Rep. Tom Rice’s Wednesday letter, “Pass balanced budget amendment to end deficit spending,” held no surprises. As usual, a Republican member of Congress who adheres to a rigid anti-tax, anti-government ideology fails to correctly identify our nation’s financial problems and adopts the wrong solutions.

How did the national debt grow so big? Two unfunded wars, huge tax cuts mostly benefitting the rich, a multi-billion dollar bailout of Wall Street banks, a severe economic recession resulting in the loss of billions of dollars in tax revenue and interest on the debt itself.

Rep. Rice is worried about the burden on our children and grandchildren from the national debt. Our children already are burdened with credit card debt, student loan debt, mortgage debt and incomes that have not kept pace with the cost of living. These are the problems that need to be solved now.

Furthermore, the debt ceiling is an arbitrary cliff used by the minority party to blackmail and block the party in power.

A balanced budget amendment would put the government in a straitjacket and prevent it from dealing with another potential Great Depression. Rep. Rice needs to rethink his economics.

Anthony DiStefano

Aiken