Parties should cooperate more

History shows that Republicans must at least share responsibility for the current budget crisis.

President Bill Clinton inherited a huge deficit from the first President George Bush (whom I voted for). But when Clinton left office, there was no more deficit but a surplus. President George W. Bush, who inherited this great success, went to war against the Taliban in Afghanistan, then invaded Iraq. With two wars raging (wars which have lasted longer than World War II) our deficits began to pile up to the tune of millions to billions of dollars a week.

Then in 2003, the housing industry slowly began to go south as lenders packaged thousands of mortgages of questionable value to sell to unwary investors worldwide. When whistle blowers predicted the likely bursting of the “housing bubble,” many of these concerned watchdogs were ridiculed or even fired.

In business, the past decade saw more outsourcing of whole companies to Third World countries where cheap labor was plentiful. These companies continued to boom, but many thousands of American jobs were lost, jobs which people needed to make the mortgage payments on the houses falling into foreclosure.

Faced with such an array of complex and interrelated challenges, there is no way either party can blame the other. What our nation needs is all of us working together instead of fighting and blaming each other or sitting on our hands.

To restore fiscal responsibility, to create meaningful jobs for Americans who need them, to provide our citizens with clean water and clean renewable sources of energy, to become a model of the benefits of democracy, instead of trying to enforce it with military shock and awe. These are the goals we as a nation must commit to. It is time to stop partisan finger pointing and get down to the business of making our democracy work.

Save our nation. ““United we stand. Divided we fall”

Virginia Applegren

Barrington