Letters to the Editor
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On the tax question, I wish the candidates had been able to give a better, but more complex answer
Like, I promise the working and middle class will be better off as a result of my tax policy. Because the real issue is that the middle and working class are worse off, even when the Republicans give them a tax break, and I means that objectively.
For example, interest rates, on mortgages, credit cards and for corporate investment. A key factor impacting and forcing up interest is the size of the deficits the Republicans have created with their tax cuts -- borrowed money is a market commodity, Bush has made the biggest buyer for that commodity the Federal Government, hence real interest rates must go up.
The sliding dollar is driven heavily by the size of the US deficit, put simply, foreigners believe (because some Republicans have been suggesting this as far back as the Reagan administration) that in the end the US will have to monetize the debt, i.e., let the printing presses run and devalue the dollar. Moreover (see the point above), if the US does not put up interest rates to reflect the size of the debt, the dollar must fall. The falling dollar is a major driver of the soaring oil price, and this is taking money out of peoples' pockets faster than the tax man.
Grover Norquists treasonous tax cut program (treasonous because it seeks to destroy the US government in a time of "war" according to the Republicans who have signed on) has as its objective "starving the beast" so as to kill off all the programs that benefit the middle and working class, everything from tuition assistance to medicare. Again this makes the middle and working class worse off.
The education position of the US is sliding -- rapidly. It no longer has a well educated workforce by comparison to its competitors. More than half of the students in hard science and engineering programs in US colleges are not US nationals, the US performance in the OECD PISA studies of 15 year old educational achievement sucks (except for the literacy test, where the US adminstrators were so illiterate the results had to be thrown away), which means they are not qualified to do these subjects in college. The most recent study I saw of the US workforce shows that it is THE ONLY ONE IN THE WORLD where 50-64 year old workers are better educated than 20-35 year olds (that difference was public education spending in the 60s and 70s especially to support college science and engineering programs.) If Americans are less educated than dozens of countries how can they expect to be well off? What use is there in cutting taxes, to cut education spending? All that will mean is working class and middle class parents struggling to pay for priovate school, or their kids losing out.
I could continue listing points like this, but the "bottom line" is that taxes cannot be seen in isolation, they are part of the deficit situation, and a high deficit costs middle and working class Americans. The question is, will Obama and Hillary enact policies that will make them better off.