The Sun frequently publishes letters criticizing Gov. Martin O'Malley and President Obama for their targeted job proposals and suggesting that the silver bullet is "across-the-board" tax cuts. These unfunded tax cuts are exactly what George W. Bush did, and it led to incredible deficit spending and the current economic mess.

When the state and federal budgets are already suffering from drastic drops in revenue, large tax cuts are fiscally irresponsible. Large cuts will increase federal deficit spending and require cuts on the state level. Large tax cuts have the exact same effect on the budget as large spending programs.

When an alleged fiscal conservative asks for tax cuts, our next question should be how they would make up for the lost revenue. This is especially true in the case of former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., who increased spending during his term and now claims that Governor O'Malley is the big spender, despite his drastic budget cuts. Luckily for Bob Ehrlich, talk show hosts don't have to submit a balanced budget, and white-collar lawyers can talk out of both sides of their mouth about fiscal responsibility and tax cuts.

James Bragdon

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