Tax revenues between 1980 and 1990 almost doubled. Unfortunately, spending outstripped it (it usually does.) The spending increases were not solely the fault of the Democrats. Had the Reagan budgets been adopted unchanged, there would still have been deficits, although they would have been somewhat smaller.

Government will spend whatever it takes in, and then some. They sure did in California. This is why you can't cure deficits with tax increases. IMO, the "surpluses" we had at the end of the stock boom were largely the result of a rush of capital gains taxes. The percentage of income taxes attributed to capital gains doubled from about 6 percent to about 12 percent in the latter part of the 1990s.