Re: “,” Sept. 27 news story.
In 1980 the maximum federal tax rate was 70 percent, the deficit and debt were negligible portions of the national budget and economic inequality was a minor issue. Then the Reagan administration engineered a major tax cut, arguing the virtues of economic growth via “trickle down” economics. Result: over the next decade periodic recession periods followed and the deficit, debt and economic inequality grew rapidly. Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton subsequently managed to raise taxes, leading to a balanced budget by 2000.
Then George W. Bush’s administration lowered taxes again and tossed in a couple of IOU wars to boot. Same argument as Reagan. Result: ballooning deficit, debt and economic inequality — and the worst recession since the Great Depression. Now Donald Trump proposes to lower taxes again, using the same worn-out argument of economic stimulus due to lower taxes.
The American public needs to keep in mind that perhaps the old adage “fool me once” (now twice) applies here.
VվDZ, Golden
President Donald Trump’s new tax plan calls for the elimination of the estate tax. Republicans like to call the estate tax the “death tax,” but the actual number of estates affected is less than 0.2 percent. The heirs of only extremely wealthy estates, with assets greater than $11 million, pay any estate tax at all. If itap a death tax, does that mean that 99.8 percent of us don’t die?
If the estate tax is eliminated, the loss of federal income would exceed $269 billion over the next decade. This amount, although only 1 percent of the federal budget, is sufficient to fund the the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Environmental Protection Agency combined. So the choice becomes: do we want to give a few billionaires a handout, or do we want to fund the FDA, the CDC and the EPA?
DzҴDz, ҴDZ
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