This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

I would like to respond to the letter by Craig Rockelman ("'Shameful?' That's Clinton, not Trump," July 5) who is apparently against Hillary Clinton and stated, "Count the number of Americans who have died on President Obama and Clinton's watch."

I do not know the exact number, but I'll bet it is less than 200. Under the Bush/Cheney administration, there were more than 4,000 Americans killed and 30,000 wounded in the phony Iraq war, and the U.S. killed more than 100,000 Iraqis, including women and children. Both Bush and Cheney lied to the American people to justify the war with Iraq. Iraq was not involved with the 9/11 attack on New York, and they did not have weapons of mass destruction.

In addition to the phony war, they pushed through Congress a massive tax cut.

When President Bush took office, the national debt was $5.6 trillion, and there was a balanced budget. When Bush left office, it was almost $12 trillion, and the debt has now grown to about $19 trillion. The tax cut, which was fully supported by Sen. Orrin Hatch, really benefitted the wealthy. The maximum income tax rate on dividends was 39 percent. The Bush tax cut provided a maximum tax rate of only 15 percent.

Many wealthy citizens get hundreds of millions in dividends. The taxes coming into the government have not been enough, and hence we now have a huge national debt. The Republicans must take responsibility for our huge national debt, as they passed the tax cuts and have controlled Congress for the last six years.

Duane Olsen

Bountiful