Letter: GOP's responsible for deficit
In this Aug. 30, 2004 file photo, President George W. Bush is introduced by Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney at a campaign rally in Nashua, N.H. Credit: AP
Peter Goldmark's column "Election results highlight the bind" [Opinion, May 20] focuses on Europe's growing realization that slash-and-burn austerity will not relieve its recession nor reduce its staggering debt.
Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, a supremely confident businessman, has no such qualms. He's ready to double down on slashing government, reducing workers' wages and eliminating pesky regulations. But first, however, he proposes to slash government revenue by another $5 trillion with tax cuts that will largely favor his wealthy supporters, and only then will he get serious about slashing departments and programs that he hasn't identified.
If this sounds familiar, it is. The GOP promised the same in support of its 2001 and 2003 tax cuts. The cuts came quickly, the Republican Congress never cut spending, and growth was tepid before the economy tanked in 2007.
The Center for Budget and Policy Priorities estimates that debt from the Bush tax cuts and the Iraq and Afghanistan wars will mushroom to almost half of the projected $20-trillion national debt in 2019.
Why would we think Romney will be different from former President George W. Bush? Meanwhile, the Republicans are now trying to weasel out of their 2011 budget deal to protect Pentagon spending. If deficit reduction is your priority, why dig the hole deeper?
John Fogarty, Stony Brook
