Letter: Reagan widened rich-poor rift

Wednesday, Aug. 25, 1999 | 9:33 a.m.

During the Reagan administration, 1981-89, the richest 1 percent saw their federal tax burden (combined federal income and payroll taxes) fall by 15 percent, while the poorest 20 percent saw theirs increase by 15 percent.

At the same time, the Reagan administration's profligacy (remember the "Star Wars" debacle) continued to sink the country deeper into debt.

In 1985, at the height of full-blown Reaganomics, even our less then penurious Congress ended up cutting $5 billion from Reagan's bloated, out of balance $588 billion budget.

The legacy of Reaganomics is an obscene national debt and a wider disparity between the rich and the poor.

KELLY KRIEG

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