The buck stops nowhere
Reading the Why Did All the Fiscal Hawks Go Extinct? published article in the Wall Street Journal from my study in South Philadelphia, I couldn’t help but wonder: Does anyone in Washington actually intend to pay down our national debt?
We have surpassed $40 trillion. The Congressional Budget Office projects annual deficits reaching $3.1 trillion by 2036. Even if inflation cools and spending slows, we are still borrowing money we have no serious plan to repay.
Harry Truman famously kept a sign on his desk reading, “The Buck Stops Here.” Today, the buck doesn’t stop anywhere. It gets borrowed, spent, extended and passed along to the next generation.
I support President Trump’s efforts to combat government fraud, but they should be only the beginning. Imagine every state, county and municipality conducting a serious examination of fraud, waste and abuse. How much taxpayer money might we discover has been squandered?
Finding waste won’t erase $40 trillion in debt. But surely we can start by asking where the money goes and who is accountable for spending it.
Fiscal responsibility shouldn’t depend on which party occupies the White House.
John P. Zadzura
South Philadelphia
Overjoyed at election results
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay! We have heard the people sing, singing the song of angry men — and women. From California to the New York Island, from the redwood forest to the Gulf Stream waters, the answer is no longer blowin’ in the wind. With 90% of voters saying that corruption was a major issue and 89% saying that the economy was, the outcome was inevitable.
MAGA may or may not be dead, but it is severely crippled. A cornucopia of Trump sycophants in Congress have gone poof. I mean you, Susan Collins, Lauren Boebert, Brian Fitzpatrick, and your ilk. Plus Elon Musk’s half-a-billion contribution to the cause accomplished absolutely squat.
Now the Dems must do all they can to right the ship: on corruption, the cost of food and gas, the cost of health care, bringing to a close the war of choice in Iran, releasing the Epstein files, the brutality of ICE, the weaponization of the DOJ and FBI, aid to Ukraine, Trump’s vanity projects, and aiding and abetting the likes of Putin and Netanyahu. Having such a huge Democratic majority in both houses of Congress should go a long way toward achieving these goals. Constitutional scholar Jamie Raskin as chair of the House Judiciary Committee is enthusiastically awaited.
I chortle in my joy.
Dennis Sing
Somerton
Poor Philadelphia
Philadelphia is again the poorest city. Just in another couple years, people will be “house” poor when Parker has them buy a house they can’t afford. It will be like Oprah. “Everyone gets a house” whether they can afford it or not. Let’s keep them poor so they are dependent on the politicians to take care of them.
Richard Donofry
East Torresdale
