I am writing in response to Brent Bowen’s April 21 letter, “Spending.”

Maine’s deficit is not a result of “Democrats’ spending,” the Clinton administration had a surplus of $123 billion. Therefore, our current deficit is the result of the policies adopted by the Bush administration. President Bush has driven our entire country “into a ditch and can’t pull us out.” He has placed our country into an annual deficit of $368 billion. The United States spends almost as much money every day fighting the war in Iraq as Maine spends every year. I, too, am only 16 years old, yet I realize that the burden of repaying the entire country’s debt “is being passed on to my generation.”

While we benefit from the public services provided by the state of Maine, our legislators in Augusta are working as hard as they can to formulate a budget that is acceptable to Democrats, Independents and Republicans. It is easy for Republicans to criticize the budget, because they are in the minority and are not responsible for producing an acceptable budget. They can just sit back and criticize the Democrats’ budget.

I suggest the Republicans put on their reading glasses and carefully examine their priorities. Clearly, we should spend our “precious tax dollars” on such things as elementary school art and music rather than on an ill-considered and expensive war in Iraq.

Ann R. Danforth, Lewiston

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