I hope that the citizens of this country actually can see the hypocrisy that inhabits the right wing of this country. For the eight years of the George W. Bush administration there were tax cuts for all Americans, because hey, why do we need surpluses? Although there was considerable opposition to these cuts by the Democrats, the cuts were put into place for 10 years. Exactly what the Democrats said would happen did happen, i.e., the deficit and thus the debt increased. It’s just simple math.

But the Republicans argued that the cuts would produce growth and therefore the cuts would be paid for, this did not occur. The U.S. ended up with more debt from the tax cuts than the two unpaid for wars that were waged in the Bush era. Now that the Obama administration has made tax cuts for 98 percent of Americans (elderly, the middle class, and the poor) permanent, suddenly this will be devastating and we are told that we must reduce spending in order to pay for these tax cuts.

And guess what? Those spending cuts must come from our earned benefits even though Social Security does not add one penny to the national debt. Americans must let their representatives in Congress know that continually asking the elderly, the middle class and the poor to share in the sacrifice when they did not share in the prosperity is not a way to get re-elected.

Apparently that is the only thing the Republicans care about. Certainly they don’t care about our country.

Marilyn Lee

Florence