Two Things Are Certain in Life: Taxes and Tax Breaks

Re “Senate Passes Big Tax Breaks,” Oct. 12: Although our economy is suffering from the greatest budget deficit in history, George W. Bush succeeded in engineering passage of a $136-billion corporate tax package that cuts taxes for businesses ranging from film companies to NASCAR racetrack owners. The measure includes a $10.1-billion buyout for tobacco farmers.

Never mind that funding for unemployment benefits is running out. Never mind that existing education programs are not being funded. Never mind that the cost of gasoline and healthcare is skyrocketing. Never mind that clean air and water programs are inadequately funded.

As long as the big corporate insurance, tobacco, oil, pharmaceutical, banking and energy companies are taken care of, Bush will be servicing his base. Is it too much to expect a president to represent more than the wealthy?

Martin A. Weiss

Temecula

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The recently passed corporate tax cuts are a step in the right direction. Why tax corporations at all? The taxes are simply passed on to the consumer. Business decisions that are based on tax avoidance or tax-loss benefits are pure gamesmanship that add nothing to the economy. Elimination of the corporate tax would lower business costs directly, and in a competitive environment fostered by a diligent Federal Trade Commission and Justice Department, consumers would benefit through lower prices. Locating businesses in the U.S. would become more attractive, and the outsourcing of jobs would be ameliorated. Locating corporate offices offshore would be “disincentivised.” What about the lost revenue? We could wait to assess any new taxes; Vice President Dick Cheney says deficits don’t matter! After a few years we could determine the net effect of eliminating the corporate tax, and enact a broadly based tax like value-added to compensate for lost revenue.

Herb Zweig

Woodland Hills

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Re “Alcohol Tax Evaporates -- for Now,” Oct. 13: If this article is not a persuasive argument for line-item veto power, I don’t know what would suffice. Between this, the extravagant salary increases our local, state and federal legislators vote for themselves and their lifetime insurance coverage, pensions and miscellaneous benefits, is there any question that their bottomless appetites for largess are helping to cripple our economy and its citizens?

Patti Scarborough

Arcadia