Matt Walsh Says Ronald Reagan 'Helped to Bankrupt the Country' on Deficits

Conservative podcaster Matt Walsh said Ronald Reagan "helped to bankrupt the country" by cutting taxes without cutting spending. In the same breath he faulted the Republican icon's 1986 amnesty law for what he called the illegal immigration crisis.

Walsh, a Daily Wire host, made the remarks on The Matt Walsh Show, in an episode arguing that Social Security should be phased out over 25 years. Walsh said it while tracing today's federal debt back to the 1980s.

"Ronald Reagan would then become, of course, deified by future generations of Republicans and discussed among conservatives with the same reverence we have for George Washington," Walsh said, "even though the fact is he helped to bankrupt the country and he kick-started the illegal immigration crisis that has destroyed countless lives."

Matt Walsh on Reagan's Tax Cuts and Spending

Walsh said Reagan "won landslide victories by promising tax cuts without any meaningful reduction in government spending on all of these welfare programs," and that "the boomers were thrilled."

He played a 1985 clip of Reagan crediting his "nearly 25 percent" rate cuts for falling inflation and "the strongest economic expansion in 30 years." Walsh then argued that federal receipts had fallen to 17.2 percent of GDP by 1985, from 19 percent in 1981, while spending rose and pushed the deficit to 5 percent of GDP.

The current federal budget data backs up the shape of his argument, though not all of his numbers. Office of Management and Budget figures compiled by the St. Louis Fed put receipts at 18.7 percent of GDP in fiscal 1981 and 16.9 percent in fiscal 1985. Outlays rose from 21.1 percent to 21.8 percent over the same period, and the deficit reached 4.9 percent in 1985 after peaking at 5.7 percent in 1983. The gaps between those figures and the ones Walsh cited, 19 percent in 1981 and 17.2 percent in 1985, likely reflect data vintage or definitions, and deficit-to-GDP figures are sensitive to the source used.

Gross federal debt nearly tripled during Reagan's two terms, from about $995 billion at the end of fiscal 1981 to roughly $2.87 trillion at the end of fiscal 1989. (PolitiKool tracks today's figure on its national debt tracker.)

What Walsh Left Out of the Reagan Record

Walsh's account skips the times Reagan reversed course. In August 1982, during a deep recession, Reagan went on national television to urge passage of the Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act. Experts including former Reagan adviser Bruce Bartlett say the 1982 increase was probably the largest peacetime tax increase in U.S. history, Texas Standard reported.

In July 1984, Reagan signed the Deficit Reduction Act, which included about $50 billion in new tax revenue and $13 billion in domestic spending cuts over three years, the Christian Science Monitor reported.

Reagan also signed changes to the program Walsh spent his episode attacking: the Social Security Amendments of 1983, a bipartisan package built on the Greenspan Commission's recommendations.

The 1986 Amnesty and Reagan's Own Party

Walsh said Reagan "poured gas on the fire" with the Immigration Reform and Control Act. He said Reagan "claimed it would ultimately reduce illegal migration. But of course, it accomplished the exact opposite result."

The law, sponsored by Wyoming Republican Senator Alan Simpson, gave legal status to unauthorized immigrants. It paired that legalization with the first penalties on employers who hired unauthorized workers. The Senate approved the final bill 63–24.

Legalization was Reagan's own policy, not a concession to Democrats. At the signing on November 6, 1986, he said the act contained the employer sanctions, enforcement measures and legalization his administration had asked for in 1981. He added that "future generations of Americans will be thankful for our efforts to humanely regain control of our borders."

Walsh's Break With GOP Reverence for Reagan

Walsh built part of his case on The Age of Entitlement, a 2020 book by conservative writer Christopher Caldwell. He read passages arguing that the decades after Reagan's election should have been the easiest time to balance the budget.

He framed the segment as history rather than a broadside against older voters or his own party. "It's not generational warfare. It's just history," Walsh said. Elsewhere he allowed that boomers had been shortchanged by Social Security: "Yeah, they were scammed, sure, but for the most part, they categorically opposed any effort at all to fix the scam."

Walsh's critique arrives as Social Security's finances move back into the conservative conversation. Fox News host Sean Hannity recently told young Americans the program likely won't be there for them. Walsh acknowledged that neither party is likely to touch it. "It's not gonna happen," he said. "I know that."