Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

LETTER TO THE EDITOR:

Lets’ get serious about the debt crisis

I listened to Republican House Speaker John Boehner, Republican House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan and, on Wednesday, Democratic President Barack Obama regarding the federal budget for 2012 and beyond — and I am so disappointed.

Republicans really won’t consider much of a cut to defense spending, won’t consider exiting Afghanistan, Iraq or Libya, won’t consider rescinding the Bush tax cuts for those making more than $250,000 and say virtually nothing specific about modifying the income tax code.

Democrats won’t address Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid — which are 60 percent of the entire budget — in any meaningful way, can’t find any unnecessary discretionary spending that could be cut, and say virtually nothing specific about modifying the income tax code.

Don’t any of them see what most of us see? We borrow 40 cents of every dollar our government spends. We are $14.5 trillion in debt. Everyone in Washington says that “we need to put everything on the table,” but then they proceed to take many things off the table.

Everything must be on the table. If it isn’t, we will never exit this financial crisis and it will eventually transform this country into something we won’t even recognize.

If you are partisan, you’d better stop and reconsider. We must demand much more from both of these parties!

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