LETTERS

Start again on taxes

As one who made his living representing the IRS in the United States Tax Court, I can tell you that the income tax is inherently unfair. Those who have the money to hire the best lawyers and lobbyists bend the laws and the courts to benefit the rich. The middle class and working people get the short end of the stick.

We need to scrap the income tax and enact a tax on gross income. Most people could file their tax return on a postcard. Simply show your gross income multiplied by your tax rate, somewhere around 8 percent. It would be, in essence, a sales tax on your pay, payable at the end of every month by your employer.

There would be no deductions for anything. Your tax rate would depend on your tax bracket, graduated so that the rich pay more and the poor pay less or none at all.

The purpose of an income tax is to raise the money to pay for government services and benefits. It should not be used for social engineering or to encourage or discourage anything.

Every year, we waste billions of dollars and man-hours preparing income-tax returns. It costs billions of your tax dollars to enforce our income-tax laws. Go to a law library and look at a tax service code sometime; it is well over 74,000 pages. A tax on gross income would be less than a hundred pages and easily enforced.

RUUD DuVALL Fayetteville

Was that idea buried?

I may be missing something, but in all the information and input given regarding the SWEPCO power line, why has there been no mention of just burying the line?

It seems to me that it would be more effective in the short run (better received by citizens) and less expensive in the long run (less to maintain, less herbicidal use).

VALERIE LEWIS Fort SmithJust wouldn’t be fair

“I just see a huge train wreck coming down.”

That’s what Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., said about implementing the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). The senator is not just any Democrat. He is chairman of the Senate Finance Committee and a leader in getting the law passed in the Senate.

Now, he’s doing the right thing by not running for re-election next term.

Will Sen. Mark Pryor show the same sense of decency and retire? No, I’m sure, but the voters of Arkansas hopefully will make that decision for him.

Without his vote, I believe Obamacare would never have become law. Therefore, Arkansans could logically call it Pryorcare.

Since Sen. Blanche Lincoln was removed from office for her “yea” vote, it wouldn’t be fair, maybe even sexist, to re-elect Senator Pryor.

BILL CURTIS Hot Springs Village

Performed a service

The voters of Little Rock should doff their hats and give a bow to outstanding Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reporter Claudia Lauer, who has written very valuable information recently about the proposed salary increase of the mayor. I believe most everyone would feel that Lauer certainly went the extra mile.

For example, the comparison of mayor’s salaries of several cities around the country with similar populations was most revealing. Even before the proposed $19,000 increase for our mayor, Mark Stodola’s salary is $24,553 to $87,873 more than the mayors of the other capital cities cited, several of greater population.

Given this information, it is difficult to understand why a director would propose increasing the mayor’s salary that much.

In view of this and the law passed in a special election in August 2007 with only 13,272 voters participating with well over 100,000 voters registered, it is suggested that this issue be placed on the regular ballot of a general election, which would give all Little Rock voters a fair chance to express a preference.

Other questions arise: Why was a “special election” called in the first place, and by whom, considering the expense and low turnouts normally experienced?

In the meantime, under the Freedom of Information provisions, would it be possible for the Democrat-Gazette to publish phone numbers of the mayor and city directors so that voters can express directly their sentiments on this matter? This certainly would be an excellent fulfillment of the principle of representative government.

JOHN W. NIVEN Little Rock

Find a use for waste

I have always heard the brag that every part of the pig is used except the squeal.

Where is Cargill’s Research and Development Department? Why have they not been working on a use for pig waste? Where are their chemists who could find multiple uses for making things from hog waste?

I think this is the way the problem of hog waste should be solved.

FRANCES MUNSON Fayetteville

While you’re at it …

Any hip-hop artists who would like to join Stevie Wonder’s boycott of Florida, do us a favor and boycott Arkansas, too.

TRAVIS W. TUCKER Des Arc

Would gladly buy car

George W. McClain says he is amazed that news outlets use Charles Krauthammer, a self-anointed “expert on everything,” and asks, “Would you buy a used car from him?”

I suspect McClain’s dislike for Dr. Krauthammer is not because of his broad range of knowledge, but with the conclusions to which his analyses thereof lead him. Bret Baier, anchor of Fox News’ Special Report, has more than once indicated that viewers complain when Dr. Krauthammer is not a participant in the panel portion of his daily show, so millions of people must have a favorable opinion of him.

I believe Dr. Krauthammer is probably as near to being an “expert on everything” as anyone alive today. I respect his analytical abilities, and, if I were in the market, I wouldn’t hesitate to buy a used car from him.

KEN MILLER Little Rock

Editorial, Pages 13 on 07/30/2013

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