Letters to the Editor: Why don’t America’s billionaires do something about our national debt?

To the editor: I agree with guest contributor Ivo Welch (“No one can grasp trillions. Here’s how to make sense of federal spending and debt,” June 26). Here’s a novel idea: Why don’t all the billionaires in the U.S. take a huge leap of faith in their country and contribute their wealth to paying off the national debt? They would be hailed as heroes. What more could a billionaire want?

Maria Sugranes, Huntington Beach

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To the editor: Welch wrote that raising taxes could slow growth. But historically, there is virtually no correlation between tax rates and GDP growth.

Tax cuts have always been a big fat giveaway to the rich paid for with public debt, so the rich got the money and the rest of us got the debt. That debt is then used against us as an excuse to cut things like Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security. Debt is used as an intermediary between tax cuts and entitlement cuts, making it so complicated no one can figure it out. Tax cuts are class warfare of the rich against the general public.

Jeff Christie, Woodland Hills