GOP opposes deficit when it’s convenient

Why is it that when the Republicans are in office the deficit doesn’t matter, but when they are out of power it’s the only issue?

Remember Ronnie Reagan telling Jimmy Carter $57 billion was obscene? The national debt was below $1 trillion. By the time Reagan-Bush left office the deficit was at $4.9 trillion. Then Clinton became president and the deficit was again a huge issue with the Republicans. Clinton and the budget that would kill America led to 10 years of growth and a surplus in the Treasury.

George W. Bush won the presidency and gave the surplus away. The deficit was raised at least seven times during his term; no one threatened to bankrupt America. Deficits didn’t matter, so they said.

By the time Bush left office the deficit was $10 trillion and growing, but that was OK. In came President Obama facing a 1930s-style depression, thousands of jobs a month lost, banks closing and Wall Street plummeting. The Republicans again threatened to force America into default. They would cut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid but will not consider raising taxes on the weathly or eliminating subsidies for the oil companies.

Remember, between Reagan and Bush the top 10 percent received a 50 percent tax cut. The Republicans refuse even to roll back 4 percent of that tax break. Companies were supposed to take the tax cuts and invest in America, but instead they sent jobs overseas. The ratio of CEO to worker wages is unbelievably higher than anywhere else in the world.

Stop and look at what really is going on and who is on your side — lower taxes, but for whom?

Robert Boros

Mount Prospect