Wars expanded deficits

The GOP and its tea party allies maintain our huge deficit resulted from careless spending and that cutting entitlement programs – such as Medicare and Medicaid – is the proper remedy. But they fail to point out what has caused our deficit.

It is the result of two wars (one unnecessary) our country has waged during the past 10 years without having funds to pay for them. President George W. Bush, instead of raising taxes to pay for them, cut taxes including for the wealthy. This caused a deficit that will take years to recover from.

As retired Navy Lt. Cmdr. Jeanie Egbert points out in a letter to Time magazine, “It drove me crazy when George W. Bush declared we were a nation at war, but lowered taxes … and asked no sacrifices of any civilian. Everyone should join in, if only paying for the wars with higher taxes.”

When President Bill Clinton left office in 2000, we had a balanced budget and no deficit. And he didn’t have to cut programs aiding our seniors and the less advantaged to achieve this. So let’s think about who and what is really to blame for our current deficit – and agree to pay our share.

James W. Ramsey

Sandpoint