Rich Lowry’s column (Aug. 1), citing what he calls liberals’ misinterpretation of President Ronald Reagan’s failure to balance the budget, notwithstanding his campaign promises, contains one telling point: “the economic growth he (Reagan) fostered and victory in the Cold War made the budget surpluses of the 1990s possible.”

Lowry is certainly correct that without the huge deficits Reagan ran that helped to pull this country out of its economic malaise of the 1970s (and that caused the debt ceiling to be raised multiple times during Reagan’s eight years in office, as Lowry acknowledges), the prosperity of the 1990s would likely not have been possible. What Lowry fails to do is to apply his own observation to the facts today: With a severe recession showing only vague signs of lifting, it is exactly the wrong time to cut back on government spending.

Ideological blinders such as “cut the budget at all costs and at all times” have caused this nation to suffer in the past and, sadly, will likely do so again now. FDR learned that lesson during the Great Depression when, during his second term, he tried to be a fiscal conservative and balance the budget, only to send the country plummeting back into full depression which only the huge military build-up for World War II (government spending to the nth degree) ended.

America shouldn’t have to learn that lesson the hard way again, to the great suffering of so many who are struggling through these difficult economic times.

Stephen Hudspeth, Andover