Regarding James Poupard’s Aug. 1 letter headlined “Bush, GOP culpable in nation’s finances”:
Yes, the budget deficit and the national debt are larger. Willingly or not, we are at war — a war that the American people don’t want to lose. We have to spend money to support our troops. One way we could improve our economy would be to produce our own oil in our own country, both on and offshore. But this is a no-no for Democrats.
If the United States has to borrow money, we have to borrow it from whoever has the money to lend. That wouldn’t be Russia or other European countries. If it’s China, well, as the bank robber said, “You go where the money is.”
And, yes, Republicans will say, “Look at those Democrats wanting to raise our taxes again.” They will say that because that’s what Democrats always do. Why shouldn’t we believe it?
In 1993, when Bill Clinton took office, there was a mild economic downturn. Clinton’s campaign slogan was “It’s the economy, stupid.” The slogan was meant to get the American voter to believe that only a change to a Democratic administration would pull us out of what was a nonexistent recession.
In 1995, after the Republicans took over the House and the Senate, the economy soared. Clinton and the Democrats took the credit for it, of course.
After the 9/11 attack, there was a real danger of a recession. The economy stalled. President Bush and Congress pulled us out of it with tax cuts.
Now the Democrats are crying “change” again. They are painting as gloomy a picture as possible of the economy. Why? To scare the voters into supporting the Democratic ticket and into agreement to their plan to tax the “rich” and — as they promise — give a tax break to the “middle class.”
This sounds like a great idea, but the problem is: At what income level do we stop being “middle class” and start being “rich”? Is there a sharp dividing line between the two or do they overlap? Who decides?
Another problem is that the “rich” are already paying the largest percentage of total taxes. They are not all Enron chief executives. They are the ones who own and manage the businesses that employ the “middle class.”
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