Seeking fairness in taxation

Re “Radical sales tax plan fuels Huckabee’s swift rise,” Dec. 24

Even if a 23% national sales tax could fund essential government activities as a replacement for other taxes, no one can explain how it would be fairly implemented given our long history of living (and being taxed) under existing policies. Millions of retired or soon-to-be-retired persons such as my wife and myself have substantial after-tax savings that we will use to pay our expenses in retirement. We have already been taxed on that income. How could a change to a national sales tax be implemented without subjecting us to onerous double taxation? Freedom from taxes on new income will not offset the disadvantage we would face.

Like so much else we hear from Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, this seems to be faith taking precedence over fact, dogma over sound policy.

David Cohen

San Diego

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Leave it to the radical religious Republican right to resuscitate another hypocrisy in opposition to their supposed belief in Jesus and the Bible. Where Jesus admonished his followers that the wealthy should give more to the common good, Huckabee and his self-serving sycophants want to drain every penny possible from the middle class and poor to reduce the wealthy’s 30%-plus federal and state income taxes down to a lower level.

The decline and fall of the American dream is upon us when we allow these so-called religious do-gooders-for-themselves to do away with an enlightened tax system, Social Security, Medicare and the protection of our 1st Amendment freedoms, including the separation of church and state.

Sid Turkish

Beverly Hills