To the editor: Contributing author Josh Hammer takes a well-worn web page from the right-wing playbook in his feedback on the U.S. authorities’s fiscal challenges (“DOGE was a good start. Trump needs to push further for real fiscal change,” Might 30). He cherry-picks seemingly indefensible authorities expenditures and makes use of them to mischaracterize the Division of Authorities Effectivity cuts that already are damaging authorities companies and federally funded scientific analysis. The $175 billion of purported cuts he ballyhoos quantity to lower than 5% of the $4 trillion (a median of the $3 trillion to $5 trillion estimates) that could possibly be added to the nationwide deficit if President Trump’s 2017 tax cuts are prolonged.
Why doesn’t Hammer even point out the income aspect of the deficit equation? Advocates of reducing extensions declare it’s essential for financial development. The earlier cuts, which principally focused high-income taxpayers, didn’t contribute meaningfully to development. What number of occasions do we have to be taught that Artwork Laffer was mistaken about tax cuts paying for themselves through financial development? The Trump tax cuts ignored by Hammer gasoline the deficits he claims to oppose.
Daniel Stone, Los Angeles
..
To the editor: DOGE was a very good begin? Did we neglect after they fired a whole lot of the nation’s nuclear consultants and tried to scramble to rent them again? What about when these laptop geniuses didn’t know methods to learn information and thought that there have been tens of tens of millions of useless individuals gathering Social Safety? Or after they “unintentionally” minimize USAID’s Ebola aid? In case you ran a enterprise this poorly, you’d be sacked instantly.
It’s humorous how the individuals obsessive about “effectivity” and “fraud” are solely ever involved about applications that assist residents and by no means with blatant company corruption. Medicare? Far cheaper and extra environment friendly than non-public insurance coverage. Medicare Benefit, the large giveaway to personal insurers? Wildly wasteful however by no means on any so-called conservative’s chopping block. Republicans all the time whine about “fiscal accountability,” however one simple method to save cash could be to not give trillions away in tax cuts to billionaires. If you would like a authorities that works effectively, it’s important to fund and employees it correctly, not randomly fireplace individuals and be shocked when it seems these individuals did one thing vital.
Kyle Kramer, Los Angeles
