A few years ago, I was talking with Sen. Herman Talmadge from Georgia, who had served on the Senate Finance Committee for many years.

I asked him what had happened to Lyndon Johnson as president, where did he go wrong?

He told me that President Johnson lowered taxes at the same time he prosecuted a war. No economy could prosecute a war without raising taxes to pay for it, he said, or our economy would suffer because of it.

Sure enough, the “misery index” of the Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter years proved him right.

Now we are stuck in a similar situation. We prosecuted two wars at tremendous expense and lowered taxes simultaneously. And now our economy is in the toilet again.

Neither presidential candidate has an answer to this because it is now beyond their control. Neither will admit this truth to the American people because we want easy answers, pain-free answers.

Our current dilemma has no pain-free answers, however, but telling the truth will be the first start toward a solution.

William L. Griffith, Augusta