LETTERS: TAX CUT COMBINED WITH SPENDING EQUALS DEFICITS

To the editor:

President Bush considers his tax-cut bill to be a monumental achievement. He should have cut spending first to see if we could afford a tax cut. Now spending will increase, and the tax cut will revive the deficit-spending monster that Bill Clinton tamed -- and which Republicans don't know how to control.

There might have been a time when the Republican Party was responsible and conservative. It disappeared in 1980 when the Republicans found out they could gain and hold power if they made people feel good today. With this mentality, Republicans, Democrats and Independents can't get elected unless they support tax cuts and increased spending.

Republicans are leading America to a rendezvous with disaster. If we can't manage our nation's business properly, we will become the poorest nation on Earth, and the dollar will be worthless. Bush and his party want more of the same. It may be impossible for a Franklin Roosevelt or a Bill Clinton to come along and bail us out.

W.T. WOODS

Bertrand, Mo.