Higher taxes not the answer

The supercommittee has failed. Its task was minuscule to begin with, a 2 percent deficit cut per year over 10 years. This exercise was doomed to failure. President Barack Obama wanted $1 trillion in tax increases, which he knew would not pass Republican members.

Obama is running for re-election and has very little to talk about. The committee failure lets him blame Republicans, setting up a class war scenario. Have you seen the “Save Medicare, Tax the Rich” signs?

We need to get to hard facts to see where we need to go. In four years, our national debt has grown 32.7 percent. It is clearly our uncontrolled spending, not our insufficient taxation, that is the problem.

As for Occupy Wall Street, the top 1 percent pays about 40 percent of all income tax. The top 5 percent pay 50 percent of all tax. Is this a “fair share”? About half of all Americans pay no income tax. Taking all of the income of the top 1 percent would barely dent our current deficit of $1.5 trillion.

With Obamacare, we will have millions more to care for, and no valid figure on that cost; we are flying blind. Stop the spending. The answer is not in higher taxes.

John A. Peterson

Spokane