Dear Editor:
I read the Tea Party wisdom from Centertown on government debt July 5 and am reminded of George Bush's quip about "fuzzy math."
We are told Harry Reid wants to increase taxes by one trillion dollars. Is that this week, this year or over the next 10 years? It does matter.
Republicans have trapped themselves in an ungovernable and radical situation. They have pledged to never raise taxes. While joining government they have demonized the hand that feeds them. When they are back in their districts constituents both radical and loony trap them into supporting outrageous statements. To stay in office Republicans have created an alternative world and empowered the old John Birch Society craziness.
The Tea Party calculator has a "blame Obama" button. No calculator can be accurate if all the data is not entered. Government debt today is much closer to pre-2008 levels. Centertown gave no sources. Consider the data in this May 14 Congressional Budget Office report (http://cbo.gov/publication/44172). In 2009 Obama had inherited a crashed economy and government debt to GDP was above 10 percent. Most recently that debt ratio is 4 percent. Historically, it has been at 3.4 percent over the last 40 years. Raise taxes and the debt would completely fall in line.
Where are the services Centertown wonders? Thanks to Tea Party obstruction, the Congress that just came home produced the smallest number of bills in the history of the Republic. Public approval of Congress is around 15 percent. Tea Party politicians may think they are elected to get paid and do nothing, but that actually does not gain public approval.
For decades rich elitists have employed flacks to tell us that America cannot afford to pay decent wages, clean up pollution, give health care to all and on and on. They channel this through Grover Norquist, the Club for Growth, Fox TV a nd now Tea Party ditto-heads. Guess what? The economy is a zero sum game. While you and I have had almost zero growth in our wages for three plus decades, the super-rich (the 1/10 of the upper 1 percent) have gained seven times more that you and I. Look up income inequality at Wikipedia.
Tea Party anger is real but they have the wrong target. So much passion, so little direction and so few real facts.
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