Dear Editor:

In her letter of Aug. 12, the (I assume) charming and disingenuous Sen. Cynthia Lummis painted a picture of an America flush with cash, stating that “Americans are sitting on trillions of dollars” and that 78% of GDP is in deposits, because Americans were unable to spend money during the pandemic.

In 2009, the amount of money in deposits as a reflection of GDP was 83%. Back then, the foreclosure rate was the highest it’s been since the Great Depression. So where was all the money?

In fact, over the past four decades (since the Reagan administration) real wealth for average Americans has decreased, while wealth for high-income Americans has increased significantly. Some 25% of Americans have no savings at all. Another 25% would run out of money in less than three months if they were to lose their jobs. Meanwhile, the wealth of the top 5% of Americans has more than doubled since the Great Recession of 2009.

There absolutely is a big pile of cash sitting in deposits — just not in the accounts of average Americans. President Joe Biden and Ms. Lummis’ Democrat colleagues, through their infrastructure plan, intend to get some of that money circulating through the economy. If Ms. Lummis was truly concerned about the well-being of the average American, I would think she’d support that.

Phil Anthony

Powell