Editor:

Do you remember when President Clinton said, “The era of big government was over?”

In his 1996 State of the Union, Clinton said: “We know big government does not have all the answers. We know there’s not a program for every problem. We have worked to give the American people a smaller less bureaucratic government in Washington. And we have to give the American people one that lives within it’s means. The era of big government is over.” Do you remember when the 2000 Democratic Party platform stated “A debt-free America is within reach This would free businesses to invest and innovate. That’s why Vice President Al Gore is determined to completely eliminate the publicly-held national debt by the year 2012.”

Do you remember when Senator Barak Obama said the national debt was irresponsible and unpatriotic? On July 3, 2008, Senator Obama said: “The problem is ...we are taking out a credit card in the name of our children ... and driving up the national debt. We now have over $9 trillion in debt that we are going o have to pay back. That’s $30,000 for every man, woman and child. That’s irresponsible. It’s unpatriotic.”

Do you remember when President Ronald Reagan said, “ government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem.” (January 20, 1981) So why did the Congress just pass a bill adding 87,000 new IRS Agents? Why is our national deficit now over $35 trillion and increasing by $100 million every hour?

The bad news is our current leaders have forgotten “The era of big government is over.”

The good news is there is an election coming up and “We the people” have an opportunity to remove the irresponsible people and select new leaders who won’t forget that, “Government is the problem – not the solution.”

Sincerely, 

Tom Seaman Richmond Hill