Letter: Creating a responsible budget will take compromise

The current administration wants to cut taxes.

Before tax cuts become official, we should look at previous attempts to do the same thing. President Reagan promised to balance the budget, but by slashing taxes and splurging on defense he raised the national debt from a third of GDP to half. George W. Bush promised the same and also cut taxes and increased spending, and he raised the debt by 22 percent. President Obama increased spending but didn’t cut taxes and suffered a shutdown of the government, but the debt still went up.

It makes no sense to me to reduce revenue and increase spending, then expect our debt to be diminished. How massive can our debt get before our creditors lose confidence in our ability to pay it back (as in bankrupt)? The cruel truth is that entitlements and defense spending must be carefully addressed, and that by raising taxes we might control the debt.

There is no doubt that well-crafted tax legislation is desperately needed to create revenue and control the debt. This task can only be achieved through the classical political process where issues are debated and compromises agreed to. That will be a big challenge for our elected officials.

This story was originally published November 15, 2017 at 2:02 PM with the headline "Letter: Creating a responsible budget will take compromise."