But when Reaganomics struggled to deliver on its promise to end
deficit spending, the President’s Budget Director, David Stockman,
challenged this economic strategy. Stockman, a traditional fiscal
conservative, publicly warned that deep tax cuts and increased
military spending would make large deficits inevitable, the
consequences of which could be disastrous. He therefore advised
the President to further curtail funding for social programmes,
including Medicare and Medicaid. Yet, Reagan did neither.
Undeterred, he stayed his economic course.