According to Former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill, VP Cheney isn't too concerned about deficits.

O'Neill said he tried to warn Vice President Dick Cheney that growing budget deficits posed a threat to the economy.

Cheney cut him off, O'Neill said. "You know, Paul, Reagan proved deficits don't matter," he said, according to excerpts. Cheney continued: "We won the midterms [congressional elections]. This is our due." Now, I have several thoughts about this (and pretty much everything else). The first and most important is this: why do people talk about deficits, rather than ratios of deficits to something. I mean, one way of measuring personal financial risk is the ratio of your outstanding debt to your income. Accountants sometimes break it down further, into short-term debt/income. Isn't there a more useful metric out there, than just debt? I mean, we have more people than at any other time in our country's history, we drive more vehicles, we make more money....why should the static figure of debt remain constant?

For me, it seems intuitive that the deficit/GDP might be expected to reflect the economy's health. Same thing witht debt/GDP. And I'm sorry, but I just don't know how those have changed over time. Anyone?

Also, if we can use Cheney's brilliant (sarcasm, there) logic that Reagan taught us that "deficits don't matter", what else did we learn from President Reagan?

1. Cancer doesn't matter
2. Unemployment doesn't matter
3. "I don't recall" is always an adequate excuse, no matter your role or the severity of the situation.
4. Stand tough and say pretty things.
5. Singing with chimpanzees is a valuable credential for U.S. president.
6. We should expand the federal government (he did).
7. We don't need to reduce taxes (he didn't)

I guess I'm just saying I'm weary from supposed conservatives on the one hand justifying bad decisions because "our hero Reagan did it" and then choosing to ignore other decisions he made.
If deficits don't matter, fine. Show me why. (I mean, Reaganomics was a terrific experiment that failed. We don't need to re-experiment.) Dont' say they're irrelevant because Reagan said so.

Ok, folks...what else did Reagan teach us?