This page was last updated on April 25, 2011.
Don’t get fooled again on tax cuts; Bill Ralston; Beaver County Times; April 24, 2011.
Mr. Ralston has written at least four letters since late-2007. At least three appeared to support lefty positions. The only previous Ralston letter I critiqued is here.
Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.
“I am a registered Republican who is ashamed with the party.”
[RWC] When a person goes out of his way to assert he’s “a registered Republican who is ashamed with the party” and then takes a lefty position, you can be pretty sure he’s a Republican impersonator. As noted above, this is not the first letter in which Mr. Ralston took a lefty position, though it’s the first time he claimed to be “a registered Republican.” You can find a list of other local Republican impersonators here.
“In spite of evidence to the contrary, Republicans insist the Bush tax breaks for the rich will solve our problems. Yet it was reported the other day that Wall Street CEOs’ paydays are up 23 percent from last year to a whopping average of $11.4 million each.”
[RWC] I never heard any “Republicans insist the Bush tax breaks for the rich will solve our problems.” The arguments for not increasing income tax rates for “the rich” include fairness and economic commonsense.
Regarding fairness, the vast majority of federal income tax revenue comes from corporate and personal income tax revenue, taxes paid disproportionately high by “the rich.” Based on 2008 income tax data, the top 1% of filers paid 38% of the total and the top 5% paid 59%.
Regarding economic commonsense, history and simple logic show it’s incredibly misguided to raise rates on anyone during poor economic times.
I don’t know what CEO pay has to do with this other than lefties seem obsessed with it.
“Please remember the old saying, my fellow Republicans, ‘Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.’”
[RWC] I thought Edward Hum had “my fellow Republicans” trademarked. <g>
© 2004-2011 Robert W. Cox, all rights reserved.