Civil War… seriously? You went that far back to make your point. Here I thought you were referring to the Cold War. My previous statement still holds true, you’re looking at eras that had little to no global competition, there wasn’t much if a world market place to put economic pressure on our economy. Times are different now and failing economics such as Keynesian economics are proving just how damaging they really are.

Ronald Reagan was a war time president and all wars will cause some level off debt. Nevertheless, the facts are that the federal deficit fell from 6% of GDP in 1983 to 3.2% of GDP in 1987 and the federal deficit in Reagan’s final budget fell to 2.9% of GDP. Plus, the rate of growth in federal spending fell from 4% under Jimmy Carter to 2.5% under Ronald Reagan. However, Reagan’s tax reform was weakened by the many hands that changed the President’s calculus, like Congress.

Prior to Reagan’s term, the US economy experienced a decade of rising unemployment and inflation, known as stagflation. The economy went from a GDP growth of -0.3% in 1980 to 4.1% in 1988, which reduced the unemployment rate by 1.6%, from 7.1% in 1980 to 5.5% in 1988, but the recession he walked into office dealing with caused peaks around 9.5% in 1982 and 1983 before reversing.