Image via WikipediaSocialism? No, blame the Republicans, says correspondent to Augusta Chronicle...
I just finished reading Andy Windham's letter "Socialism slowly trapping our country" (May 11), and Mr. Windham is pointing the finger, concerning the $12.4 trillion debt, in the wrong direction.
We had socialistic programs -- such as Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and the Tennessee Valley Authority -- many years before 1980, when we owed $1 trillion. In 1980, Ronald Reagan promised to balance the budget in three years. The first thing when he came into office was to cut taxes on the rich (trickle-down economics), and eight years later when he left office the debt was $4 trillion. In came George H.W. Bush ("Read my lips; no new taxes"), and when he left four years later, we owed $5 trillion.
Bill Clinton came in, and when he left eight years later we still owed $5 trillion, with a treasury full of money with a plan to pay off the debt in eight years.
In came the cowboy George W. Bush, who wanted to be -- had to be -- a wartime president. Only thing wrong: the war he started was on borrowed money, mainly from the Far East. The national debt soared from $5 trillion to $12 trillion, and he left an economy that drove the debt even higher during his administration.
I hate to tell Mr. Windham, but it looks like socialism is not the root of the problem on our national debt, but the Republicans in office. The country could not have stood eight more years of Republicans John McCain and Sarah Palin in the White House if history is an indicator.
By the way, I noticed that Mr. Windham didn't mention Social Security and Medicare as a socialistic problem in his letter
Acknowledgements: Jim McGaughey, Augusta Chronicle
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