Stock Market, Deficit and a Tax Hike

President Reagan claims that high taxes were responsible for the condition of the country when he took office. It is certainly true that there was and is waste in most government spending programs, including the military. We should curtail spending on some programs and eliminate a few entirely.

It is undeniably true, however, that the single largest contributing factor to the colossal deficit created during the past seven years was the lop-sided tax cut engineered by Reagan at the beginning of his first term. One might ask if it is sensible to begin a claimed debt-reduction program by cutting revenues that would make the debt reduction possible.

The sad fact about this entire matter is that the President of the world’s leading nation fails to understand this. It is lamentable that the President’s thinking is still irrevocably tied to his disproven supply-side economic theories.

JOHN C. DAVIS

Irvine