Letters to the Editor for July 22

Here are today’s Letters to the Editors…

Submitted by Stephen Seufert:

Stephen Seufert, Fairless Hills, is Chairman of the Bucks Young Democrats. He has a bachelor’s degree in Government and Political Affairs from Millersville University and was the communications director of the Pennsylvania College Democrats and president of the Millersville Chapter of College Democrats from 2010-2011.

“Every dollar spent by the government must be paid for either by taxes or by more borrowing with greater debt. The only way to make more tax cuts now is to have bigger and bigger deficits and to borrow more and more money. Either we or our children will have to bear the burden of this debt. This is one kind of chicken that always comes home to roost. An unwise tax cutter, my fellow citizens, is no real friend of the taxpayer.” Dwight D. Eisenhower

Time and again, Republican Congressman Mike Fitzpatrick likes to mention Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower as an example of someone who was a moderate, level-headed leader. Fitzpatrick’s admiration makes sense. Eisenhower accomplished a great deal during his presidency even though he presided over divided government and three recessions.

In 1956, Eisenhower raised the minimum wage from 75¢ to $1. Factor in inflation, and the 1956 minimum wage would be $8.75 today- $1.50 more than the current national minimum wage. Fitzpatrick will only support an increase in the minimum wage if it’s tied to inflation, reducing taxes, and mandates on businesses.

Eisenhower and a Democratic Congress passed budget surpluses in 1956, 1957, and 1960. Since then, no other Republican president has passed a balanced budget- much less a surplus. Reaching a balanced budget was accomplished through maintaining tax rates (92% rate for top income tax earners and 50% tax rate for corporations) and spending cuts.

In 1954, Eisenhower opposed Republicans in Congress who wanted to repeal the 11% increase in personal income taxes instituted during the Korean War. Such a step, Eisenhower reasoned, would needlessly add to the deficit and make pathways to a balanced budget difficult. The budget that year was around $70 billion. There was already a budget deficit of $1.5 billion. Lowering personal income taxes by 11% would add an extra $3 billion to the deficit- something Eisenhower was unwilling to do. He also resisted attempts to lower the corporate tax rate from 52% to 47%.

Distressingly, Iraq and Afghanistan are the only wars in U.S. history in which taxes weren’t raised or even maintained in order to reach a more balanced budget.

Eisenhower desired to create a national healthcare system modeled after the Army. It was attacked by those in his own party as “socialized medicine.” So instead, Eisenhower expanded the provisions of the Social Security Act in order to cover an additional 10 million citizens. In a letter to his brother, Eisenhower stated, “Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history.” Fitzpatrick has voiced support for investing Social Security taxes into private savings accounts. Such alterations to Social Security are both risky and unnecessary.

Eisenhower cut defense spending by 27% during his presidency. Congressman Fitzpatrick claims to support equal cuts to defense and domestic spending, yet he still voted for Paul Ryan’s “Path to Prosperity” budget. Furthermore, Fitzpatrick remains silent on Lockheed Martin’s $1.5 trillion boondoggle- the F-35 fighter program. Maybe it’s because Fitzpatrick received $6,000 from Lockheed Martin for his 2014 re-election campaign. By the way, Lockheed Martin will be closing its Newtown facility in 2015- thus resulting in the loss of over 2,000 good paying jobs in Bucks County. That being said, should Fitzpatrick keep the $6,000 donation?

When it comes to infrastructure, Eisenhower is probably best known for the Interstate Highway System. The interstate system spans 46,876 miles, includes 55,512 bridges, and has 14,756 interchanges. The final cost of building the interstate system was about $500 billion by today’s standard. President Obama recently asked Republicans in Congress to support a $302 billion infrastructure bill that would be paid for by closing corporate tax loopholes. Not surprisingly, Congressman Fitzpatrick has remained silent on the issue.

If it isn’t already clear- Congressman Fitzpatrick is no moderate. For Fitzpatrick to claim such a label is disrespectful to the legacy of President Eisenhower. If Fitzpatrick was truly a moderate, he’d adopt common sense approaches to taxes and spending in order to balance the budget- while at the same time making key investments in the American middle class.

Submit Your Letter to the Editor

Do you have something you want to say about a town issue? Want to praise your community members for something they did? You can do that by writing a Letter to the Editor.

LevittownNow.com accepts Letters to the Editor on issues that are important to local residents.

Our editorial staff asks that your Letter to the Editor is free of spelling and grammatical errors, clear, and void of libelous statements. We also request that letters are kept under 500 words.

Here are some keys:

• Please include your first and last name, town and email address (so we can contact you back or verify your identity.) We will only publish your name and town.
• Feel free to type letters in response to other people’s opinions, but just be sure to reference the original letter. Why? So no one is confused.
• The choice of letters for publication is at the discretion of LevittownNow.com editors.

To submit your Letter to the Editor, submit it to tom@levittownnow.com with the subject “Letter to the Editor.”