Tax Cut Proposal

* Working with the numbers provided in your Feb. 6 article on President Bush’s tax proposal, one discerns that: The family earning $36,675 a year pays no federal taxes, receiving a reduction of 100% of taxes previously due; the family earning $73,850 receives a 23% reduction but still pays 10% of its income in federal income taxes; while the family earning $138,667 receives only a 13% reduction but still pays 15% of its income in federal income taxes.

This casts a more balanced light on the proposal, as it demonstrates that higher-income families will still bear the largest tax burden, both absolutely and expressed as a percentage of their income, while receiving the smallest reduction in taxes expressed as a percentage of their current obligation.

EUGENE P. CARVER

Rancho Palos Verdes

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Who pays the piper calls the tune, and the tune that Bush is being called to play by the wealthy Americans who financed his election campaign is “tax cut.” But Bush has no mandate for this payoff to the wealthy. A majority of Americans voted for candidates who supported using the Clinton-created budget surplus to pay down the national debt. If the president is permitted to squander the surplus on his rich friends, our children will be saddled with the national debt.

TERRENCE R. DUNN

Bakersfield

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Allowing for legitimate differences of opinion, I propose the following to all those who don’t believe in the appropriateness of a tax cut: Once the tax cut becomes law, calculate the amount you will be saving in federal income tax and, if you really believe the money is better spent by the government than by your family, write a check for that amount and send it to the U.S. Treasury.

RIC OTTAIANO

Fullerton

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I would love to pay lower taxes--but not when it causes a recession like the one we had in the early ‘90s after years of Reagan tax cuts. President Clinton’s strategy of paying off the national debt instead of cutting taxes was directly responsible for the Federal Reserve reducing interest rates and the strong economy that followed. I fear a huge tax cut now will once again put us on the road to higher interest rates and recession.

DREW DAVIS

Torrance

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Give the rich tax cuts? You bet! Know anyone who ever got a job from a poor person?

TONY EVANS

San Luis Obispo