Hannity has hero-worshiped Reagan during his entire radio talk show career. Ironically I wasn't much of a fan during the actual Reagan years (which were my waning days as a conservative Democrat): I was a harsh critic of the deficits piled up during his Presidency. As a current libertarian, I still am a critic of his failure to cut government and foreign interventionist policies, among other things, certainly no rose-colored glasses.
But Hannity, on his show the other day, made an assertion that Trump was far more effective and productive than Reagan was during his early Presidency. This is absurd on so many levels:
- Reagan never had a GOP-controlled House.
- Reagan inherited a sluggish, recessionary economy where the Fed pushed the funds rate to about 20%
- Trump has added about $1.1T to the national debt in his first 14 months, with a GOP-controlled Congress behind him. That over half of what Reagan did over 2 terms, countered by a divided or opposition Congress. .Never mind that Trump promised to pay off the debt.
- Reagan was a principled pro-liberty conservative while Trump is a faux populist who has flipped-flopped repeatedly on principle.
Never mind the fact that Trump couldn't get repeal of ObamaCare done, He hasn't got a functional budget under control, leaping from one shutdown crisis to the next. He spends too much time on tweets, and his Administration has been unstable.
