Are we forgetting that the Democrats in Congress in 1981 also passed huge spending increases and then blamed Reagan for the ballooning deficit - blaming it all on military spending when the increase to the DoD was just a fraction of the increases on social programs?

It's a lot harder to play the 'cut taxes and spur growth enough to kill the deficit' when we've already cut taxes significantly, increased domestic spending (especially non-discretionary), have worse economic underpinnings, and increased class warfare to say nothing of hyper-partisan politics.