Letter: cutting taxes

Recently there were two articles, one about how a hard debt ceiling would help America and the other about the GOP's cutting taxes without reducing spending. While I don't like paying taxes any more than Grover Norquist, one of the authors, what I don't want even more is to live in the "Third World", to use an old term. Both articles' suggestions would drive down spending on public goods, such as schools, roads and social services, in favor of "citizens keeping their hard-earned money". Sounds great. But in practice means the rich get richer and the poor and middle class get left behind. Third world countries economies are set up to favor the rich at the expense of the many - is that what we want in America? In my opinion government should always focus on the poor and middle classes - the rich have always been able to take care of themselves as they have throughout history.