I am so very tired of hearing this hypocritical carping about the deficit.
After all, it was George W. Bush who blew the budget surplus he inherited from the previous administration, who dragged us into two wars and gave tax breaks to the wealthy, all unpaid for and all of which exploded the budget deficit.
Have we forgotten this already? Are our memories really that short?
Where was the hue and cry when all that “out-of-control spending” was going on?
Yes, this President has added to the deficit. At least he was trying to goose the economy, which would have put more of us back to work. He should have been given the chance to do more, to help create more jobs, because working people pay taxes and that reduces the deficit.
“Unneeded projects like high speed rail.” Really? Does anyone enjoy air travel these days?
The drive to the airport and required wait time prior to departure are longer than the time in the air on shorter flights and significantly prolong longer ones.
I, for one, would welcome high speed rail as an alternative. Hey, maybe we could get rid of those air traffic controllers and TSA agents who keep us safe. That would shrink the size of government and lower the deficit.
The “investments” derided by some would fix our crumbling roads and bridges, would develop clean energy, which in turn, would free us from Middle East despots, and would improve our educational system, which has fallen into serious disrepair.
The “investments” would create jobs, jobholders would pay taxes; taxes would reduce the deficit. Seems like a good plan to me.
The Ryan plan would, over time, destroy Medicare as we know it. Instead, the government would give seniors vouchers to purchase private health insurance. Good luck with that one.
The Ryan plan would continue tax cuts for the wealthy.
There are better ways to balance the budget and it should start with returning the tax rate for the wealthy from the present 34 percent (a result of the Bush tax cuts) to the previous rate of 39 percent. If you”re that wealthy, you can surely afford a piddling 4-percent increase. Just how many millions does it take to live anyway?
Warren Buffett says he should not be paying a lower tax rate than his secretary, and I agree.
I”m not saying that we should soak the rich, but those who benefit most from living in this country should be willing to pay their fair share. Instead, many of them pay a lower tax rate than the rest of us do and some of the biggest corporations pay no tax at all.
Every year we give millions in subsidies to the oil companies, which make enormous profits. Those subsidies are paid, of course, with our tax dollars. Might be better to get rid of them than the TSA agents.
I too, am concerned about the size of the deficit. I wish G.W. Bush hadn”t gotten us into this mess.
I wish his Wall Street buddies hadn”t sabotaged the entire economy, which exacerbated it.
I too, am concerned about the Chinese holdings. But I don”t think we should be balancing the budget on the backs of the poor and the middle class, who did little or nothing to create the problem.
Phyllis Murphey
Lower Lake
