Unbalanced budget

Re “Government budget” (Your Views, May 16): Cindy Caldroney, you asked, why the government can’t stay within its budget, like our households have to do?

The question goes all the way back to Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton. Jefferson believed government expenditures should be strictly limited to government income. Hamilton believed that government debt is a good thing because it allows governments to meet emergencies, expand when required and provide a stable lending economy for expansion. Jefferson disagreed — until he had to borrow money for the Louisiana Purchase. Oops. Hamilton wins.

So the disagreement isn’t whether the government should carry debt, but how much. To fund public services, our government cuts the budget, raises taxes or borrows. Since former President Ronald Reagan, Republicans have believed in only cutting taxes, on the idea that lower taxes allowed business to expand and bring in greater tax revenues. If that sounds loopy, it’s because it is. Never worked. The result is a larger deficit that grew after former President Donald Trump’s tax cuts.

The Constitution requires that government revenue — budgets — originate in the House of Representatives. Biden and the Democratic House passed big budgets in his first two years, and raised taxes on some businesses and the wealthy to pay for them. The Republicans control the House now, but instead of a budget they want to slash money to pay existing debts. To force that reduction, they are willing to default on our debts and crash the economy. It’s nuts.

— Bob Killebrew, Newport News