Pro and Cons on Ken Khachigian

* Readers James R. Gallagher and Jim Corbett, who wrote on Sept. 5 about a recent Ken Khachigian column, seem not to understand the capitalist system.

Those who produce are entitled to receive more and keep more. In America today, higher incomes are overtaxed by any standard you care to compare.

Corbett and Gallagher also seem to have no sense of history--or very short memories. I clearly recall the malaise that President Carter said had fallen on the nation.

I also recall the double-digit unemployment, interest rates, business failures and cost of money, along with a decimated armed force that made this country a “paper tiger” ridiculed throughout the world.

The USSR was in command, and its influence was spreading faster than the pox. Nation after nation was clamoring toward communism, and the future looked bleak indeed.

I recall my children coming home from elementary school telling of the atomic-bomb-attack drills they practiced each week, about the films of how best to avoid radiation fallout.

I recall a neighbor building a bomb shelter and discussing how he would defend that shelter from those foolish enough not to invest in one for their own families’ protection.

President Reagan stopped all that. He reversed the downward plunge of the economy. He cut taxes for all Americans and rebuilt our armed forces to a mighty force that made the Soviet Union think twice and twice again.

Under Reagan unemployment plummeted, interest rates stabilized, the cost of money became reasonable again, and businesses, new and old, flourished.

Reagan’s greatest achievement was his defeat of and the ultimate total collapse of the USSR.

Regardless of mindless attacks on Reagan, that alone will mark him as one of America’s all-time heroes and one of its great presidents.

WILLIAM R. HUGGINS

La Habra

* Regarding Kenneth L. Khachigian’s column “It’ll Be Gore, Yawn, Over, Yawn, Bradley,” Sept. 12:

As a left-winger myself, I supported Harry S. Truman.

I wish--no, I pray--that Khachigian would please tell me of one left-wing extremist position that Gore has taken. Just one.

I need some reason, other than he’s not George W. Bush, to vote for him.

It’s my opinion that Al and George could switch parties and they’d both still feel at home. Of course, if all the Democrats are looking for is someone to beat George W., they should nominate Bill Bradley.

BLAKE H. FINCHAMP

Huntington Beach

* Kenneth Khachigian (“Democrats Overtaxing Our Patience,” Aug. 29) allows his conservative bias to lead him into contradiction when he argues that federal estate taxes should be reduced or eliminated so that offspring of the very wealthy can receive what amounts to large sums of unearned income.

On the other hand, he extols the accomplishments of 200 employees of Broadcom who have become millionaires through “risk-taking, innovation and . . . plain sweat.”

Is it possible for Khachigian to imagine that after only a couple of generations the passing of millions of dollars on to already rich children might kill that “drive to succeed” and create a permanent upper class whose money and influence would control American government and politics even more than it already does?

Isn’t that just the kind of social and political system that American colonists and French citizens revolted against during the 18th century?

As for the factors that led the Broadcom employee to success and prosperity, Khachigian conveniently forgets to include the solid public education most of them received that taught them how to read, write, compute and think.

Ironically, it would be aid to public education that would be drastically reduced if the tax cuts he advocates were implemented.

Without that basic education, there will be fewer Broadcom success stories in the future.

DAVID TUTTLE

Mission Viejo