Hard to argue with the likes of Evensteven, for he constantly changes the goalposts. As soon as you establish that Carter wasn't much of a spender and that Reagan was in fact the big spender, he counters that Reagan won the Cold War and gave Americans a sense of pride...and that Obama's deficits are worse. As soon as we establish that Reagan tripled the national debt while Obama isn't even expected to double it, he goes off about money printing (which is a separate matter caused by the Federal Reserve) and how the lot of 'em--Reagan, Bush, Obama--were no good.

Red herrings and straw men are his arguments. Point is, Reagan tripled the national debt while Carter made it go up about 25%. Republicans gave Carter a lot of grief when his deficits approached $50 billion, but thought Reagan's $200 deficits were OK because he was 'winning the cold war' or beating up on two-bit countries like Nicaragua and Grenada...or getting the economy moving again. Reagan could do no wrong even though every one of his eight years had $200 billion deficits. Hard to beat this double standard.