GOP tax cuts are a bonanza for the rich
Hooray for the great Republican middle-class revolution. The incoming House Ways and Means Committee chairman lost no time in announcing the following tax cut program:
* Capital gains cut, of which 73 percent would go to families earning more than $100,000 yearly (this tax cut is of particular value to large holders of stocks and real estate).
* An expanded Individual Retirement Account program, of which 95 percent of the benefits would go to the top 20 percent of earners.
* Repeal of the tax increase on Social Security benefits to higher-income pensioners.
* An increase in the estate exemption to $750,000 from $600,000, again benefiting the wealthiest taxpayers.
When these tax cuts to the wealthy are coupled with the Republicans' promise to enlarge the military and enact balanced-budget legislation, what will happen to children's immunization, Head Start and environmental clean-up, not to mention the National Endowment for the Arts?
As an added fillip, Bill Archer, R-Tex., the incoming chairman, said he will try to replace the federal income tax with a broad-based consumption tax -- which is, of course, simply a sales tax, the most regressive levy on the poor.
Finally, the incoming chairman proposes to remove the Internal Revenue Service from our lives.
Is the tax bonanza not enough? Does open season for tax cheating also have to be declared?
Joseph Sachs
Baltimore
Tardy mail
In the past four weeks, I sent four letters to London, England. Three of them arrived in four days and the fourth in just three days.
Obviously, they went by air. Too bad I can't send all my mail there. Why did it take 22 days for a certified letter to come to me from Wisconsin?
Leona Young
Towson
Sensitive issue
As a task force member interviewed in your recent article about the Baltimore County public schools ("Board tackle religious holiday issue," Nov. 11), I would like to clearly state the position of the task force's proposed policy and clear up any misconceptions that the task force desires to take all holiday observances out of the school.
The task force holiday and administrative rules propose that teachers, as professionals, be able to use any and all educational tools, religious and secular, needed to teach about religious holidays as long as they are used as a short-term study in the curriculum.
The line between religious and secular elements of a religious holiday is at best hazy, but under this policy that is unimportant, since no part of a religious holiday is off limits for teaching purposes.
It is the decorations and celebrations extending for weeks that surround a religious holiday that cause undue pressure on school children and exclude children due to their religious beliefs.
All the children in our schools are precious and none should be put in an uncomfortable or compromising position for the sake of mere decoration.
This area must be handled with much sensitivity since school, unlike the mall, is mandatory.
Marjory Zeiler
Lutherville
Days of Christmas
Nowadays people seem to think that the Christmas season begins the day after Thanksgiving and ends Chrismas Day, when it really begins on Christmas and lasts until Epiphany, "The Twelve Days of Christmas."
Even Christmas Day has become an anti-climax, the tree already dropping its needles and everybody exhausted.
For Christians, this is nonsense. The season before Christmas is Advent, a time for penitence, preparation and anticipation. Penitence for things done and left undone, for people neglected, whether family, friends or the poor. (Penitence means not remorse but a turning around.)
Preparation for a joyful celebration in church, at home, with stockings, gifts and tree, or just a special meal with a friend. Every faith has its own feast of light in darkness at the solstice, when days begin to lengthen once more. Christians chose this time to celebrate the birth of Christ, with Christmas Day.
Don't blame the merchants. It is the Christmas shopping season. They make their living by giving people what they want.
When we want gifts, they produce them lavishly, with sparkling decorations and catalogs to cheer us on. But nobody is forced to spend too much keeping up with the Joneses.
When I was a child, Christmas came as a surprise, even though I knew about the closet I mustn't open, even when Santa Claus slowly withdrew from the scene.
At 80 I still trim a small tree on Christmas Eve, to the amusement of my children, and get to church if I can. But when I asked a few friends in for a drink one Christmas afternoon, I got no takers. They were all too tired.
Eleanor N. Lewis
Baltimore
Gingrich, it's his way or the highway
I read with interest your article on Rep. Newt Gingrich's triumphant return to Washington (Nov. 12). After reading the article, I found Mr. Gingrich to be a man of contradictions.
For example, he stated he was willing to cooperate but he was not willing to compromise.
Correct me if I am wrong, but I always thought in order to cooperate with another individual you must also be willing to compromise. This is necessary in order to reach a mutual agreement.
President Clinton has already stated he is willing to cooperate and compromise on certain issues ' welfare reform, limited health care reform and world trade agreements.
Mr. Gingrich has yet to state what he is willing to cooperate on with President Clinton. I get the distinct impression that he believes it is his way or the highway. That is not my definition of a democracy.
Rep. Gingrich's second contradiction involved this statement on blame and responsibility: "You cannot hire a teacher to teach your child and walk off and then blame the teacher. You cannot hire a policeman to protect your neighborhood and then walk off and blame the policeman."
I agree with this statement 100 percent. We tend to blame others for our problems and not take responsibility for our own actions.
But Mr. Gingrich places all the blame for our country's ills on "social programs spawned by President Lyndon Johnson" and in turn blaming the Democrats. I believe, and probably many Americans believe, it is both the Democrats and the Republicans who are to blame, and therefore, both parties need to take responsibility.
And need I remind him, it was a Republican administration that paved the way for the savings and loan crisis, which we will be paying for in this country for many years to come.
His third contradiction involved re-examining government programs and seeing how we can reduce spending.
I agree we need to examine each government program and see how we can reduce the waste present in today's government.
But Mr. Gingrich never mentions the Social Security program, which is draining our government and creating the most damage. Any expert in the field of economics will tell you we will not reduce the deficit until we examine the Social Security program.
Also, what about the waste of time and money for all the congressional hearings? Sen. Alfonse D'Amato wants to reopen the Whitewater hearings. Does Senator D'Amato feel such vindictiveness toward President Clinton that he has to waste my money on a second set of hearings?
I should note I feel this way on many congressional hearings ' many waste time and money and prevent the Congress from doing what it needs to do.
In closing, I have been reading and hearing what a tough job President Clinton has over the next two years.
Personally, I feel President Clinton has an easier job than the Republicans. Unfortunately, the American people, including the Democratic Party, have given up on him, therefore, what does he have to lose?
President Clinton can vote with his conscience over the next two years and not worry about getting re-elected.
At times, I have disagreed with some of President Clinton's policies, but I always felt he honestly believed he was doing what he thought was best for all the American people.
The Republicans, on the other hand, have everything to lose. They made a contract with a select group of American people, and if they don't live up to the terms of the contract, they will lose big in 1996.
Frankly, I would not want to be in their shoes right now.
Carolyn Dickerson
Abingdon