Reducing U.S. Deficit

Tom Cresswell’s letter (Oct. 20) on blame for the budget deficit takes a rather simplistic view of the matter that should not go without comment.

Although I understand the reasons for all the comments he made, he does not go far enough in his reasoning. For example, although the Reagan Administration certainly has caused substantial increases in the budget, it is certainly true that the start of all this took place when Richard Nixon allowed us to go off the gold standard, which allowed the Congress (and I repeat the word Congress) to print vast sums of money without any backup. Congress has never been able to control its appetite since then.

Cresswell also suggests that more taxes are the only cure for the budget deficit. If that was so, the increases in taxes over the past 13 years would have held the deficit in check, but they haven’t. Spending became even more rampant and irresponsible. Ultimately, the result of more and more taxes becomes Marxism.

The bottom line is that, if we want to protect our so-called free enterprise system, we must cut spending and not increase taxes. Increasing taxes is like sounding our own death knell, at least for those of us who want to see the free enterprise system survive in America.

R.W. LILLIE

Granada Hills