Yes, Thompson can, and will if he gets in, play the role of Reagan.
The sad legacy of Ronald Reagan is that he increased government and its voracious appetite for power and spending, just like every president in history has.
In 1980, Jimmy Carter's last year as president, the federal government spent a whopping 27.9% of "national income", which is a bogus and totally inappropriate way to refer to the private wealth produced by the American people, Reagan blasted the free-spending Carter administration throughout his 1980 campaign.
So how did the Reagan administration do?
At the end of the first quarter of 1988, federal spending accounted for 28.7% of "national income."
"Candidate" Reagan promised to abolish (along with the Department of Energy) the Department of Education, instead, the budget more than doubled to $22.7 billion. Social Security spending rose from $179 billion in 1981 to $269 billion in 1986. Other "entitlements" like the farm programs went from $21.4 billion in 1981 to $51.4 billion in 1987, a 140% increase. And this doesn't count $4 billion "drought-relief" measure. Medicare spending in 1981 was $43.5 billion; in 1987 it hit $80 billion. Federal entitlements cost $197.1 billion in 1981—and $477 billion in 1987.
This is exactly what we will get under Fred Thompson. More of the same. Just like Bush v.1 and 2.
The starvation is coming, as Americans continue to dance on the deck of the Titanic...
the story has little substance, really...
