THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, August 26, 1996 TAG: 9608230366
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A6 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: 28 lines
When is the editorial staff going to acknowledge the real reason that the federal-budget deficit and our national debt ballooned in the 1980s?
The debt is always blamed on Ronald Reagan's tax cut when, in fact, it was the tax-and-spend Congress, controlled by Democrats, that obstinately refused to put the federal financial house in order and continued deficit spending. Reagan called repeatedly for a constitutional amendment for a balanced budget. The call was ultimately blocked when it finally came to a vote in 1993 by the tie-breaking vote of Vice President Al Gore.
President Reagan's across-the-board 10 percent tax cut helped spur the longest peacetime economic recovery in our nation's history. Bob Dole's proposed 15 percent tax cut would certainly eclipse it in terms of long-range prosperity.
When editorial page editor Keith Monroe referred to Dole's proposed cut as a ``free lunch'' (Aug. 17), I asked myself who is getting the free lunch? Not the average taxpayer who pays 40 percent of his/her earnings in total taxes! Since it is our money to begin with and not the government's, it can't be free! When is the press going to get it straight that it is our money?
HARRY WEIMAR
Virginia Beach, Aug. 20, 1996 by CNB