XPost: alt.culture.ny-upstate, ny.politics, nyc.politics 
 XPost: nyc.general 
 From: rms1@my-deja.com 
  
 Dave Hitt  wrote in message 
 news:hi1glvo7aora6qsglkdapareqmm3lms6l9@4ax.com... 
  
 > Complete nonsense. 
  
 Hardly. 
  
 > The collapse was directly caused by out spending them on the military 
 > buildup.  We kept spending, they tried to keep up, and went bankrupt. 
  
 Actually, it was Reagan who claimed that the United States had to keep up 
 with Soviet military spending - not the other way around.  Plus, increases 
 in defense spending started under Carter, before Reagan even took office. 
 According to the Center for Defense Information (using DOD numbers), the 
 defense budget in 1976 was $234 billion.  By 1980, it was $246.2 billion and 
 rising.  Reagan increased it further; but that has nothing to do with what 
 has happening inside the Soviet Union - and their economic woes. 
  
 --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05 
  * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)