Larsen walks the talk on spending

I am writing in response to a Feb. 10 letter about Rep. Rick Larsen’s concern with government spending. (“Larsen’s concern comes a little late”).

Last year, Rep. Larsen made some tough but necessary votes to save our economy from catastrophe, and they worked. Thanks in large part to the Recovery Act that Larsen supported, our economy is growing. Last quarter, the GDP rose 5.7 percent, which is the largest gain in six years. Economists also credit the Recovery Act with creating or saving more than 2 million jobs across the country. I think those 2 million workers would agree that Rep. Larsen made the right vote.

In regard to government spending, Rep. Larsen is clear that he believes both Republicans and Democrats contributed to our nation’s fiscal mess and he is committed to working across party lines to clean it up. Larsen is proving that he is not going to just talk about controlling spending but actually do something about it. He voted for PAYGO, a measure that will hold Congress accountable for any spending increases and help to lower the deficit. And, as the Herald editorial applauded him for, he has co-sponsored legislation to form a commission to identify ways to cut government spending and get the nation out of this fiscal crisis.

Northwest Washington is lucky to have Rep. Larsen sitting on the House Budget Committee where he can continue to work hard to reduce government spending and tackle the nation’s deficit.

Diana Phillips

Marysville

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THis is an editorial cartoon by Michael de Adder . Michael de Adder was born in Moncton, New Brunswick. He studied art at Mount Allison University where he received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in drawing and painting. He began his career working for The Coast, a Halifax-based alternative weekly, drawing a popular comic strip called Walterworld which lampooned the then-current mayor of Halifax, Walter Fitzgerald. This led to freelance jobs at The Chronicle-Herald and The Hill Times in Ottawa, Ontario.

 

After freelancing for a few years, de Adder landed his first full time cartooning job at the Halifax Daily News. After the Daily News folded in 2008, he became the full-time freelance cartoonist at New Brunswick Publishing. He was let go for political views expressed through his work including a cartoon depicting U.S. President Donald Trump’s border policies. He now freelances for the Halifax Chronicle Herald, the Toronto Star, Ottawa Hill Times and Counterpoint in the USA. He has over a million readers per day and is considered the most read cartoonist in Canada.

 

Michael de Adder has won numerous awards for his work, including seven Atlantic Journalism Awards plus a Gold Innovation Award for news animation in 2008. He won the Association of Editorial Cartoonists' 2002 Golden Spike Award for best editorial cartoon spiked by an editor and the Association of Canadian Cartoonists 2014 Townsend Award. The National Cartoonists Society for the Reuben Award has shortlisted him in the Editorial Cartooning category. He is a past president of the Association of Canadian Editorial Cartoonists and spent 10 years on the board of the Cartoonists Rights Network.
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