Opinion: Are Republicans against deficits? Depends if Obama or Trump is doing the spending

To the editor: The hypocrisy of the Republican Party has no boundaries. It’s no surprise that the party apparently does not care about federal budget deficits anymore. (“‘Deficit’ no longer a dirty word for the GOP: Trump’s tax plan adds more than $2 trillion in red ink,” Oct. 5)

For years, Republican policy wonks pushed the central idea that would go on to form the core of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Once it was taken up by Obama, the GOP used it for years to rally opposition.

Once upon a time, the Republican Party stood for civil rights, but that went by the wayside when it was important to win the votes of disaffected bigots. The GOP always says it stand for the little guys, but for president it nominated rip-roaring narcissist who stands for nothing but himself.

President Trump and the Republicans have not made our country “great again.” They are turning it into a shell of what it once was. We can only imagine what Abraham Lincoln would say about the Republican Party today.

Brad Taylor, Van Nuys

..

To the editor: House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) remains the most dangerous man in the country.

He has mastered the dark art of blithely rotating positions 180 degrees with full conviction and with complete amnesia to prior positions. He also knows his base, half of which are blindly loyal no matter what, the remaining half willing to endure all manner of negative consequences so long as liberals are slighted.

His and Trump’s tax reform is the same old same old, and the consequences completely predictable: soaring deficits, little economic stimulus, a reduced social safety net, accelerating income inequality and perhaps another recession.

How much misery and duplicity is GOP base willing to endure?

Mark Van Leeuwen, Newhall

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook