detractors of reagan's policies note that although reagan promised to simultaneously slash taxes, massively increase defense spending and balance the budget, by the time he left office the nation's budget deficit had tripled in his eight years in office. in 2009, reagan's budget director noted that the "debt explosion has resulted not from big spending by the democrats, but instead the republican party's embrace, about three decades ago, of the insidious doctrine that deficits don't matter if they result from tax cuts". he inspired conservatives to greater electoral victories by being reelected in a landslide against walter mondale in 1984, but oversaw the loss of the senate in 1986.