The American Spectator

Reader Mail

Outlaw Nation

10.12.04 @ 12:01AM

CAN'T WE GET ALONG?
Re: Reader Mail's Bush Walks the Walk:

What has happened to our country? Why are so many people such as your readers who write lovingly about one candidate and hatefully about another consumed with spite? This has become an election full of vitriol, disrespect and embarrassment. Attacking a candidate's appearance (What is this about a tan?) or a candidate's manner of speech (Idea and nuclear?) by either constituency is not worthy of publication. These comments are pure and simple bigotry and the publication by the Spectator only promotes hate and intolerance.

Where is the discussion of issues instead of this inane focus on "Who won the debate?" and the incredible waste of time on the part of the media, the pundits and publications such as The Spectator as to what the audience is wearing at the town hall forum? This voter considers coverage of this nature an insult to our country and its citizens. If we are becoming a nation of bigots, then the United State of America is truly in danger of not remaining united and it will lose its status as a leader among nations. Think about that.

This voter is tired of such foolishness on the part of supposedly intelligent people. We seem to have forgotten why we elect people to represent us in our local and federal governments. Is it not the central duty of our elected officials to govern our country for the good of all the people -- all citizens? This voter contends that the good of the country centers around an exceptional public education system, health care for all citizens, adequate wages that can support a family, maintenance of our transportation and commerce systems, stewardship of our natural resources, reduction of our dependence on oil, elimination of our national deficit, income tax reform, electoral reform, national security, a well-equipped armed services trained for peace keeping and defense, and as importantly, a sound foreign policy which promotes peace along with the world-wide elimination of hunger, disease and nuclear threat. These are just a few of the issues which should be front and center on a voter's mind when he/she goes into the ballot box to elect a public official.

Issues such as a woman's right to choose, right to life, stem cell research, marriage and ANY attempt to legislate morality do not fall into the arena of governance. These are just a few of the special interests that lead our electorate astray and away from the key focus of our elected officials -- that of governing for the good of ALL of our citizens. This voter doesn't care if the candidate is black, white, green, purple, man, woman, homosexual, transsexual, communist, socialist, liberal, conservative, libertarian, Muslim, Jew, Catholic, Protestant, Buddhist, etc. Come November 2, this citizen will be voting for candidates from the local through national levels whose platforms will best provide governance for the GOOD of all its citizens regardless of their party, race, gender, religious or economic status.
-- Charlotte Erickson-Rempfer
North Bend, Washington

FOREST GRUMP
Re: John Tabin's Kerry Cries Timber!:

It was an excellent article on the intricacies of the tax codes but missed the point that V-P candidate John Edwards uses the Sub-S Corp as a shield from paying all those Medicare Taxes on his judgment earnings. As always the libs lead with "do as I say, not as I do," and if there is any way to tie the evil Republicans to a perceived problem, then do so. TIMBERRRRRRRRRR........
-- Ray Gaster

Thanks to John Tabin for clearing up the Kerry timber remark. It was really an odd thing to say.

What about Kerry's statement about only he, Bush & Gibson would be taxed at a greater amount (under his tax plan) "judging by the looks of audience." I wonder how many were actually quite wealthy?
-- Charlotte Waddle
Phoenix, Arizona

Isn't it about time to ask the multi-billion dollar question, "If Kerry is elected, will John and Teresa put their holdings into a blind trust? If not, why not? And how would we know, since Teresa has refused to release any details of her holdings and tax records?"

The use of a blind trust is designed to deter any abuse of power and appearances of impropriety, so Teresa should be asked directly if she would comply.
-- Rich Hudson

John Tabin makes a hash of the issue of Bush's "ownership" of a timber company by flaunting details that are true but irrelevant as a lead-in to snarky remarks about John Kerry. Tabin is obtuse or dishonest to say that Kerry "seemed to say" that "the tax code is so broad that Bush himself, a man worth $18 million ...'counted as a small business.'"

When Kerry said that "President Bush himself would have qualified as a 'small business owner' under the Republican definition," he was not talking about the tax code's definition, but the Republican definition, which tries to pass off the number of people reporting income from small businesses as the number of small-business owners, and further incorrectly equates that number with the number of small businesses, thereby exaggerating the number of small businesses by about 100% and misstating the effects of Kerry's tax plan.

I loathe Kerry, like Bush, and plan to vote for the latter. I would have liked to see a realistic, candid analysis of how Kerry's tax plans would affect small businesses that actually have employees. That is a small portion of the total number of Subchapter S corporations or limited partnerships, but as the larger small businesses, the ones with employees must be concentrated in the brackets affected by Kerry's tax plan. Some solid numbers, including employment projections, would have been useful, but Tabin just served up the kind of sleazy misdirected propaganda that should be left to the Democrats, since they seem to enjoy it so much.
-- Seán Fitzpatrick
Upper Darby, Pennsylvania

John Tabin replies:
Obtuse or dishonest? I'll take obtuse, thank you. Let's be clear, though: The dispute over the number of small businesses traces back to a FactCheck.org article that says that a Bush/Cheney '04 ad overstates the number of "small businesses" as 900,000. But a glance at the text of the ad, posted in a sidebar to their analysis, shows that in fact the ad refers to 900,000 "small business owners," which is the number of taxpayers in the top bracket who own a piece of an S-corporation. That this is an unfair definition of a "small business owner" still strikes me as something of a stretch. Nonetheless, on the campaign trail (unlike in the ad that FactCheck.org purports to debunk), the President and Vice President have indeed used the formulation "900,000 small businesses," and after re-reading the debate transcript I must concede that it was indeed Bush's use of that formulation that Kerry was objecting to. Mea culpa.

Letter to the Editor

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