Legislation Gap

The column by Ross K. Baker (“He Didn’t Move Legislation . . . ,” Op-Ed Page, Dec. 29) shows that he is out of touch with economic reality, if not reality of any kind. I refer to his lambasting of both the Kennedy and the Reagan administrations. In both cases he ignores what matters, preferring to catalogue some easily derived statistical ratios.

Jack Kennedy reduced corporate income taxes, leading (in an early form of supply-side economics) to the golden ‘60s. He reduced taxes that destroyed profits, leading to better times for everybody. I suppose this was just one piece of legislation put through Congress, but it counted more than 100 others that may have failed.

Ronald Reagan did the same thing. It mattered just as much. Ask the average man about his new job, or about the job he has held without fear during the ‘80s.

I suppose if I had Freud’s gifts, I could understand why the press has ignored such a simple interpretation of why people voted for Reagan and also voted for George Bush’s “Read my lips.”

Those votes of confidence were based on simple facts. People were doing well. It was not clear that tax increases would improve things. Indeed, it was tax decreases that helped in the past. Just one tax decrease--pushed through unwilling, Democratic Congresses (in both the ‘60s and the ‘80s)--was worth all of Baker’s statistics.

DANIEL BINDER

Rancho Palos Verdes