Federal Deficit and Revenue
I disagree that the cause of the recent record deficits lies in the Reagan tax cuts. These cuts released a record amount of investment and entrepreneurial activity that created millions of new jobs and one of the longest peacetime expansions in the history of this country.
The true cause of the record increase in the deficit lies in the rapid growth of government spending over the past decade, particularly during the Bush Administration. In fact, the Gramm-Rudman Act was reducing the deficit and would have wiped it out if the President and Congress had not abrogated the agreement with the ill-conceived budget deal of 1990. To make matters even worse, the 1993 budget that the President sent to Congress last month asks for double-digit increases in spending rates for many agencies while offering special-interest tax breaks that we can’t afford.
The key to reducing the deficit, and long-term interest rates, is to reduce government spending.
JEFF DURBIN, Los Angeles
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