Recent letters to the Call concerning the national debt apparently place the responsibility for its growth on the shoulders of former President George Bush.

One problem: The blame is misplaced. Article I of the U.S. Constitution gives only one branch of our federal government the power to tax, the power to borrow and the power to allocate money for expenses — Congress.

If you must place blame for our debt, it is Congress, not the president, who should be blamed. It is Congress that has ensured that 52.4 percent of our federal budget is spent on entitlements, more than five times the amount allocated to defend our country. It is Congress that enabled the “affordable mortgage” fiasco that wiped out $6 trillion in equity, raised the unemployment rate by 3 percent and added $900 billion to the debt in the last four months alone.

Bush did not do this. Congress under Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and her party did. Place the blame where it truly belongs.

President Barack Obama is promising to have the Democratic-controlled Congress spend over $1 trillion in additional revenue on infrastructure improvements, to give tax “cuts” to those who don’t pay taxes and to have the government eventually take over our health-care industry.

That’s going to take money, lots of money, lots of borrowed money. Will the Call’s letter writers blame Obama four years from now when the debt hits $15 trillion?

Henry V. Taber

Crestwood