TAXES: Wealthy should pay share

"Them whats gots - gets." Which means the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, but we know that.

The U.S. has a spending problem and a bigger revenue problem. Spending will come down, but revenue must go up an equal amount.

Revenue should go up because this country has a lot of wealth. The top 10 percent of our income strata owns 80 percent of the wealth, such as stocks, bonds, money and property. The 400 richest folks in the U.S. enjoyed an average tax rate of 18 percent in 2008. In 1992 they paid about 26 percent, according to IRS. Is your tax rate that low? Shouldn't they pay their fair share like you and I do?

What about the corporations that don't pay any income taxes in this country? The Government Accountability Office states, "Two-thirds of U.S. corporations paid no federal income tax between 1998 and 2005." Shouldn't they pay their fair share like you and I do?

According to the Deloitte Center for Financial Services and Oxford Economics, more than 10 million households in the U.S. now earn more than $1 million a year. These millionaires now possess $39 trillion, but at the end of this decade, their wealth will more than double to $87 trillion. Shouldn't they pay their fair share like you and I do? They can afford it.

We will have to cut our spending in the U.S., but to be fair, we must also increase the revenue. We can do that and improve our economy by simply letting the Bush tax cuts expire! The sooner the Bush tax cuts expire, the better off we will be.

LARRY M. BELMONT

Coeur d'Alene