Ronald Reagan: More myth than man

Most of what is claimed about Reagan isn't true. 

Those of us who have clear memories of the 1980s recall Ronald Reagan as an affable personality but also know that most of what is cited today about Reagan is made up.  It simply is not true.  Certain of us in the middle class remember the increases in our taxes as particularly burdensome.  

A book about the false Reagan myths by Will Bunch is excerpted in the Washington Post.  Some examples of the myths are:   

Federal spending grew by an average of 2.5 percent a year, adjusted for inflation, while Reagan was president. The national debt exploded, increasing from about $700 billion to nearly $3 trillion. Many experts believe that Reagan's massive deficits not only worsened the recession of the early 1990s but doomed his successor, George H.W. Bush, to a one-term presidency by forcing him to abandon his "no new taxes" pledge.

The number of federal employees grew from 2.8 million to 3 million under Reagan, in large part because of his buildup at the Pentagon. (It took the Democratic administration of President Bill Clinton to trim the employee rolls back to 2.7 million.) Reagan also abandoned a campaign pledge to get rid of two Cabinet agencies - Energy and Education - and added a new one, Veterans Affairs.

Read five of the most common Reagan myths here.