Reagan increased the national debt and we are still paying about 20-30 billion a year interest on the debt Reagan ran up almost 30 years ago.

Bush 41 called Reagan’s policies “voodoo” economics, but to win the nominiation he had to promise more tax cuts, which he did and funded the military with more national debt. He finally had to renig on his promise and had to raise taxes because he could not sell “deficits don’t matter”. The national debt once again rose and we are still paying interest on that debt.

Bush 43 followed the same reagan pattern and cut taxes on the wealthy, increased military spending and said deficits don’t matter and once again raised the national debt.

Rand said “pumping federal money into a local economy benefits the local economy”

Well what exactly do you think the republicans have been doing for the last 30 years. They have pumped 9 of the 11 trillion dollars in debt into the economy and there is where are growth as come from.

We have a 11 trillion dollar national debt, @ 4% interest debt service is running at about 440 billion dollars a year.

Of course we all know that just because Bush set a record of never vetoing a single spending bill in his first term as president, it is not the republican president’s fault. Is was not republican Bush 43’s fault, it was not republican Reagan’s fault. The republicans and their policies are absolutely not at fault one bit. It is the democrats. It is always the liberal democrats fault. EVERYONE knows this. Liberal democrats sneak into the white house and hold a gun to the republican president’s head and force them, at gunpoint, to sign EVERY piece of spending that comes out of the liberal congress.

Obviously, pumping federal money into a local economy benefits the local economy. The issue is whether or not it benefits the nation. Ideally, investments don’t just provide “jobs”–they should generate wealth (or serve some other vital government responsibility, such as defense). If the government funding is only for job creation, then it’s better left in the hands of those who will use it for wealth creation. The argument that space spending is intrinsically good because “it is spent here on earth” is fallacious.

— Donald

That is not the “Republican brand of economic theory.” It is the standard caricature of it. And it does nothing to address either my, or Don’s point.