"Giipper" Reagan Evisceration of Carter's Energy Initiatives Throws U.S. for a Loss

About Reagan's attitude toward renewable energy...Reagan had no success in reducing government spending except in one area...eviscerating Carter's Energy initiatives...In a paper on patent generation by area, solar energy patenting plunged from 1983 to 1995. The author said the number one reason was Reagan's complete destruction of renewable energy initiatives...How much did we lose by wasting all that time?...How much ahead would we be now?...We will never know...

http://www.salon.com/news/env/energy/index.html?story=/tech/htww/2010/08/26/the_lies_of_james_watt

But when it comes to Sir Ronnie, reps never let the facts get in the way of printing a good legend....If you want to see government spending here is the chart..it peaked as a percentage of GDP under Reagan....and is just now slightly ahead of his best year, 1983. Of course, we had tax receipts of about 20 percent GDP....now, taxes are like 16 percent of GDP...although listening to teabaggers you'd think it was 80 percent...