"That's higher than any other president by a massive amount" - Any modern president. Abraham Lincoln had a 2859.40% increase. Martin Van Buren had a 1458.32% increase. We've had quite a few over 200%.

One wonders what was going on during Lincoln's presidency that could have contributed to such a massive increase.

Something about State's rights. It's a mystery.

Lincoln was president during the US Civil War

He was being sarcastic

I was being sarcastic (well, playing the straight man)

Ignoring [the AIDS epidemic] is putting it mildly, IMO

All that is saying is that back then the Democrats engaged in lawfare. Nothing new.

Sarcasm doesn't come across well in written comments.

When I was taught the Metric System in elementary school it felt like we were being whisked into the future. I know it may sound like I'm putting too fine a point on it, but by joining the rest of the developed world (and more specifically, the scientific community) it felt like a step along a path to a global community.

Reagan tossed the whole thing and we were snapped back to feet, inches, ounces, pounds, Fahrenheit.

I have photos from road trips in the late 70's where Federal highway signs, like on mountain passes, have the elevation indicated in Meters. When I used Google street view I see we're back to regressive signage.

I know, a minor nit.

I tried to track down the reasoning (I mean you would think a right-leaning pro-business president would support the Metric system), this came up:

https://themetricmaven.com/terminating-metric-with-extreme-p...

He did sign the Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act of 1988 into law. The measure declared that the metric system of measurement to be the preferred measurement system for U.S. trade and commerce.

But he also defunded the US Metric Board.

I suspect he didn't care about metric enough to fight other conservatives over it.

"Reagan’s education advisor, Roger A. Freeman stated, “We are in danger of producing an educated proletariat. That’s dynamite! We have to be selective on who we allow [to go through higher education].” This belief has shaped higher education to become a privilege of the upper class, with tuition serving as a barrier to those from working-class backgrounds.

When Reagan became president, he continued his efforts to dismantle the public education system, targeting federal aid to students. "

from: https://newuniversity.org/2023/02/13/ronald-reagans-legacy-t...

I think it was also retribution against college kids deferring the Vietnam war draft. The student deferment was supposed to be a rich-only loophole..

OTOH, Carter pardoned Vietnam war draft dodgers.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proclamation_4483#:~:text=Jimm....

(I foresee a similar decision needing to be made in Russia soon..)

yeah, seeing the situation 40-50 years later... maybe history really does rhyme