Cal Thomas’ recent column discussed the overspending of the federal government, the $31 trillion national debt, and the fraud that found its way into federal spending on the pandemic. 

He’s right. We need to go after the companies that illegally received money from pandemic-related programs during the Trump and Biden administrations. 

However, the wasteful spending of our government needs to stop, too, not just the fraud.

Our presidents and members of congress need to reduce federal spending, balance the budget and begin to bring down the national debt. Both Democrats and Republicans are to blame for the decades-long spending binge. 

The last president to cut spending and end each year of his time in office with a surplus used to lower the debt was Calvin Coolidge in the 1920s. 

Since Coolidge, only a few Presidents have balanced the budget some of the time and all have added to the national debt. 

Bush added close to $7 trillion to the debt in eight years, Obama added more than $8 trillion of debt in eight years, and Trump ran up about $8 trillion of debt in just four years!

We need a president that will cut spending, balance the budget every year and use any surplus to reduce the national debt. This country needs a real leader with the fiscal tenacity of President Coolidge—and that’s not Trump or Biden!

— Mark Emery, Boonville