Denham must again show the way

The most important issue before America is economic recovery. Every time the nation is brought to the brink of economic ruin, the confidence of consumers is shaken and recovery is harmed.

We just suffered through the "fiscal cliff," and now the national debt limit looms as a threat to the solvency of our currency. Those who would use this threat to further their ideological goals are irresponsible and dangerous.

The ideologues dress their irresponsibility in the guise of deficit reduction. The deficit is an issue that ultimately needs to be addressed. But as we saw during the Clinton administration, the best way to address the deficit is to restrain government growth during a robust economy. Those who insist on significant spending reductions now fail to recognize that every dollar cut is a dollar taken from the economic recovery and will not easily be replaced by private spending in the environment of government instability created by their brinksmanship.

Rep. Jeff Denham recently showed his courage and bipartisanship by answering "aye" when voting on the fiscal cliff legislation. We must ask him again to summon his courage and work to get the debt limit extended and made high enough to remove it as an impediment to our economic recovery.

DANIEL BROWN

Modesto