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Letter revises fiscal history

The Spokesman-Review

Let me take some time to correct Art Seaton’s Feb. 1 version of history.

Mr. Seaton claims that Republicans are deficit busters while Democrats are deficit hawks based on who has been president. Mr. Seaton doesn’t know that until 1994, Tom Foley and the Democrats ran the House where all spending bills start. Democrats never met a tax increase or spending program that they didn’t like, so they ran up the deficit with the New Deal and Great Society. In 1995, George Nethercutt and the Republicans ran the House. Using tax cuts and reducing spending, President Clinton is able to claim that he balanced the budget.

Based on the success of the ’90s, George W. Bush was elected president. Sadly, President Bush believed that tax cuts and increased federal spending was the way to economic success. Cathy McMorris Rodgers was forced to go along with the president of her party. Now, due to government intervention in housing, energy, food and wages, we have a recession.

President Obama’s solution to the recession is the same solution that FDR had in the 1930s. The New Deal prolonged the Great Depression, as will the stimulus package of 2009 prolong the recession.

Stephen Jon Taylor

Spokane Valley

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