Letter: Use budget surplus to pay down debt

Thursday, Aug. 19, 1999 | 10:05 a.m.

I've had no trouble visualizing and understanding the term "tax and spend Democrats." But I couldn't quite get a handle on "conservative Republicans" until I read recent articles in both local papers.

If you are having the same problem, try remembering "Czarist Russia" from your history books. And we know what happened there.

Now you may say that our huge national debt is the result of 40 years of Democrats running Congress. And you may be correct. But if this budget surplus actually appears we have a chance to pay down that debt by quite a bit. Some aspects of the "tax bill," such as ending the marriage penalty, sound even-handed. But I, for one, can live without "eating cake."

As for the "Czarist Republicans," the preamble to the Constitution begins with these words: "We the People." Not "We the NRA." Not "We the HMOs." "We the People." And we are paying attention.

LARRY MARTIN

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