TAXES: Wealthiest should pay fairly

The Bush tax cuts for the wealthy must expire. Those tax gifts do cause deficits because they are not paid for. They bring in only 15 percent of the GDP, which is the lowest since WWII, and that added $2.6 trillion to the deficit, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

If the "Party of NO" truly wants programs to be paid for, then start with Bush's gift to the wealthy, which adds to the deficit. Bush left two wars and the prescription drug bill (Part D of Medicare) that were not paid for and cost about twice what Bush promised. These items are covered with borrowed money.

Investigative reporter David Cay Johnston shows that the top 10 percent of our income earners "own 72 percent of our nation's wealth (cash, stocks, bonds, real estate, etc)." The bottom half of our citizens own only 2.5 percent of the nation's wealth. The top 1 percent earned $400,000 and up, and they alone brought in "two thirds of our income gains in the years 2002-2007." That is the largest amount since the 1920s. When that happens, we have an aristocracy, and that is not what our country was founded on.

Some say we should not tax the wealthy because they create the jobs, but with all that wealth concentrated in the hands of so few, why then are they not creating jobs? Well, perhaps they are creating jobs - but in other countries. Where was the shirt or blouse that you are wearing manufactured? We will not create jobs here in the USA as long as we give corporations tax benefits for sending jobs overseas. Several of these corporations, like GE and Exxon, paid NO income taxes in the U.S. last year, and that adds to the deficit.

Let's be honest about the deficit. As a percent of our economy, this is the lowest our taxes have been since the Truman era at only 15 percent of our GDP. The Bush tax cuts helped the wealthy aristocrats the most. Unless these tax gifts to the super wealthy end and unless we stop giving tax breaks for sending jobs over seas, we will continue to watch the middle class of America disappear.

LARRY M. BELMONT

Coeur d'Alene