At Least Someone Has the Guts to Say It

"I would suggest that if they're going to name something, it should be the Ronald Reagan Bureau of Public Debt."
- U.S. Rep. David Obey, Page 9, CQ Today, 6/9/04

Give some props to Obey (pictured left) - he's got the guts to point out what conservative lawmakers are trying to whitewash with their new efforts to rename buildings after Reagan. As Forbes magazine pointed out, "the Reagan years added $1.4 trillion to the federal debt." Similarly, the Washington Post reported that "In January 1981, when Reagan declared the federal budget to be 'out of control,' the deficit had reached almost $74 billion, the federal debt $930 billion. Within two years, the deficit was $208 billion. The debt by 1988 totaled $2.6 trillion. In those eight years, the United States moved from being the world's largest international creditor to the largest debtor nation."