Stock Market, Deficit and a Tax Hike

I have a plan that I think is a practical solution to help eliminate our national debt. If implemented properly, every man woman and child could share in this accomplishment.

My plan would be to refer to it as a “gift” from the American people (not a tax) in honor of the 200th anniversary of our Constitution and this wonderful land of freedom in which we live. We should add a fee to the purchase of all foods (groceries, meals in restaurants, etc.). This is the only method whereby no one category of people could say they are being discriminated against. We all eat--old, young, rich, poor, black, white, citizen, non-citizen and the illegal alien.

This “gift” could be collected by the same process that sales taxes are handled by each state and go directly into a federal fund expressly for the debt.

I recommend an amount of 1%, effective as soon as possible, for as long as it takes.

MARJORIE E. PIKE

Irvine