My local paper, the
Times Herald-Record, ran a story today titled
"Up in arms over Bush tax plan". It's a report on the proposed elimination of the mortgage and state/local tax deductions from federal income taxes, and it has at least one local Republican fretting over the effect of the changes on his party. I took the opportunity to start driving the wedge between fiscal conservatives and the party in the following letter:
The federal government is talking about eliminating the deductions for state and local taxes and for mortgage interest. Faced with a ballooning debt and a massive annual budget deficit, I applaud this belated attempt to find solutions to the irresponsible borrow-and-spend policy that the Republicans have engaged over the past five years. However, cuts to the federal income tax and repeal of the estate tax for the wealthiest are still in place, and Republicans are still trying to make those cuts permanent. Is this responsible government? Why is the shrinking middle class being forced to bear the burden for the American aristocracy?
Remember this the next time a Republican politician or pundit decries "class warfare": the war has been engaged for the past thirty years, and you've been on the losing side.
Please feel free to send your own feedback to the Record.