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Letter: Rich should pay for war in Iraq

Thursday, Oct. 2, 2003 | 8:59 a.m.

Robert Reich, labor secretary under President Clinton, in an article in USA Today, proposed the income tax rate for the rich be increased to finance the Iraq war.

He said there is precedent for such a policy. In World War I, the rate for the richest was 77 percent. In World War II, the rate reached 90 percent. In 1980, the rate was still 70 percent. Then along came GOP President Reagan, who engineered a drop in the top tax rate to 28 percent.

Now, another GOP President, George W. Bush, is opposed to tax rate increases for the rich to finance the war. Instead, he gave the rich a big tax cut and wants more.

In 1906, President Teddy Roosevelt, who drafted the progressive income tax, which is fair to rich and poor, said the wealthy "owe a particular advantage from the mere existence of government."

Furthermore, the rich can afford high taxes and the rest of us cannot.

ORVILLE GOPLEN

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