To the editor:

Shortly after the 2002 midterm elections, senior economic advisers and White House staff met in the vice president’s office. In a terse dismissal of Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill’s concern over rising deficits, Vice President Cheney averred, “Reagan proved deficits don’t matter” (The Price of Loyalty, by Ron Suskind). Whether tax cuts invariably and immediately stimulate the economy is problematic, but there are at least two certainties about budget deficits: They add to the national debt and they eventually increase the interest expense on the debt.

The debt reached the $1 trillion mark about September 1981. Month-to-month fluctuations occur, but 1960 was the last time there was a decrease in the annual total. On an annual basis, the debt has risen steadily since then and now is $7.2 trillion. The approximately $1.5 trillion that has been added during the tenure of George W. Bush exceeds the total of any comparable period during the administrations of presidents Reagan, G.H.W. Bush, or Clinton.

The interest expense on the debt also has increased — from $214 billion in 1988 to an average of $347 billion for fiscal years from 1995 to 2003. It is the third-largest expense in the federal budget’s general fund (Compare the following FY 2003 amounts: Education, $61 billion; Agriculture, $78 billion; Transportation, $56 billion). Beyond paying down the debt, imagine what worthwhile programs could be funded if the debt were half or less of what it is. How is it possible that “deficits don’t matter?”

John R. Ratzlaff,

Lawrence