Letter: GOP economic policy bodes ill for future

Friday October 19, 2018

Debt, deficit grow due to policies that mostly benefit the wealthy.

Editor:
After more than 50 years as a registered Republican, I have changed my thinking politically. President Donald Trump and his supporters claim credit for the good economy. They forget that when President Barack Obama took office, he was faced with the worst recession since the Great Depression of 1929. Slowly but surely, year by year, the economy improved.

Was the Great Recession caused by President George W. Bush's Republican administration? During the 1920s, the economy was booming. The policies of that era were supported by Presidents Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover, all Republicans.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt was left to right the ship after the stock market crash of 1929. All through the 1930s, slow progress was made to improve the economy. Aided by World War II, the economy righted itself, and the American economy improved significantly year by year.

So how do we know the economy is in good shape? We are accumulating enormous budget deficits, and our national debt is rapidly approaching $2 trillion. Trump claims credit for tax relief and refuses to acknowledge that the wealthy have received the greatest benefits.

Let's look to the future and support action to stabilize the economy for the benefit of all.

John Reitz
Wernersville

GOP economic policy bodes ill for future