Something for Nothing

In today's NYT, David Brooks has an op-ed on health care called "Something for Nothing." While he's complaining about Obama's trying to get more health care without paying for it, it reminded me that Reagan did the same thing, but from a different perspective. Obama wants to provide more government services without increasing taxes, while Reagan continued to provide services, but reduced the taxes needed to pay for them. Reagan was to some extent victimized by his staff and Republican colleagues, who wanted less government and thus reduced taxes in an effort to starve it. But Reagan was too kind hearted to starve actual people or to turn them out in the cold; so, he didn't reduce services much, thus plunging the US into the huge budget deficits which continue until today, with a brief pause during the Clinton administration. While criticizing the Obama administration, David Brooks conveniently overlooks the fact that the Republicans are the fathers of the deficits. Obama may yet be more responsible than Reagan was. He still has time to bring revenues more in line with expenditures. Given the terrible state of the economy, it's a hard time to do it; he probably shouldn't be expected to try for a year or more.