Tax reform
Dear Editor:
I have been an appliance repairman for 40 years. My natural inclination is to fix things. As I look at the state of national affairs today, nothing seems to be working right. One hardly knows where to begin the repair. May I suggest tax reform?
The income tax discourages investment and productivity. It penalizes exporters who must add the cost of taxes into the price of everything they export. People with high incomes are leaving the United States in droves to avoid income taxes. Working people have up to 25 percent of their income confiscated before they even get their paychecks. The IRS intrudes into our private affairs. We waste hundreds of billions of dollars and millions of hours every year, in compliance costs. People who are not entitled defraud the system for undeserved refunds. Hundreds of billions in revenue from the underground economy and tax cheating is left on the table.
The FairTax changes everything. Because it is a tax on consumption, it sidesteps that entire list of evils associated with the income tax. The FairTax however goes beyond mere reform. Sometimes when I am called upon to repair an appliance, the cost exceeds the value of the unit in question. That’s what’s happening with the income tax today. The income tax cannot be repaired. It must be replaced. Of all the plans being discussed on Capitol Hill, only the FairTax can bring the kind of fundamental and comprehensive change that will allow for a permanent fix.
David Boone
Houston, Minn.
A special thanks
Dear Editor:
George Smitman’s family is very grateful for the thoughtful assistance provided by so many folks in Rangely during dad’s recent move. Your community assistance to help him stay in the community he enjoys being a member of is deeply appreciated.
While his relocation will require adjustment from him (just like all of us who change residence must adjust), his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren give you genuine and heartfelt thanks for your friendships, accessibility, availability and thorough efforts, especially since we are so far away and don’t visit as often as we’d like. Your care and kindness is invaluable to us all, and proof that community remains at the core of American life.
It is an honor and privilege to have the opportunity to wish you all a merry Christmas and happy New Year and tell you of our appreciation for your assistance to our dad.
With true sincerity
and best wishes,
The Smitman Family
Rangely
Herald Times “tops” other papers
Dear Editor:
I’ve been a lifelong reader of newspapers — from Colorado to Kansas to Missouri and finally to New Mexico.
Your Nov. 1 issue, “Colorado’s Gift to the People of America” easily tops any newspaper I’ve seen over the years.
It is the greatest! Keep up the good work.
Thanks so much,
D.K. Moore
New Mexico
