Letter: Only the rich will benefit from tax cut

Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2001 | 9:35 a.m.

The pigheadedness of President Bush in not giving in on allotting 41 percent of his tax cut to those in the upper 1 percent earning the most is revolting.

This disgust rises when you see the tax guide and the listing that a married couple in the $12,000 to $43,850 bracket, with a 15 percent tax rate, get no reduction in the Bush proposal. That pretty much torpedoes the Bush claim that everyone, including the nonrich, will get a percentage tax reduction in his proposal.

The route in tax rate reduction is to give a low rate of tax reduction to those with the top income and give a progressively higher tax cut to the nonrich. The greatest economic need is for the nonrich, who have been struggling during the economic boom, when the rich got richer.

There is a better way to use the surplus to help the nonrich, who need it, rather than the rich, who don't need it. Forget the tax cut. Instead, pay down the national debt, which will result in lower interest rates on mortgages and loans; bolstering Medicare and Social Security; providing better health care insurance and patients rights, and prescription relief for seniors.

Let's not go back to deficit spending in order to give more tax breaks to the rich.

ORVILLE GOPLEN