To Rep. Bud Shuster and John Boehner, why scream over tax hikes?
It's time to bring some financial sanity and concern for our country to the fiscal cliff negotiations. The president ran for re-election after the worst financial period since the depression.
He won solidly, too. His platform was lowering the deficit and restoring tax rates to the Clinton-era rates for wealthiest Americans.
Our economy was pretty robust at that time. There were only 15 years in this last century of American taxation where the tax rates for the wealthiest were lower than currently (35 percent for the past nine years). Bush II lowered them in 2003, then declared two wars.
That's fiscal insanity.
For 75 years of our century of taxation, 1913 to 2012, the highest marginal rates have been between 36 percent and 94 percent. For 20 years in this century, highest taxes were 70 to 94 percent, including six years of Reagan's presidency. This never stopped the economic engine of our country. Investors still invested.
My Social Security and Medicare are not entitlements. I worked hard for them my entire life and depend on them. Social Security is funded by the workers not taxes. Let's show justice and concern for all Americans, not just the top 2 percent.
Let's let our congressional representatives know how we - the other 98 percent - feel.
Pamela Jones
New Paris
