Wealthiest should be able to help soldiers

We hear a lot from the far right and tea party groups about the deplorable federal budget deficit and how we must cut back on essential programs such as Medicare and Medicaid to “balance” the budget. But why don’t we hear anything about what caused this deficit?

Recently, an government audit report revealed that $51 billion in taxpayer dollars have been spent to rebuild Iraq (after we destroyed it) in the largest reconstruction project of its kind in U.S. history, and that much of this money has been wasted or misappropriated. “The precise amount lost to fraud and waste can never be known,” the report said. This mismanagement can be traced back to 2004.

Add this to the billions spent on this unnecessary war (no weapons of mass destruction were found) and then George W. Bush’s decision to cut taxes — becoming the first president in U.S. history to cut taxes during wartime — and you can see where our deficit came from. It may take years to reduce it to the surplus of the Clinton years.

Those who favored the war should have been glad to have their taxes raised to help shoulder a burden borne only by our servicemen and women. And now the wealthiest 5 percent should not object to sharing their part of this burden through reduced tax breaks.

JAMES W. RAMSEY

Kootenai