This is another guest post from Larry Hodgden.

Larry is a retired Viet Nam era veteran of the USAF. He and his wife of 40 years, Sharon, have three children and seven grandchildren who keep him very busy. Family, education, church and politics have been a lifelong passion. 

In the late 90’s under Democratic President Bill Clinton we actually ran budget surpluses for three years in a row. When Clinton left office we were on a trajectory to dramatically reduce the national debt in the future. Some of you may prefer not to remember this but it really happened, you can look it up.

Then in 2000 this country, with a little help from the Supreme Court and the Electoral College, elected George W. Bush. In 8 years G.W. cut taxes for the already wealthy, started two wars (one totally unnecessary), passed a Medicare drug benefit and an education program without paying for any of it. This Republican administration ran up 5 trillion dollars of debt in record time and if that wasn’t bad enough failed to regulate Wall Street and the big banks causing a financial and economic collapse, the likes of which we hadn’t seen since the 1930’s. No wonder they don’t want G.W. to speak at their convention.

Since June I’ve mentioned Romney/Ryan in my letters and now it’s official. This Paul Ryan claims to be a debt and deficit reduction proponent now but where was he when he had a chance to control the debt under G.W.? He voted for the tax cuts for millionaires, voted for the wars, voted for the Medicare Drug bill, voted for “No Child Left Behind”, voted for TARP, even voted to bail out GM without any hint of concern for the ballooning deficits and debt. When he and the Republican Party really had the opportunity, handed to them by Bill Clinton, to control our debt, Paul Ryan was A.W.O.L.

Now that our country has been nearly destroyed by Republican incompetence he has “Found Religion”. Too bad his cure for our current economic mess is the same prescription which caused it. Doctors know if one medicine doesn’t work you should try another. They also know that the more serious the illness, the longer the recovery period.

We cut taxes for the “Job Creators” in 2001 under Bush, then in 2008 the economy lost 2.6 million jobs and crashed. It didn’t work then and won’t work now. The Romney/Ryan tax cut gives anyone making 3 million dollars per year a $250,000 tax cut but increases taxes on middle income taxpayers by $2,000. How many people do you know in Cedar County making 3 million? How much in taxes did you pay on capital gains, interest and dividends last year? Romney/Ryan would eliminate all of those taxes so Mitt Romney would pay virtually no tax on 20 million dollars of income. Is that what you want? Does that sound fair?

There’s a reason this country always turns to the Democrats when there is an economic crisis caused by business failure and it is because Democrats know it requires government action to revive an economy. To understand this principle just ask any old timer to explain what it means to “Prime the Pump”.