That would be David Brooks, not Mel, and he was speaking during an appearance on “This Week with George Stephanopoulos”.    “New York Times columnist David Brooks said on Sunday that it was “insane” for Republicans in Congress, including every GOP member of the House, to support a spending freeze in the middle of a recession.  “Tying such proposals to an intellectual simplicity exhibited by Rush Limbaugh, the conservative scribe also said the party was too obsessed with pursuing the legacy of Ronald Reagan in a drastically different time.  The problem with them and the problem with Limbaugh in terms of intellectual philosophy is they are stuck with Reagan,” … They are stuck with the idea that government is always the problem. A lot of Republicans up in Capitol Hill right now are calling for a spending freeze in a middle of a recession/depression. That is insane. But they are thinking the way they thought in 1982, if we can only think that way again, that is just insane. And there are a lot of Republicans like David Frum … who are trying to say Reagan was right for his era, but it is time to move on. And there are just not a lot of them on Capitol Hill right now, and I think the party is looking for that kind of Republican.”

Well said Mr. Brooks, even though I abhor seeing limp bough’s name in the same sentence with the word ‘intellectual’ –  although ‘simplicty’ did rescue the statement.  Also, having read Stockman’s “The triumph of Politics, How the Reagan Revolution Failed” (he was budget director during the early scenes of that B movie). I also cringe when I see the actor’s named linked with policy. 

Before jumping on the good ship Reagan, one must ask if  ‘Reagonomics’ worked? It certainly did: 

  o It redistributed wealth from the lower and  middle classes to the very wealthiest.

  o Increased our national debt nearly ten fold.

  o Allowed our infrastructure and education systems to deteriorate.

  o Left us unprepared for the post cold war world: enter Japan, then Korea, then China, et all.

N.B.: I am including Bush 41 & 43 with Ronald I, under supply-side slumdogs. 

see: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/03/08/brooks-gop-spending-freez_n_172838.html