Budget blame

Re “Crashing the party,” Current, March 12

Daniel Casse makes an interesting case for strong government. However, he does not follow it to the logical conclusion. He criticizes “large, inept and weak” programs from Democrats, while evidently being blind to the astounding levels of ineptitude from the current administration.

He mentions President Bush’s tax cuts with approval, but he never makes the connection that his “strong government” needs to be paid for and cannot be indefinitely sustained by borrowing. He seems to retain a basic disconnect between the desire to pay for only small government and the desire to have government act strongly, but only on things he likes.

Isn’t our government supposed to be directed to American ends, conservative or otherwise? We need strong government by people who actually believe in government, are fiscally responsible and at least are open to dialogue with other Americans. They are, with all their faults, Democrats.

ERNESTO GOMEZ

Crestline

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Bruce Bartlett makes a convincing and long-overdue argument that Bush is not a traditional conservative when it comes to his hefty increases in federal spending and the significant rise in pork-barrel projects during his presidency (Current, March 12).

And you have to love his comment that the Clinton administration is looking like the “good old days.” But let us not forget that Bush is a solid right-winger when it comes to spending to benefit the wealthy and big business and appointing rock-ribbed conservatives to the federal courts. In those areas he indeed looks just like Ronald Reagan and other conservatives.

RALPH S. BRAX

Lancaster

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It was Reagan who proved to the present administration that “deficits do not matter.” Bill Clinton raised taxes, and the economy eventually soared, leaving Bush with balanced budgets far into the future. But Bush followed the advice of conservatives by cutting taxes, first to give the people back their own money, then to stimulate a flagging economy.

In a time of war, Bush wanted it all: the glow from the right about tax-cutting orthodoxy and the chance to win a quick war on a debt he would never have to repay.

Yet not one of your GOP complainers in the March 12 Current section blamed Reagan, who showed Bush that passing the bill to future generations was acceptable policy.

Only now do they begin to see that our kids will be the ones to swallow a “massive tax increase” to repay bills incurred not just since 2000 but all the way back to 1981.

ALAN M. SCOLAMIERI

Long Beach