Letters

Reader Ed Surgan begins his latest letter to these pages with this statement: “Democrats appear oblivious to a national debt challenge that has become too serious to ignore” [“Finger Pointing,” Letters, July 17]. Wow! Where has Mr. Surgan been for the last three months as the Republican-controlled Congress and the president passed a law that is estimated to raise the national debt by up to $5 trillion? Even a Fox News viewer should have heard of this one.

The fact is that both parties have been unwilling to address our deficit problem. The presidents with the greatest amount of debt added during their term are: Barack Obama, Donald Trump, George W. Bush, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and Bill Clinton, who you might be surprised to hear is the only one of the group to actually balance a budget.

President Obama was forced to spend billions to get us out of the Great Recession that he inherited from his Republican predecessor, and President Biden used deficit spending to help us recover from the COVID 19 epidemic. President Trump, however, inherited an economy that was doing pretty well. His borrowing is necessitated not by job creating spending but by tax breaks he is giving to the richest people on the planet.

Biden gave states money to build bridges, roads and airports. Money was used to provide internet service to rural (and mostly Republican) areas. Trump is borrowing money so that Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg can have larger yachts.

Mr. Surgan thinks that these giveaways to billionaires will spur economic growth. (Thankfully, he did not mention “trickle-down economics.”) But there has never been a time in U.S. history when tax cuts for the rich have paid for themselves. By the way, most of the tax provisions that will benefit average Americans, such as no tax on tips, will be phased out in a few years. Not so the giveaways to the top 1 percent.

Another fact that Mr. Surgan has gotten wrong is his assertion that undocumented migrants are receiving federal Medicaid money. While Medicaid will cover emergency life-saving care for migrants, they do not otherwise receive federal Medicaid money. Some states have decided on their own to extend Medicaid coverage to migrant children and a few offer benefits to migrant adults. But the federal government does not cover them.

Instead of bemoaning the expansion of Medicaid in recent years, we should be celebrating. It means fewer Americans will die and fewer will go bankrupt with medical debt.

But where will we get the money to pay for it? Try asking the rich to pay their fair share.

John Neely

Westhampton Beach