Friday, April 21, 2006 | 7:19 a.m.
The letter from Ken Kiddie published on April 19 ("Those who pay most deserve a break") deserves a response. While it is true that the people in the top 1 percent of income in the country pay the lion's share of taxes, it is also true that they make the lion's share of the income. Their share of the tax burden is disproportionate because their share of the income is disproportionate, and their share of the national income is growing at an alarming rate.
The progressive nature of our income tax structure is based on the notion that much is expected from those to whom much is given. It is far easier for a person making $500,000 per year to pay 40 percent of his or her income in taxes than it is for someone making $20,000 per year to pay 10 percent of his or hers.
Still, to argue on these grounds is to miss the point.
The fact of the matter is that our national debt is now a staggering $9 trillion and our budget is in deficit to the tune of many hundreds of billions of dollars each year when it was in surplus only a few short years ago. This wild spree of deficit spending is a direct result of tax cuts that were weighted primarily toward the wealthiest members of our society.
The very size of our debt is putting our economy and our way of life at risk for no real reason. Eliminating the Bush tax cuts would be a good start toward restoring some fiscal sanity.
John Farrish, North Las Vegas
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