Letter of the Day: Who's to blame?

Who's to blame?

EDITOR: I'm just curious as to why Republicans keep blaming President Barack Obama for the federal deficit. Perhaps they've forgotten that George W. Bush inherited a budget surplus of $236.2 billion in 2000. They also must have forgotten that by 2002 under Bush we had a deficit of $157.8 billion.

By 2008, when Obama was elected, the deficit was $455 billion because of Bush's tax cuts for the wealthy and the cost of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Maybe, just maybe, Republicans should ask themselves why it was OK for Bush to squander a budget surplus that could have been used to upgrade this nation's aging infrastructure rather than blaming Obama for all our ills. Perhaps they're all just afflicted with Alzheimer's.

STEPHEN RUFFINO

Santa Rosa

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