Cox’s Economic Views Draw Complaints, Praise

Re “To Solve the State Deficit, Encourage Economic Growth,” Jan. 5:

How fortunate for all of us in Orange County that we have such a hard-working congressman, such as Christopher Cox, working on our behalf in Washington. He scolds Gov. Gray Davis for raising tax money and using the revenue inappropriately. However, he and the Bush administration are going to fix all of our states’ ills by lowering our taxes.

And what specific California job creation actions has Cox taken? Where was this congressman when we were being gouged by the out-of-state energy companies? Where was this congressman when this county was in deep deliberations about the El Toro commercial airport saga? Where was and is this congressman when it comes to the hordes of illegal immigrants that this state has absorbed and the negative economic impact this has had on our economic health?

For more than two years we have been hearing about President Bush and his encouragement of economic growth plans with results that are less than flattering. To listen to Cox, one would think California is the only state in financial duress.

The modest tax rebate we received the last time around was but a fraction of the losses most of us encountered in our savings and retirement plans, and it didn’t seem to do a lot to revitalize the economy either.

Too bad the current administration doesn’t have the wisdom to employ the wisdom of [former Treasury Secretary Robert] Rubin, whom President Clinton empowered to fix the financial ravages of Reaganomics. The current fix-the-economy scheme seems to be revisiting Reaganomics again.

Oh well, maybe we’ll learn the second time around.

Hans Roehricht

Lake Forest

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Well, Cox is still beating the broken drum of trickle-down economics. It nearly bankrupted the nation under Reagan, and it most certainly has not worked during Bush’s tenure. Of course it always makes the wealthiest even wealthier, but that is the secret agenda. Notice that not one of Cox’s proposals has any real effect on members of the middle class, whose continued buying power is literally keeping the economy afloat.

Every time Bush comes closer to his oil/vendetta war with Iraq, the stock market falls.

He will try for more tax cuts even though last year’s $1.3-trillion cut already guarantees more deficits. So instead of “tax-and-spend” Democrats, we are saddled with borrow-and-spend Republicans.

Deficit spending has a place, but not for the transparent reason of benefiting those who are already rich. Cox’s crusade to end the estate tax will mainly benefit the heirs of wealthy Americans. Cox crows that its repeal “is estimated to add more than $10 billion to the U.S. economy in the next decade.” He does not, however, mention how that amount shall have been lost to the U.S. Treasury permanently. I love the spin on the repeal of double taxation of dividends; that it “will add $20,000 for each U.S. household.” I can’t wait to get my check in the mail, congressman.

If the governor and the Legislature levy new taxes to compensate for our state’s shortfall, so be it. It is our problem. We must shoulder responsibility for our schools, public works, health care, law enforcement and so forth. Let Cox sneer, but in the end, we can lower our taxes when the economy picks up and not face an even more horrendous deficit because we paid as we went.

The nation, on the other hand, will be dragged down into another Republican morass of public debt that will haunt our economy for decades.

Wallace Wood

Costa Mesa

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Cox’s suggestions for improving the California economy do not go far enough.

Manufacturing is either fleeing or bypassing this state. Hence, we are left with a largely service economy. Our workers’ comp rates are astronomical, energy is expensive and uncertain, and taxes are high and getting higher. Yet the legislature can only propose more taxes.

We need to start electing state officers who have managerial ability. Forget their pretty faces, folks.

Mary Ann Bower

Oxnard