Ronald Reagan: Not Worried About Deficit
on Tuesday, June 12, 2012Funny Money Quotes: Joking about the national debt by saying that its bulk conveys responsibility upon itself for a very large problem. Ronald Reagan said:
“I am not worried about the deficit. It is big enough to take care of itself” — Ronald Reagan
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In this quote, Ronald Reagan is expressing a lack of concern about the size of the federal budget deficit. His interpretation seems to be that once deficits grow large enough, political and economic pressures will naturally force governments to take action to address them through spending cuts or tax increases.
Reagan appears to believe that very large deficits contain within them the seeds of their own solution, since politicians and the public will demand fiscal discipline as debt mounts to unsustainable levels.
However, critics could argue that Reagan underestimated how long it might take for deficits to self-correct, and that rapidly expanding national debt still poses economic risks in the interim. Overall, Reagan conveys a view that deficits may be a short-term problem that will automatically fix themselves over the long-run, without necessarily requiring proactive measures.