Charlie Krause’s letter (“Biden is the problem, not Republicans”) puzzles me. In it, he expressed concern about the deficit. Where was he when the Republicans were in charge? Republicans have controlled the White House three times since the election of Ronald Reagan. Each time, the Republicans left the White House, the deficit was much higher than when they entered.
During the George W. Bush administration, Republicans took the country from a surplus to a deficit of over $1 trillion, in just seven years. By contrast, President Bill Clinton took us from huge deficits to surplus. President Barack Obama inherited $1 trillion deficit and cut it in half by the end of his presidency.
Krause also expressed concern about higher taxes. Estate taxes, capital gains taxes and the corporate income tax are all much lower now than they were when Reagan left office. Why not cut the deficit by increasing taxes on the wealthy who have benefited from multiple rounds of Republican tax cuts?
Krause criticized the American exit from Afghanistan without mentioning that President Donald Trump negotiated our exit from that country with the Taliban, but did not include our Afghan allies in those negotiations – shades of Neville Chamberlain giving Hitler one-third of Czechoslovakia without inviting the Czechoslovaks to the table. After Trump betrayed the Afghans, are we surprised they didn’t stand and fight? Our nation faces a lot of serious issues: climate change, unaffordable drug prices, lack of affordable housing, homelessness, inadequate health insurance for many and workers kept out of the job market because child care is too expensive or unavailable.
President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better agenda addresses each of these problems, and more, while Republicans lob in criticism and conspiracy theories from outer space.
Mark Fernald
Sharon