Political climate
Regarding “Focusing on crazy weather would end politics as usual” (Page A14, Thursday), Thomas Friedman reminds us that rejecting the critical need for Americans to work together through government threatens the planet. Climate change science received a bipartisan reception when first presented to Congress in 1988. But the politically motivated destruction of public discourse since 1992 made it possible to favor certain industries with climate change denial.
Massive increases in the national debt in the 1980s led to perpetual ridicule of government as unworkable. Ronald Reagan inherited a $930 billion debt from Jimmy Carter. That was the sum total of all federal government spending and tax receipts from 1776 through 1980 (205 years). Then eight years of excessive tax cuts and corporate welfare for defense contractors who rightfully had less to do after Vietnam, yielded an additional $1.7 trillion in debt even as Reagan cut spending on valuable domestic programs. These same policies have increased the debt to more than $20 trillion.
People in red states like Kansas and Oklahoma have stormed their state capital protesting the austerity of anti-government policies that have deprived them of necessities not adequately available from the private sector. Education has been especially hard hit with increased class sizes, deteriorating schools and underpaid teachers.
We should not suffer a diminished quality of life just because politicians can buy votes with tax cuts and get people to vote against the American government.
Michael D. Gilbert, Houston