Subject: Paying a fair share: I hate to disagree with my Republican friends, but closing tax loopholes isn't the same as increasing taxes. In a progressive tax system in which the tax rate is supposed to increase as one's income increases, closing wealthy-only tax loopholes ensures that those whose economic well-being has dramatically increased pay their fair share of taxes on that increase. Truth is, when those who have benefited the most don't pay their fair share of taxes, the tax burden gets shifted to workaday people and the shrinking middle class, where it has a far bigger effect on the overall standard of living. Perhaps the real question is, are we going to have a tax structure based on fairness or continue to support economic policies that amount to socialism for the rich? LAT