Letters to the Editor: July 11 – 17, 2019
Republican Tax Scheme Dividing the Middle Class
Editor,
State and local taxes (SALT) are generally used to provide funding for the common good: public education, fire and rescue, libraries, roads, police, courts…
Capping the SALT deduction was a cynical act by the Trump administration and its Republican enablers directed at blue states that put a higher value on providing for the public good and its necessary funding via taxes. I don’t mind paying my fair share of taxes, but I do mind politicians specifically targeting voters in areas that, generally, did not vote for them.
The Republican administration did not cap the SALT deduction because they want wealthy people to pay more of their fair share of taxes. Their true motives are revealed by the tax breaks they passed for the wealthy (lowering the highest rates) and their expansion of tax breaks for people who send their children to private schools. They took away a deduction for people and communities who fund (through SALT) public schools for all children and expanded a tax shelter (529 plans) to people who pay money to send only their own children to private (K-12) schools.
The Republican administration tax scheme was diabolical because while giving the wealthiest fraction by far the most benefit, it divides the middle class by pitting them against their neighbors, as evidenced by the letters decrying Mayor Tarter’s testimony.
Joyce Migdall
Falls Church
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