During the April primaries a local politician saturated the airwaves with, "Ronald Reagan was right, we need to reduce the size of government ("big government") and we need to cut taxes." Of course that's been the cry of many a politician, mostly from one party. They often also claim they will balance the budget. Let's look at the record. Reagan and the Bushes have accounted for 70% of the national debt. They reduced big government too. For example, federal regulation of the financial markets. It led straight to the subprime mortgage crisis and the housing meltdown. Henry Paulson and Ben Bernanke have said as much. Here's the evidence.