Bush Defends His $1.35-Trillion Tax Cut

Re “Bush Says He Won’t Budge on Tax Cuts,” Jan. 6: President Bush vowed that his [10-year] $1.35-trillion tax cut would be repealed only over his dead body. Instead of stimulating the economy, his tax cut resulted in more massive layoffs and hard times for America’s poor, homeless and unemployed. The Republicans seem to have only one solution for our economic woes--cut taxes for the rich and corporations, increase military spending and spending for prisons and the failed war on drugs, and when the inevitable deficit ensues, balance the budget on the backs of the poor.

Before we think about another massive tax cut we should ask ourselves if that money couldn’t be better spent on solar energy research and development, better mass transit, more low-cost affordable housing and some form of decent, affordable health care for the medically indigent. The Republicans never met a tax cut they didn’t like or passed one that did an iota of good. The way they serve and represent the rich and major corporations, you’d think they were owned and controlled by them.

Charles B. Edelman

Los Angeles

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Is “not budging on tax cuts” George W. Bush’s way of repeating his father’s pledge, “read my lips”? When politics becomes the objective, as it is with taxes, a bulging popularity may not save George W. from suffering the same ultimate fate as his father experienced.

Barry Naiditch

San Diego

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Re “Jobless Rate Nears a 7-Year High; Political Debate Shifts,” Jan. 5: Let me make sure I’ve got this right. Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle blames the current recession, which began in March, on the policies of George Bush, who took office approximately 40 days earlier on Jan. 20. Daschle says that the Bush tax cut is the primary cause, even though Bush signed the bipartisan bill in June, three months after the recession began. During 2001, the tax cut amounted to a paltry $300 per individual taxpayer or $600 per married couple, hardly enough to cause a recession.

Americans need bipartisanship and straight talk from congressional leaders. Daschle provides neither.

Thomas R. Damiani

Newport Beach