The Reagan recession was necessary to squeeze all of the inflation out of the economy and to win the cold war...which Reagan did. Reagan proved that you can cut taxes and increase tax revenues at the same time ...which he did year after year after year. Had he not had a divided congress forcing him to cut deals he had to cut in order to get his policies and programs into place ... the debt would have greatly minimized from where it ultimately ended up thanks to the spend happy left. Reagan was a net tax cutter and not just by a little ...but by a lot and the tax cuts were for everyone not just the rich