How amusing can the political right manage to be? In the Thursday letter, “Democrats ought to be so proud,” the writer exclaims “Nothing like Democrats in charge!” referring to south Snohomish County having the state’s top sales tax. As if (in this fantasy world in which Republicans live) the Republicans were in charge there would not be a top payer of sales tax in our state?!
His second hilarious statement: “Democrats and Democrat thinking people are like drunks without a budget or credit card limit.”
Facts: Under Reagan the national debt almost tripled. By the end of George H.W. Bush’s presidency, it had exploded to $4 trillion. Clinton reversed Reagan’s course, raising taxes on the wealthy, and lowering them for the working and middle classes. This produced the longest sustained economic expansion in American history. Clinton’s budget also allowed the government to begin paying down the crippling debt begun under Reagan. In Clinton’s last year, the surplus amounted to $236 billion.
George W. Bush immediately reversed Clinton’s policy in order to revive Reagan’s and handed out $630 billion in tax cuts to the top 1 percent of income earners. In true Republican fashion, the super rich returned the favor by giving over $200 million to ensure Bush’s re-election. Bush blew through Clinton’s surplus in his first year. The 2004 deficit reached $415 billion. Its real size was masked by the fact that Bush shifted $150 billion from the Social Security trust fund in order to make the shortfall look smaller, and never included the cost of his war on terror.
So, Clinton moved us from record deficits to a record $236 billion surplus, Republicans moved us from a record surplus to a record $490 billion deficit. But according to the writer, Republicans are the responsible ones? Okey-Dokey!
Kevin Wruck
Marysville
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