I’d like to present two comments regarding Edgar Allen Beem’s rants about the Republican Party.

First, he pronounced that “the stunning failure of the congressional supercommittee to agree on reducing the deficit by $1.2 trillion was entirely a function of the unwillingness of Republicans to compromise.”

I believe the Republicans have twice offered to compromise by simplifying the tax code and eliminating its’ loopholes, first with President Obama during the raising of the deficit ceiling at the White House, at which time the president tentatively agreed, subject to leadership’s sign-off, which was ultimately rejected. Second, the senator from Pennsylvania on the supercommittee offered a similar tax fix that Democratic leadership  similarly shot down. It would appear, at least to those willing to look, that the Democrats are the party that hasn’t been willing to compromise, perhaps preferring to keep their class-warfare argument in play for the 2012 election.

My second thought regards Beem’s comment that Republicans’ “No New Tax Pledges” “are why America now cannot pay its bills.” I believe the top 1 percent of earners in our country currently pay over 30 percent of the taxes and that if our government took, not one third of their money annually, but all of their earned money, we still would not have enough to balance our budget, pay off our debt and cover the escalating costs of entitlements.

We have a spending problem.

Bill Beyer
Falmouth


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