TAXES

Rich people should pay their fair share

In answer to Michael Miller's question, Nov. 26.

Since the fat cats, who have all the money, refuse to hire the teachers, lawyers, doctors, blue-collar laborers, etc., at salaries that would enable them to pay for food, clothing, housing, hygiene, health care and retirement without assistance, President Obama is going to tax them through the nose, to pay for government filling in the gaps.

If you don’t want to pay such high taxes, then give the aforementioned their jobs back at decent rates of pay so that they will be off the entitlements and paying taxes along with you, rather than screaming for you to pay more.

The majority of those on entitlements are not unproductive by choice, they are rendered that way by lack of a market for their skills. They are the aforementioned teachers, lawyers, doctors, blue-collar laborers, etc., who have been left unemployed/underemployed by the stingy fat cats. That’s why we chose Bob Cratchit over Ebenezer Scrooge. We don’t want to continue to provide our skills for less, while the cost of living goes up and up. We voted for someone who will tell the fat cats, “Use your wealth, or lose it to Uncle Sam, and he will use it for you.”

TRAVIS BREWER, Boise

Rich should pay more

Tax the 1 percent. Stop wars for economic colonization. The political and economic elite of this country must not take one more dime from any public program. Get the dimes from those who have them. Anyone making $200,000 a year can easily afford to pay a little more. Anyone making $1 million can easily afford to pay a lot more into the system that allowed them to profit handsomely off the labor or misfortune of others. Legislating the wealth transfer on the backs of the poor, working poor and middle class may be magically legal, but it is wholly immoral. Illegal immigrants are a small problem compared to the trillions of dollars that Wall Street and their ilk are raping us of. At least the illegal immigrants pay taxes into the system via their fake Social Security numbers as they pick our lettuce and mow our lawns and clean our houses. The “Patriotic Americans” on Wall Street and their corporate media moguls have managed to turn the rest of us against one another while they continue to get laws allowing their off-shore profits to grow with outsourced labor and huge tax breaks at home. But wait; maybe it’s all the unions’ fault?

LOUIS SCHLICKMAN, M.D., Meridian

PENSIONS

Older workers are getting short-changed

I have spoken to several older American citizens, including a family member, who have worked for corporations for over 20 years and have been “laid off.” The tragedy is that the corporations keep their retirement funds that often exceed $180,000. My son is one such victim. This has been happening all over the country for years and it is, unfortunately, legal.

In the time that a person’s retirement is in the hands of the corporation, it is used in the stock market and often is tripled or more in returns. When these citizens are “laid off” they are about 50 years old and the possibility of finding another job does not exist. Some have been reduced to little more than minimum-wage jobs that do not provide any benefits at all. Homes are lost, families are broken, and it is all due to corporate greed. I am hoping that other families will take action and find a way to protect its citizens from such tyranny.

What kind of country rewards its hard-working citizens with such evil.

LI WONG, Weiser

CORPORATE STATE

Follow the money

The Democrats are as endeared to the corporate state as the Republicans, only to a lesser degree. Just follow the money. Bush stole $350 billion to bail out Wall Street gangsters and the Federal Reserve banksters. Obama did likewise, stealing $350 billion to aid and abet the same white-collar criminals. Both parties are lackeys of the corporate welfare state and New World Order, whose main goal is global hegemony over the world’s resources with military force available to protect corporate profits. They are equally culpable for the bankruptcy of America. The Republicans will do anything to maintain their stranglehold on power over the American people. In 2008, the power elite wouldn’t let Ralph Nader debate the mainstream candidates. Nader and his entourage were given a police escort out of the auditorium in Indianapolis for trying to attend the debate. In 2012, Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein was denied access to the presidential debate in New York. She and her vice presidential candidate staged a peaceful sit-in to protest the violation of their constitutional rights. Surrounded by police, they were handcuffed and taken to jail.

The powers that be create the illusion that we have democracy in America. Sadly, we really don’t.

WOLF HOFFMAN, Boise

LUNA

Confidence lacking in state’s school chief

C’mon, Tom, resign! The citizens of Idaho voted “no confidence” in your ill-conceived efforts to further your own political ambitions. (Notice, I did not call your efforts “leadership.” You have not led; you have railroaded.) You have only one reason for continuing in your role as superintendent: You are fairly confident the moneyed people and the majority of the Idaho legislators still support you, as do Butch and Lori Otter, interestingly enough.

You called your loss a “bump in the road,” but it was more like a big pothole that caused your train wreck. Your actions have demonstrated no concern for public education in Idaho. A major loss of funding for our public schools has occurred during your term as superintendent. Teachers’ morale can’t go much lower. Anyone who cares about education does not want our teachers to serve as your political whipping boys. Their teaching load is stress enough. Teachers deserve a leader who supports them, our students, their parents, and our citizenry. I hope Idahoans now recognize that you are using your position to promote your own self interests and will now demand your resignation. Perhaps, you could qualify for a mining job in Montana.

FRAN COLLETTE, Boise

URBAN RENEWAL

Now’s not the time for new spending

Although the voters of Canyon County have certainly spoken on the issue of funding building projects on two occasions, the purpose of this letter is not to question the need for a new administration building. There is a question about what the Idaho Press-Tribune characterized as “other projects” that would account for over $3 million urban renewal dollars (Nov. 21).

More importantly, the question is whether this is the time to expend urban renewal dollars for bonding purposes, or whether it is more prudent to allow the urban renewal dollars to become available for future use in Canyon County’s general fund.

Given how budgets are being stretched to capacity now, will the county be able to maintain the associated costs of a new building, personnel and “other projects” without asking for increased taxation? The answer to this question lays the groundwork for the answer to the proposed bond.

Please do not enter into an agreement to purchase bonds at this time.

JULIE YAMAMOTO, Caldwell