Why am I not surprised that the liberal mouthpiece Baltimore Sun criticizes the Republican-controlled House of Representatives for demanding spending reductions as the price for raising the debt ceiling ("GOP plays chicken," June 5)?

Perhaps if the Democratic Congress with its Democratic president had produced a real budget instead of continuing resolutions, we would not have this problem. Perhaps if, as advertised, the so-called stimulus had lowered unemployment (it did not) or raised our growth rate (it did not) we would not be in this position.

Perhaps if the Congress hadn't wasted almost two years passing a health care bill that the majority of the country was against it could have spent more time figuring out how to generate jobs and realized that stimulating the economy means growing businesses, not government largesse.

But the Democratic Congress and this failed president decided to triple our national debt by handing out goodies to their friends like the teachers unions and autoworkers. And now they're handing out waivers for the same groups for the wasteful Obamacare that they just had to pass so that we could see what was in it.

This president has sent our economy teetering on the precipice of bankruptcy with his failed economic policies, yet your newspaper castigates the Republican Congress for insisting that we start to live within our means.

Republicans understand that if they do not insist on cutting spending now, Democrats in Congress will never agree to it. Yet The Sun continues on, just like the president and the Democrats, marching like lemmings over the cliff.

If it weren't so pathetic it might even be humorous.

Edward K. Leventhal, Baltimore