In my letter of Dec. 23 (“Biden addresses problems Republicans caused”), I pointed out that deficits have increased during Republican administrations, and decreased during Democratic administrations. Mark Carter, in his letter of Dec. 30 (“Arguments are just pounding the table”), gives presidents a pass, saying “Congress controls both taxes and spending.” Of course, a president cannot enact a program without the support of Congress. When Presidents Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and Donald Trump took office, their parties had control of Congress. (When Reagan took office, Republicans had control of the Senate, and effective control of the House on tax and budget matters through a coalition of Republicans and conservative Southern Democrats.)
The increased deficits seen under Republican presidents is what the party voted for, over and over. Former Vice President Dick Cheney famously said “deficits don’t matter,” and Republicans have governed that way for over 40 years. It is worth mentioning that Reagan, former President George W. Bush and Trump each enacted huge tax cuts that were skewed toward the wealthy. Republicans repeatedly promised the cuts would pay for themselves through increased tax revenue. Each time the deficit ballooned. Carter has heard the false claim of “revenue-neutral tax cuts” so many times he apparently believes it, writing that the Trump tax cuts were “net revenue-positive by bringing unparalleled economic prosperity to America.” First, the deficit increased from $665 billion in 2017, to $984 billion in 2019. Second, more jobs were created in the last three years of Obama than during the first three years of Trump. Finally, if Trump had been re-elected and withdrawn U.S. troops from Afghanistan by May 1, does Carter really think Trump would have removed the $80 billion of military equipment?
Mark Fernald
Sharon