Cloudy
73°
Cloudy
Hi 77° | Lo 57°

Letter: Taxing times

For the Monitor

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

The top 1 percent of taxpayers pay 36.73 percent of federal income taxes. The top 5 percent of taxpayers pay 58.66 percent.

The bottom 50 percent of taxpayers pay 2.5 percent of federal income taxes. Forty-six percent of tax filers pay no income tax. Forty-seven million Americans are on food stamps, up from 31 million in 2008. Nine million Americans are on Social Security Disability.

More than $1 trillion annually is paid on entitlements, not including Social Security retirement benefits. Our government is borrowing $3.5 billion per day to pay for current entitlements and expenses. The U.S. government annually spends 40 percent more than annual revenue.

If you earned $50,000 each year and spent $70,000 each year, would you consider this a problem? Other than to simply ignore our debt obligations, both internally and externally, the government is limited to paying off the deficit and the debt with discounted dollars. For example, if the debt is $16 trillion, and the value of the dollar is shrunk to 10 percent, then those borrowed dollars are reduced to $160 billion. Not only does this eliminate the governmental obligation, but it can effectively transfer money from those that have to those that have not.

At age 72, I am not worried about myself, but I am very fearful for my children, my grandchildren and, particularly, my great-grandchildren. Is this a real problem, or am I merely a 21st century Cassandra?

ROBERT W. WRIGHT JR.

Bradford

TakeTheCountryBackzxcv wrote:
24/10/2012

Thank you Mr. Wright! Excellent Letter. The problem is that progressives see "inequity" at every turn out there in society and they don't care about the country going bankrupt. They seem to only care to carry on a crusade that makes them "feel good" about playing Robin Hood. The most important entitlements are those which care for seniors; Medicare and Social Security. Those should not be criticized or touched. Seniors have limited ways to make money in their later years and they have paid into those entitlements even if the government has spent that money on other things. SSI is heavily abused, however. Many of the folks are not totally disabled. I have an ex-relative who has collected SSI for vertigo for decades. He works two jobs under the table, it was reported and the government did nothing. But overall your letter is to the point and accurate. Great job!
Post a Comment

You must be registered to comment on stories. Click here to register.