Romney, Roskam understand debt

During the recent Olympics, President Obama presented a campaign ad asserting that he wanted to increase taxes on the top 1 percent of Americans in order to help pay down the debt. Here is some simple math: A trillion is one thousand billion. Our national debt is now over $16 trillion. If you took all the money from all the billionaires in this country, this would add up to about $305.1 billion — less than 2 percent of the current national debt; in the time it took to collect that money and put all these people their employees in the poor house, the interest would have added back that amount of debt in the first place.

Whether you are a liberal, conservative or moderate, the math is the same. I am an independent, by the way, who has voted for members of both parties over the years. The president is presenting smoke and mirrors.

Gov. Mitt Romney, on the other hand, has been known throughout his career as a financial genius noted for bailing out financially troubled companies and for rescuing the 2000 Winter Olympics from almost certain bankruptcy and making it a financial as well as a general success. He seems like just what the doctor ordered for our needs at this time.

In addition, my own congressman, Peter Roskam, understands that to actually reduce our staggering debt we need to confront its main instigators, including our huge entitlement programs. These programs are unsustainable in their current form. Without reform, there is no doubt that they will not be there for future Americans.

I support Gov. Romney and Congressman Roskam this November because they know what a huge deal our national debt is. I urge you to do the same.

Terry Spangler

Wheaton