Michael Strain rightly calls out Donald Trump and Joe Biden for abandoning proven policies supportive of business dating back to the Bretton Woods era, but he is wrong about the steps they should take to address the US’s long-term fiscal imbalance (Opinion, January 30).
According to Strain, the presumptive 2024 presidential candidates both “oppose reducing spending on Social Security and Medicare, the programmes most responsible for the nation’s long-term debt trajectory”.
On the contrary, the national debt is mainly the result of tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy, and unfunded spending on America’s endless wars.
Rather than cuts to the two programmes that millions rely on, there is a simple three-step solution to put Uncle Sam’s fiscal house in order. One, tax Wall Street and the richest 1 per cent to generate new funds. Two, eliminate subsidies provided to the fossil fuel industry to continue poisoning the planet and three, ensure that honest and equitable tax policy does not allow for over 50 per cent of the nation’s discretionary budget to go to the military.
Instead, these funds could provide better living conditions for all Americans — and send a message to the world that the US is unconditionally committed to international diplomacy, ecological sustainability and arms control.
Alan Sutton
Laguna Niguel, CA, US
