In 1980, Ronald Reagan infamously said, “Government is not the answer, government is the problem.” He was just plain wrong and a hypocrite.

In 1982, he signed into law the largest tax increase in the history of the country, doubling the payroll tax (which was to save Social Security forever), taxing waitresses’ tips (even if they never received a tip) and taxing Social Security benefits.

Republicans hailed the law as a tax cut, which it was if you were in the upper 5 percent of income earners. Reagan proceeded to spend money like a sailor on shore leave. That led to one of the biggest deficits ever and added to the growing national debt. Government spending led to increased employment and the economy surged.

Now the tea party seems to want to finish the work of the Confederate States of America. They want to do away with Social Security, Medicare/Medicaid, the minimum wage, disability, the 40-hour work week and, in effect, return slavery.

The poor will have no choice but to work at whatever work is available at any wage that is offered and work until they drop dead.

The federal government will be reduced to national defense and law enforcement. Defense officials will and have spent trillions, and trillions will be spent on such things as the failed war on drugs; for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the war on the American people; and trillions on jailing Americans for nonviolent crimes.

Judson Duncan, Monmouth