In defense of Grover Norquist
I take this opportunity to comment on Jane White’s letter of July 17. Grover Norquist, the thrust of her letter, has been very consistent for many years regarding taxation. If she would take just a bit of time and do some research without reading left-wing blather, she would discover that he has called for less spending and not increasing taxes. He founded Americans for Tax Reform in 1985 with the premise that taxes should not exceed more than about 20 percent of GDP. There is no link to Karl Rove or the Koch brothers that have been documented that I know of. It seems that she is of the opinion that the wealthy are not paying their “fair share” of taxes.
In the interest of the readers and hopefully to Ms. White I offer the following information regarding taxes collected on 2002, the first year of the Bush tax cuts, and 2009, the most recent year I found. In 2009 the top 1 percent paid 36.73 percent of federal taxes and in 2002 they paid 33.71 percent. The top 5 percent paid 58.66 percent versus 53.80 percent and the top 10 percent paid 70.47 percent versus 65.73 percent, lastly, the top 25 percent paid 87.30 percent versus 83.90 percent.
The taxable income to get into the top 25 percent of taxpayers in 2009 was $66,193 versus $56,401 in 2002. It is very clear that in spite of the tax cuts, these taxpayers paid more in 2009 than 2002. All the above statistics are compliments of the Internal Revenue Service.
If we were to do as she suggests, I would be hard pressed to determine the “fair share” percentage as one could take 100 percent of the top 1 percent of earners and it would not fund the deficit spending for more that a few days. You could take all their wealth and you could run the government for approximately 18 days.
It is painfully apparent that spending is the problem, not taxation. I would encourage the readers and Ms. White to direct their efforts toward spending, as that is the problem.
In 2008 we had national debt of approximately $10 trillion and at the end of the first term of Mr. Obama’s tenure the debt is expected to be in excess of $16 trillion. This leaves every person in this country with more than $50,000 to pay off in the future. Since only 50 percent of the citizens pay income taxes, my previous figure should be expressed as $100,000 per taxpayer.
In the interest of the public, Americans for Tax Reform can be accessed at www.atr.org and I am not a financial supporter of this organization.
— Raymond E. Broshar
Terre Haute
Thanks for help with Habitat
Habitat for Humanity of Clay County is thankful for the wonderful community support for their yard sale and the Kroger Cruise-In held July 14. We appreciate those who donated items for the yard sale and the many people who made purchases. A special thank-you is extended to Clover Signs for allowing us to hold the yard sale at their business location. We also thank the Brazil First United Methodist Church for loaning tables for the event.
Brazil Kroger employees, led by Jonathan Herbert, put on a terrific Cruise-In with over 30 entries. They also sold food and beverages for the event. Several local merchants made wonderful donations for door prizes. We are pleased and thankful to have Kroger employees helping to raise money for Habitat. We appreciate all those who participated and made contributions.
The Times, Clay City News, Tribune-Star, Hi-99, Riddle Bank and Clover Signs supported both fundraisers with publicity. Several local businesses displayed our fliers. We thank you for helping to make both events successful.
Habitat sincerely appreciates the continuing support for our mission to provide affordable housing to Clay County families. All proceeds will be used to build our eighth home.
— Cheryl Steuerwald
Publicity Committee
Habitat for Humanity of Clay County
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