Letter: Debt, cost of war and taxes

I always find it amazing how so few Americans understand the gravity of the fiscal problem we face or the drivers behind our deficits and revenue. This lack of understanding usually portrays itself in letters to the editor where suggestions like ending the wars, cutting military spending or raising taxes on the rich are the solution du jour. To those people I’d like to offer a quick lesson on federal budgets and point out that the wars being fought today amount to $200 billion annually. Our entire military non-war budget is less then $600 billion annually and letting the tax rates expire on the top 1 percent of wage earners would theoretically generate another $70 billion per year. Although unrealistic, you could eliminate the military altogether, allow the tax increases on the rich to expire and you’d still have a budget deficit in 2011 of nearly $800 billion! Contrary to many on the "tax cuts cause our deficit problem” crowd, we had higher revenues in ’06, ’07 and ’08 (post Bush tax cuts) than in any time during the Clinton Internet Boom period with higher tax rates (by more then $300 billion in each year). How do you explain that? In 2010 alone, we are expected to spend $2 trillion more then we did in 2000 ($1.7 trillion versus $3.7 trillion). Yet many still cling to the notion of higher taxes and the wars as the source of our problem? With this level of "understanding,” we are in worse trouble then we know.

Dale Zielenski

Belmont