Letter: Writer misses several points

Tuesday, Sept. 26, 2000 | 9:41 a.m.

Mr. Olivier, we've probably all lied about sex, but if you or I had lied to a grand jury as Clinton did, we'd be in prison right now.

That's a bit more than a simple lie about sex -- that's against the law.

The government taking money from the producers who do pay taxes, then providing health care for everyone, is not even remotely the same as letting people keep some of the money they've earned so they can afford health care.

One is indeed socialist, and the other capitalist.

And he talks of "Republicans continually preaching about the virtues of hard work, personal responsibility, initiative and against expecting something for nothing" as if these were somehow atrocious, when these characteristics are indeed the cornerstone of our nation, and the means whereby all of the tax dollars the government collects and spends are generated.

And finally, Mr. Olivier, if the inheritance tax you seem to love took a full 75 percent of Mr. Gates' $60-billion estate, that would only leave his children with a paltry $15 billion.

That would still leave them a bit to "squander on an idle lifetime," don't you think?

I saw a family lose a farm to the IRS that had been in their family since Indiana was a territory, because they couldn't meet the inheritance taxes.

All those generations who'd worked and loved that farm and passed it on to their children counted for nothing to a government that is supposed to protect its citizens.

That government threw them off their own land after more than 150 years and sold it for taxes.

RICHARD FISHBACK