jack, you ARE aware that the Reagan increases in “defense” especially things like the B-1 which Carter cancelled because it was junk (over half are now at Davis Montham) but Reagan reinstated, then there was “star wars” and other things that bankrupted us just as badly as Soviet’s much reduced spending. Then there’s that little element of we got to the moon first, but now we have to get Russian taxi service to the ISS. It wasn’t just the excess spending while cutting taxes, it was the fact we let infrastructure fall apart while a few defense contractors got very wealthy by selling the taxpayers pure junk- then throw in a couple wars with Halliburton and contractors being the only real “winners”.