Uh, wasn't Ronald Reagan the one who took spending on research for the cause of AIDS from zero to hundreds of millions of dollars? Didn't that spending outpace the growth in spending on research for the causes of other, more prevalent, ailments and afflictions?
And as for the "payroll tax increase" that hurt the lower and middle classes so much, wasn't that the hike in social security taxes, necessary because so many freeloaders were milking the system dry? And besides, I thought primitives were in favor of higher taxes, so what's the beef?