Voters are to blame

Concerning the Nov. 22 front page article “Debt panel fails to reach deal.”

After months of negotiations, our federal elected officials were unable to reach a compromise to reduce the federal budget deficits by $1.4 trillion over the next 10 years.

The federal deficits are projected to be $11 trillion over the next 10 years, so they were only dealing with about 10 percent of the deficit problem, and they couldn’t even do that. How pathetic.

Taxes fund governmental programs and services. At the federal level, we are underfunding these programs by 45 percent, with the difference being made up by borrowing money from other countries.

As a people, we do not have the courage to tax ourselves to pay for these programs, nor do we have the courage to cut the programs.

How many of you would be willing to have Fairchild Air Force Base closed, or privatize the Bonneville Power Administration or Corps of Engineers dams?

So, we will continue to live on deficits and debt until we bankrupt ourselves. Can’t happen to us? Look at Greece, Italy and the defunct Soviet Union.

We keep re-electing the same corrupt and incompetent representatives, so there is nobody to blame but ourselves.

Mark Johnson

Nine Mile Falls