To the editor:

Talk about the pot calling the kettle black. The Republicans have the temerity to blame Democrats for raising taxes. These Republicans have run up a deficit of immense proportion. They have run a major conflict off budget. They implemented a massive tax cut to facilitate a vibrant economy – one now beginning to melt down. In all, a party that has created an environment where the wealthy have prospered while the rest of us do well to keep up with inflation.

The only meaningful reduction in spending proposed by the Republicans on their watch was the notion of privatizing Social Security – a program that underwrites the poorest of the elderly and one in which all recipients are vested. Legislated changes in spending where winners and losers would be apparent were sparse. How do you cut taxes without pain? There is just not that much waste.

Could the Democrats do worse? The proposed “Democratic” budget reverses those cuts. It does not raise taxes. What will certainly lead to tax increases in the future is the failure of Republicans to have reduced spending when they had total control of the federal government. Now in typical Washington fashion, they blame the Democrats for their failures.

George E. Lippencott
Lawrence