GOP plan bucks history

We keep hearing from GOP conservatives, who nearly scuttled a last-minute agreement to raise our debt limit, that cutting spending will help our economy. In each recession our nation has suffered, it was by increased spending that we recovered. President Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected to four consecutive terms because Americans knew the Works Progress Administration and other spending programs to improve our nation’s infrastructure were also putting people to work.

Why would we believe the GOP argument that eliminating loopholes and raising taxes for the wealthy will cost jobs? Corporate profits are soaring because companies laid off millions of workers, learned to work more efficiently with smaller staffs and have outsourced thousands of jobs overseas.

“If companies were inclined to hire they could,” said Leo Abruzzese, forecasting director for the Economist Intelligence Unit. (Spokesman-Review, Aug. 4)

No matter how they are coddled by representatives receiving their campaign donations, the wealthy and the corporate giants are not motivated to help reduce unemployment. Unless the tax laws are changed, the burden will continue to fall on middle-income Americans who are most affected by the recession.

James W. Ramsey

Kootenai, Idaho