Neb, you've got a job to do.
Just one more thing: was there ever a need to raise military spending like crazy at the time?
Not military as such, though it is ironic that that liberals tend to wail over Reagan's "debt explosion" while claiming to follow Keynesian theory. Logical consistency tends to be the first casualty of politics, though. Reagan was more or less a military Keynesian, and said liberals usually have no understanding of neo-chartalist and modern monetary theory.
But in a post-industrial (buzzword alert!) economy, isn't using the military as a stimulus rather ineffective?
Note: "Defense spending acts as a mild stimulus; when stimulus is hard to come by, policymakers have to take this effect seriously. Moreover, substantial cuts to the defense budget (which I heartily favor) will without a doubt eliminate many solid, well paying manufacturing and service jobs." IOW, better than nothing. Volcker at the helm of the Fed didn't hurt any either, though Reagan did initiate the long and ignominious reign of Mr. Bubbles.
"Relatively ineffective" would've been a better wording on my part. My point was that being a military Keynesian is significantly less effective than being any other kind of Keynesian, so we still shouldn't give Reagan a pass on such things.
True, though it is a wee bit hypocritical to make a massive stink over his racking up debt (other than to point out the fact that the "Reagan as fiscal conservative" mythos is laughably false) while calling for...a massive racking up of debt.
Yah. I agree with you on that.