Letters to the Editor: Dick Cheney got one thing horribly wrong on national deficits

To the editor: The lengthy and detailed obituaries about former Vice President Dick Cheney emphasize a long track record of service but overlook one of his most important statements during his first term in office: “Deficits don’t matter” (“Dick Cheney, former vice president who unapologetically supported wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, dies at 84,” Nov. 4).

The then-veep’s comments about the U.S. budget deficit helped contribute to an end of fiscal responsibility in the U.S. that had prevailed since the 1990 Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act. The budget deficit went from a record $290 billion in 1992 to a surplus by 1999 because of spending cuts, higher taxes and “pay as you go” rules in Congress.

During the first term of George W. Bush, the country again faced growing budget deficits derived from two separate tax cuts, increased costs on Medicare Part D and two wars. With those impacts and the onset of the 2008 financial crisis, the federal budget deficit ballooned to more than $1 trillion by the time Bush and Cheney left office in January 2009.

History has shown that budget deficits do matter because they crowd out private investment and sap the confidence of foreign investors in our debt offerings. The sharp sell-off in dollar assets that took place this past spring was indicative of that and other economic concerns.

Christian B. Teeter, Los Angeles
This writer teaches global business and international economics at Mount Saint Mary’s University in Los Angeles.