Reality is debt will climb until country controls health costs

TO THE EDITOR:

Last week Scott Thompson gave his opinion of how so many people blame G.W. Bush for our economic woes. He even stated that President Obama has quadrupled our debt. The problem is that Mr. Thompson has severely underestimated his math or his ability to recall recent history.

The only president to quadruple the debt was Reagan. It took 192 years for America’s debt to reach $1 trillion. Reagan quadrupled that in eight years. The only other president to reach these numbers was G.W. Bush. He doubled the debt, but considering the numbers involved, it was astounding.

The day Bush took office the debt was $5.8 trillion. The day he left, it was $10.7 trillion. (The budget had a surplus, but that too was gone by the time Bush left.)

The debt as of Oct. 6 is $11.9 trillion. Do the math with the dates and it’s not “quadruple.” A short visit to a library will confirm this.

With American health care spending currently costing $2.2 trillion every year, this debt will continue to rise unless we reform health care. The Congressional Budget Office has clearly stated the only way to reduce the size of growth is to get control of this spending. This is reality.

Mr. Thompson throws in a few phrases like “racist” and “take over.” I suppose this is done to appease the GOP base that will fan the flames.

The funny thing is that if you bother to research things like math and history, the budget surplus has grown and the debt has shrunk during a Democrat’s administration. The opposite is true under Republican leadership.

About those orange signs Thompson speaks of as proof of conspiracy, I kinda like all the green signs that are on the Eisenhower Interstate System.

Tags: letters to editor, opinion