Subject: Re: Paying a fair share: LAT, I am not a Republican, nor am I wealthy, but closing tax loopholes achieves the same result as raising taxes. It prevents the beneficiary of a proposed action from having to pay less tax. Why do you think people always want to close these special case tax loopholes? The only reason we (the public) even hear about these tax loopholes is because some politician running for office wants to get in office. Tax loopholes typically benefit the wealthiest individuals in this country, because its the wealthiest people in this country that run this country. Big business, Senators and Congressmen/woman are the ones writing the laws. However, I must differ with your viewpoint/perception that the wealthy don't pay their fair share of taxes. The countries "wealthy" currently pay a horribly disproportionate amount of money in taxes. Real dollars. I think it is something like the top 1% wage earners in this country pay like 50% of the overall dollars in actual tax revenue. I disagree with our progressive tax system as I think it can act to discourage folks from earning more money while encouraging others in the higher tax brackets to barter or evade paying taxes..be it tax loopholes or by other means. What we need in this country is a flat tax system similar to the one proposed by Huckabee. The theory behind it is that everyone pays the same percentage of their income towards taxes. I have written about this before here and I know Larry is very against this notion. However, what could be more fair than EVERYONE contributing the same percentage of their income in taxes? The economic disincentives of a progressive tax system would be eliminated. The IRS would essentially be disbanded as we know it. Lower economic earners would contribute to our tax system that have never before. Many lower wage earners pay nothing and have paid nothing for years because of their low wages. Tell me, why shouldn't these people have to pay the same percentage as others for the very things that they and all of us benefit from as citizens - from a federal level.....like our military, infrastructure, social security, etc. What is this notion that "those who have benefited the most don't pay their fair share of taxes" come from? Is this jealousy? Perhaps those that benefited the most were the same folks that worked really hard and made a lot of sacrifices. Maybe these same folks were innovative, creative and smarter than us. Why should they be punished by this notion that they owe the public anything? This capitalistic society is available to us all. Make the most of it that you can. Don't cry and pick on the wealthiest , most successful group - because in all actuality, they do and have paid a far greater amount of real dollars back towards this country in the form of taxes that you and I have benefited from in many ways. Sign Me, Bleeding Heart Independent Capitalistic Minded Individual P.S. Also wanted to remind you that the nations wealthiest also contribute a tremendous amount of money to charities, making all kinds of services and opportunities available to others.

RESPONSE: Benjamin Disraeli said; THERE ARE LIES, DAMN LIES, AND STATISTICS. The reality is that the taxes on the rich as a percentage of income have dramatically declined over the last couple of decades...and the result has been a massive increase in the national debt. It is a zero-sum game...no one is cutting government and when leaders in either Party try...the part of the public losing a service goes bezerk. The notion that wealth is earned by building a better mouse trap...as in the case of Microsoft...is the exception...not the rule. The massive increases of wealth for the super rich over the last eight years have been a result of manipulating deregulated markets at the expense of the consumers/masses.

Scam after scam has resulted in bubbles that have made the rich richer and when the bubble bursts the rest of us are poorer. The estimate is that the run up in gas prices has nothing to do with a lack of product...but is a result in manipulated speculation in the 'market' ... that much beloved artifice by the rich Republicans who tell us the market unregulated solves all problems. The reality being that it makes the rich richer and the middle class poorer as scams like the sub-prime and again market manipulated price increases in grain commodities have dramatically escalated grocery prices.

To put this in context, last year 5 individual speculators who run these hedge funds...reported incomes of over a billion dollars...that is with 'B' as in billion! There is no product ...just a speculative manipulation of demand that drives up prices for the middle class and makes huge profits for rich speculators. The estimate is that 80 cents of every gallon of gas or oil is the result of speculation...not product disruption. It simply is not a level playing field. Let me strongly recommend that the writer above who has imbibed so deeply of the Republican Kool-Ade rent the movie; 'Enron -- the smartest men in the room.'

For the most part the rich don't start out on a level playing field...they buy favors and manipulate markets to produce greater wealth...and then seek to manipulate the tax policies of our country to their benefit. The most dramatic evidence of the scam nature of a flat tax...is to look at who supports it...the super rich...the Wall Mart family, the Mars candy family and of course Steve Forbes of the Forbes fortune...if the Republican Party is the Party of wealth and the Democrats are the Party of the middle class working guy...why is a flat tax something only supported by Republican politicans and Libertarians?

Capitalism is an economic system which plays into the creative aspect of human kind and is a great engine for wealth production...but unregulated wealth only seeks to protect itself and maintain its favored position. The rich like Warren Buffet and Bill and Melinda Gates who comphrehend the large blessing and debt they owe to our country have repeatedly spoken out against the cuts in the taxes for the rich that the Bush administration have pushed through...and of course they both have donated the bulk of their wealth to charity. The rich Waltons from the Wall Mart fortune market the Kool-Ade that you have imbibed as a betrayal of hard work and in support of inherited wealth. Don't feel badly ... watch the movie ... and see how the brightest lawyers, auditors, financial institutions were fooled by the cooked numbers of Enron...of course they were all pocketing big bucks (millions) in return for their blindness. Your foolishness is less understandable.