the funny thing about this quote: Reagan said it during a press conference where he was calling for more federal funding to help out struggling farmers https://twitter.com/JudiciaryGOP/status/1387585450550902790

Reagan giving that quote was literally him going “okay, yeah, i’m for smaller govt, but until we get my ideas passed, we are gonna spend SO MUCH MONEY helping out farmers”

and now it gets trotted out… to argue against federal aid, period

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1986/08/13/transcript-of-president-reagans-news-conference/bceaa7d7-a544-4c4e-8af1-51f303a00e25/

Btw, I only first learned about the context for that quote a few months ago, when writing about how Reagan’s messaging about government ineffectiveness laid the groundwork for the Marjories Taylor Greene of today https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/how-ronald-reagan-yes-really-gave-us-marjorie-taylor-greene-n1257062