No plan for current debt reduction

To The Eagle:

I voted Gary Johnson for president in the last election. One of his messages was how much debt the US government carries and how bad this is for our future. During the election of 2016, federal debt was over 19 trillion dollars. The amount of debt is now over 20 trillion dollars, and if politicians have their way, it will grow even more.

The GOP tax plan, currently supported by our US Representative Jaime Herrera Beutler, proposes we scoop out another 1.5 trillion into the hole they’ve already helped dig. It is a valid policy proposal to cut federal taxes. However, something, as plain as day, is missing from the plan: The GOP have no real corresponding spending cuts. And there is no plan for current debt reduction either.

We just get more promises that government will make more jobs by increasing debt. Mind you, unemployment in nearby Seattle and Portland are at nearly zero percent.

As reported in The Columbian, in January of 2016, Herrera Beutler told her fellow Republicans, “The number of taxes you pay from the time you wake up, hit your alarm clock and flip it off and turn on the light, you pay an energy tax. And when you flush your toilet you’re paying another tax, and when you go get in your car you drive to work, you’re paying another tax”.

In other words, “Raise your hand if you like paying taxes?” Nobody does. This is a good way to win a room of Republicans over, however, Herrera Beutler’s toilet analogy was a real stinker considering federal deficit spending.

Paying back over $20 trillion is an expense on par with other government obligations like Social Security and Medicare. Essentially, the debt costs as much as another huge program.

In the end, who will pay the fiddler? The colossal and growing debt held by the United States is the soundtrack of our older generation of voters waltzing into the sunset. Where are the younger people raising hell over this?

Unfortunately, many younger voters went for the lavish promises of Bernie Sanders who also never made the connection between spending and how to pay for it.

Here is another stinker: Democrats and Republicans of all ages expect too much s**t for free.

Krist Novoselic

Deep River