Gerald Keer disagrees with another writer's assessment of Donald Trump's tax proposals.
To the Editor:
In response to "Trump tax cuts would make debt load crushing," Roy Lehman's recent letter:
Lehman worries that Donald Trump's tax plan, if implemented, would add to the federal deficit. He writes this after often supporting government spending by Democrats, with the assistance of "RINOs" -- Republicans In Name Only.
President Barack Obama in 2009 pledged to cut the deficit in half by the end of his first term in office.
Our tax system, which needs revamping, does not necessarily affect the deficit. American corporations, the source of much employment and income, avoid taxation via legal loopholes. They move their businesses overseas because of regulations enacted at the behest of liberal Democrats, including Obama and his predecessors. This is cause of our deficit.
Trump's proposed reductions in bureaucracy are a good place to begin. We have so many federal agencies with restrictive regulations that businesses cannot profit. Profit is not a dirty word.
Also, baby boomers feel the pinch in health care costs because the Affordable Care Act that requires mandates such as free contraception coverage. "Obmacare" covers or subsidizes the premium costs of many people under age 65 who are not on the employment rolls. A National Taxpayers Union (NTU) review of tax returns found that in 2013, only 52 million filers among of 147 million IRS returns had to pay any federal income tax.
Another NTU-supported analysis states that Hillary Clinton has proposed $198 billion in annual spending increases that would cost $209 billion in added revenue. The same analysis states that Trump's proposed spending increases are $35 billion a year, with $131 billion in added revenue required.
The deficit is now close $20 trillion under the current president who swore that he would cure the problem in his first term. Is Hillary far behind?
Gerald Keer
Turnersville
Send a letter to the editor of South Jersey Times at sjletters@njadvancemedia.com