David Stockman Interview On Why Trump Can’t Fix The Debt: “This Guy Is Part Of The Swamp”

Interview by Nick Gillespie At The Reason Foundation “Speakeasy” On January 22, 2024

As Ronald Reagan‘s first budget director, former Michigan congressman David Stockman led the charge to cut the size, scope, and spending of the federal government in the early 1980s. He made enemies among Democrats by pushing hard for cuts to welfare programs—and he ultimately made enemies among his fellow Republicans by pushing equally hard to slash defense spending. His memoir of the era, The Triumph of Politics: Why the Reagan Revolution Failed, is a legendary account of how libertarian principles got sacrificed on the altar of political expediency.