OPINIONS - USA TODAY

Put concern about debt into context

Jay Portas - Cedar Rapids, Iowa

It's pretty funny to hear Republicans such as Rep. Eric Cantor of Virginia talk about being fiscally conservative. When President Clinton left office in 2001, our annual national budget was running a surplus. Then, over the next eight years, President Bush and the Republicans were grossly irresponsible. Our national debt exploded to nearly $10 trillion ("Get financial house in order," Opposing view, Jolting the economy debate, Tuesday).

It's good to be concerned about debt, whether it's your own or the government's. (That's our money, too.) But not all debt is equal.

Maxing out your credit cards at the mall is foolish, but taking out an emergency loan when your roof caves in is essential. Our national economic roof caved in and will take time to rebuild, so now is the wrong time to cut back on spending.

It's too bad that we started this recession from a point of great weakness. If our fiscal house had been in order, we would have been in better shape to weather this crisis. Bottom line: In normal times we should be concerned about debt and deficits, but these have not been normal times. If we declare victory over the recession too soon, we will fall even further back into it.
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Time to tighten our belts

Mike Crowe - Houston

Words cannot adequately describe the insult to intelligence of your editorial claiming the Obama "stimulus" bill averted a depression. America was not headed toward bread lines ("Don't like the stimulus? Be glad it averted depression," Our view).

USA TODAY's editorial emphasized emotion over the facts that pushed America into the economic chaos. The chaos was caused more by government-sponsored enterprises, such as Fannie Mae, that fueled the housing collapse and financial meltdown.

At a time when all Americans are forced to tighten their belts, USA TODAY is praising massive government spending.
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Everyone must help

Julia Soto Cabrera - Dallas

I am not surprised that Texas would reject federal funds for the unemployed, simply because expanding those benefits would force the state to raise taxes on employers after the aid ran out, as Gov. Rick Perry said. He wouldn't want to offend his big business cronies ("$3.1B set aside for jobless not used," News, Monday).

Everyone must do his fair share in order to begin putting this country back on track. Individual taxpayers should not be the only ones bearing the burden for the errors of big business entities such as banks, financial institutions and the automakers.

Posted at 12:09 AM/ET, September 04, 2009 in Economy - Letters, Letter to the editor, Politics, Government - Letters
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