Letter to the Editor; Defining in simple terms our federal budget deficit

Let us try and simplify the reason for the ridiculous name calling and questionable actions that are taking place. it is because the Republicans want to balance the budget and the Democrats don't want to. Perhaps we should define some terms. Budget is what they hope to collect in revenue and that is hopefully going to match the expenses for that year. If the revenue does not match the expenses, then we go further in debt. Our debt will be 17 trillion dollars on or about 10-17-13. We now take one dime, one nickle, and one penny out of each dollar we collect to pay the interest.

We should remember that we didn't hit one trillion dollars until 1980 and the budget hasn't been balanced since Mr. Clinton was president. Also we are paying a low rate of interest on some of our debt because of some trickery by the Federal Reserve.

Does that help?

Gerald W. Ray

Spokane