Letters to the Editor

Dean dreams

Your editorial “Dean’s dream-destroying plan” (Oct. 23) is shortsighted. The “tax relief” I enjoyed this year actually was a loan straight out of the national debt (although it has served its purpose in making the public feel good about the overall shift of the tax burden from the wealthy onto working people). Personally, I avoid unnecessary loans, but in this case, I was given no choice. My family and I will have to pay it off eventually, with interest. This is the bottom-line fact of tax relief in the middle of a recession and a war.

The editorial raises the specter of “[t]ax-and-spend liberalism,” but I am only so old as to remember as far back as Ronald Reagan, and in my entire lifetime, only the Republicans have been truly adept at running up trillion-dollar deficits. Republicans may like to spend my tax dollars on a different set of priorities, but they can spend with the best of them.

Next year, I’ll be voting for the candidate who actually balanced a budget (in the only state where the budget does not have to be balanced), and that’s Howard Dean.

ALX DARK

Seattle

@Text.noindent:m

Your editorial on Oct. 23 spoke about Howard Dean’s economic plan and the tax implications of said plan. He calls his plan Reclaiming the American Dream and pledges to spend $100 billion to create 1 million jobs.

A better idea would be simply to change his plan to the American Lotto. Instead of creating jobs for people, he could draw names from a database (illegal immigrants with driver’s licenses, welfare recipients and the unemployed) and give one lucky person $10 million each day he’s in office.

Assuming he stays for two terms, he could give the American Dream to just a few less than 3,000 individuals. Or, going with $1 million for 10 individuals each day, he could provide the dream to nearly 30,000 individuals, and they wouldn’t have to work.

Here’s the kicker: American Lotto would cost just $30 billion over eight years. Compared to the $100 billion for 1 million new jobs, this is huge savings for tax-paying Americans.

Story Continues →