This is in response to the column from Rep. Bruce Poliquin, R-2nd District, “Poliquin: Editorial gets it wrong,” April 19. The Editorial Board got it exactly correct when it took Congressman Poliquin to task for his bogus balanced budget amendment shenanigans (“Our View: Poliquin wants it both ways on federal deficits,” April 16).

The federal government is not a business nor is it a household. There is a very good reason why the U.S. survived the 2008 recession — it borrowed enough to create a stimulus package that pulled us out of an economic disaster. To many observers, that stimulus should have been even larger because it took all that much longer for recovery.

We have already paid an enormous price for too small deficits. The unemployment rate, until recently, was higher than necessary because the stimulus wasn’t large enough. The cost to our children isn’t the deficit but an economy that some estimate was $1 trillion-$2 trillion smaller than it needed to be.

Many Republicans have been screeching alarms about deficits for decades. But, especially of late, that opposition had little to do with debt levels and more to do with a Democart in the White House.

If Poliquin was truly serious about deficits he would not have voted for a $1.5 trillion tax cut, which most wage earners can’t see with a magnifying glass. Oh, but six large Wall Street banks saved nearly $4 billion in taxes in the last three months thanks to that tax cut.

As far as waste in the federal budget goes, your party, Congressman, is responsible for the broken budgetary process. Why don’t you work toward repairing that instead of the fake fix of a balanced budget?

Dean Corner

Augusta

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