As I watched the Republican convention, one of the most repeated and most heartily applauded themes was the call for lower taxes, smaller government and less spending.

The delegates didn’t seem to know that the national debt as a percent of Gross National Product has been reduced by every president since World War II except Ronald Reagan and the Bushes, who have doubled it.

Every Republican administration since 1980 has reduced taxes and increased expenditures, leaving the bill for someone else to pay.

John McCain and Sarah Palin seem poised to continue this policy. Gov. Palin’s hometown had no debt when she became mayor in 1996 but owed $23 million – about $20,000 per household – when she left office in 2002.

Sen. McCain wants to continue President Bush’s tax cuts while indefinitely spending hundreds of billions of dollars per year for the war in Iraq.

Al Bersbach, Vienna