Do Republicans Want to Tank the Economy? [LETTER]

To the editor:

In recent press accounts, Congressman Charlie Dent echoed the standard Republican litany that the President has not presented any plans to solve the sequestration crisis. He said, "I want to see something."

I think perhaps Congressman Dent has donned the standard Republican eyeware: namely, blinders to anything that fairly distributes the financial burdens of this country, blinders that only allow deficit reduction on the backs of the poor and the middle class.

Plans abound, Congressman Dent, you just don’t seem to want to see them. Last week, Senate Democrats produced a much better plan, one that would raise $55 billion by imposing a minimum tax on incomes of $1 million or more and ending some business deductions; an equal amount of spending would be reduced from targeted cuts to defense and farm subsidies. Republicans rejected the proposal out of hand.

Their own proposal would eliminate any of the defense cuts in the sequester, while doubling the cuts on the domestic side, heedless of the suffering this would inflict. If the Republicans want to tank the economy, then by all means, forge ahead with their sequestration plans. But surely, come the 2014 midterm elections, the voters will remember their actions.

Mike McNeish

Lower Saucon Township