Bush's tax cuts
Re "Bush-era tax cuts still loom large," Nov. 28
To Republicans who continue to protest the expiration of the Bush-era tax cuts for the most affluent Americans, based on the theory that tax cuts for wealthy business owners stimulate job growth: The theory isn't working.
The cuts have been in place for a decade, yet unemployment has increased since 2007, and forecasts indicate it will remain at the present 9% rate until next year, if not longer.
What is unclear about this? And why wouldn't a different policy now be warranted given this history of poor results taking the Bush-era approach?
David Shannon
Cayucos
The Times looks at taxation from the wrong perspective.
As for revenue, the government starts with zero. Whatever taxation results in revenue is approved through our elected officials and is determined to be necessary for the government to perform its constitutional mandates.
There is no such thing as a "tax cut" or "tax break" costing the government anything. It only means that the people, through their representatives, have determined that the government is spending too much.
Hardy Pruuel
Torrance
Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) has absolutely no way of knowing that "even if Republicans agreed to every tax increase desired by the president, our national debt would continue to grow uncontrollably."
He is simply stating a Republican talking point. Repetition does not make it true.
But we do have evidence that giving the wealthy tax breaks does not contribute to job creation, and that lowering corporate taxes to 25% will not result in their repatriating funds they have "squirreled away" abroad.
I wish there were some way the American people could tell legislators such as Hensarling that they're full of hot air.
Robert McEwen
Cypress
Occupy's leftovers
Re "Occupy's treasures become city's trash," Dec. 1
Thirty tons of trash and maybe $1 million to clean up the mess and repair damage to City Hall: I think the bill for that should go not to the taxpayers but to the mayor, City Council members and the labor unions that welcomed and coddled the Occupy L.A. protesters.
We all know why the campers were welcomed and praised. They are, for the most part, liberals, and those who do vote likely vote Democratic.
I am truly ashamed to admit that I live in this city.
Bob Rosenberg
Woodland Hills
L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa says it'll cost about $1 million to clean up the protest site. No city needs added costs in this economy.
But how does that stack up against the billions in bailouts that taxpayers gave to banks, the loss of homes to those foreclosed on and the loss of income and jobs at the hands of the greedy? That $1 million for cleanup pales next to the suffering by the 99%.
I'm grateful to the protesters of the 1960s and '70s, and it's sad we're in that place again. Next time you feel apathy or anger toward the protesters, think about why they brave the cold and the abuse.
$1 million? Maybe the mayor could get the 1% to chip in.
L.J. Bousquet
Albany, Ore.
Conservatives, then and now
Re "God and man and William Buckley," Opinion, Nov. 27
As Carl Bogus writes, the modern conservative movement does indeed have its origins in William F. Buckley's seminal work, "God and Man at Yale." However, it took several years for the book to reach a wide audience.
Meanwhile, another point of origin for the conservative movement came from two brothers who happened to be government insiders. CIA Director Allen Dulles and Eisenhower administration Secretary of State John Foster Dulles waged the Cold War as an economic, military and political contest.
Their other motivations neatly dovetailed with Buckley's. John Foster Dulles frequently referred to the enemy as "Godless communism."
One can only wonder what path the nation's politics would have taken if Buckley had attended Georgetown or Boston College.
William King
Upland
Bogus makes a well-reasoned argument as to Buckley's influence on modern conservatism, including the Buckley heirs' black-and-white view of government's role in economics and the "us-against-them" view of those who believe in God and those who don't.
The only thing Bogus gets wrong is his theory that Buckley's ideas "imbued the modern conservative movement with so much fervor," citing Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter. On the contrary, Limbaugh's and Coulter's fervor comes from their being pure entertainers and chasing the conservative dollar, not out of any philosophical bents — theirs or Buckley's.
Ken Goldman
Beverly Hills
Santa Monica's airport battle
Re "Airport fight in pivotal phase," Nov. 26
So Joe Justice of Justice Aviation thinks that the non-piloting public just doesn't understand the "joy, the sense of accomplishment and the experience of flying."
