Which U.S. President said, "I am not worried about the deficit. It is big enough to take care of itself."?

President Reagan famously stated, "I am not worried about the deficit. It is big enough to take care of itself." Reagan made this comment as a joke at the Gridiron Club annual dinner on March 24, 1984. He said this as a joke, but many believed that he thought it held a good deal of truth.

For both critics and those who liked him, they agreed that President Ronald Reagan advocated a limited style of self sufficient government. Cutting tax rates across the board early in his first term jump started the economy. The economy had been lagging for a long time under stagflation and anemic growth. But he still did not tackle large tax entitlements, which were eating away at the dwindling revenue of the United States Treasury. His truly was a "less is better" approach to government.

During Reagan's time, the United States should have been able to use a specific policy, not just politics, to fend off the economic calamities poised to take down the nation. This is still the situation today.

Despite Reagan's brief that big government was bad, government was and is a necessary evil. Having a government that operates properly, makes laws, and provides correct checks upon itself is part of the solution to the problem of big government getting any bigger. These are things that will help control a deficit. If they are in place, then a deficit may take care of itself. Some hold that Reagan saw these previous items when he provided the March quote.