Debt escalated

I'm writing in regard to the April 4 letter by David Hoover ("The Reagan Way"), in which he doesn't let the facts get in the way of his opinion. He's right that Ronald Reagan would not have added enough to the national debt to double it in six years.

The fact is he raised deficit spending to its highest level at the time since World War II. Debt exploded from $900 billion before Reagan's tenure to $2.8 trillion after his tenure. Anybody can get online and look at the national debt chart. You'll see, in fact, that the first five years of the Reagan administration broke records for deficit spending.

I wish I could remember the name of the book I read many years ago that explained the deficit spending by the Reagan administration as the hockey stick. For the years before Reagan, the deficit had a slow steady growth. Then in the Reagan years it shot up so high, so fast that it formed the handle of the hockey stick.

JEFF SHAGINAW
Ross