Speaker Kevin McCarthy is right. We’re spending too much. It’s a relief to see his party regaining their fiscal sensibilities.

After all, this is the party that continues to defeat gun legislation to curb the $557 billion spent on gun violence annually. It’s the party that gutted women’s health care options. Before Roe was lost nationally, state-level restrictions on abortions cost over $105 billion a year (by reducing women’s labor force participation and earnings and increasing their turnover and time off work). Post-Roe, these restrictions will cost hundreds of billions. With health care costs over 18 percent of U.S. GDP, this is the party that fought to dismantle the Affordable Care Act, modeled after health care systems in countries like the U.K., which cost far less and produce better health outcomes for all.

Of course, as the speaker’s party knows, there is another side to debt reduction: increasing revenue. Republican President Dwight Eisenhower knew this with his progressive income tax. Those who benefited most paid a 90 percent tax on their financial gains. This money fueled one of the greatest economic expansions in U.S. history.

Yes, the speaker is right, and it will be a relief to see our Republican leaders work to reduce this wasteful spending, reduce tax welfare for the wealthiest and continue to support the IRS in debt reduction.

Steve Kelley
Kennebunk

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