What do we want nation to look like?

Before we try to deal with the looming problems of the deficit and the debt limit, the question should be: What kind of United States do we want when this recession is over?

If you follow the path suggested by Republicans, we will be left with the ability to wage war, businesses will have free rein and all the tax incentives they want (whether they apparently need them or not), the rich will pay very low taxes, and the rest of us will have lost or have greatly weakened benefits and safety nets such as Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, the FDA, the Clean Air Act, public television, Head Start, unemployment compensation, regulations to prevent overreach and/or unfair practices by businesses. Is this really the kind of nation we want?

If we follow the path suggested by President Obama, the very rich would pay taxes equal to what they paid before the Bush tax cuts, and other programs would be streamlined to make them more economical. Subsidies and tax breaks to profitable companies would end. The shared sacrifice would really be shared by all economic levels.

We know how the deficit spiral began. When President George W. Bush committed us to two wars as well as a prescription benefit plan to Social Security (in which the government was not allowed to bargain for the best prices for those prescriptions) and, at the same time, lowered taxes, he all but guaranteed that the deficits would escalate. Now, we have to ask ourselves, what do we the people want our country to look like? Ask yourself, and then, please, let your representatives and senators know what you want.

Linda Dickey

Lombard