Repeal all taxes

Walter Williams’ erroneous support for the Fair Tax [“Is fair taxation possible?” Dec. 13] is sad. The proposed 23 percent sales tax on the cost of goods and services sold to replace all other national taxes is a pipe dream.

A 23 percent sales tax is regressive, hurting the lowest paid the most. The Fair Tax, if it was designed to not hurt the poor, would have a $250 floor on it. Further, there’s no doubt a thriving underground black market would evolve in a flash.

A major problem complicating a Fair Tax is that states and cities have sales taxes and those will not be repealed — those taxes are on top of the federal sales tax. Hotel and gas taxes will continue — put those on top of all the other sales taxes.

Taxes in any form are thievery of income earned by workers. Just repeal all taxes.

Ron Getty

The City

Draining the swamp?

Here’s a question for the Democrats and their leaders like Nancy Pelosi who vowed to clean up “the swamp of Republican corruption.” According to the official Congressional Investigation Report of the Foley incident, both the House Democratic Caucus and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee had copies of the Foley e-mail in the fall of 2005. So if these righteous Democrats were really interested in the safety of congressional pages, how come they sat on these e-mails for one year, revealing them publicly just two months before the election of 2006?

Scott Abramson

San Mateo

Out with a whimper

I am disappointed in how the Republicans in Congress finished their roles as the majority in the House and Senate. After having done little more than spend taxpayers’ money throughout the year, when the election showed that the Democrats would take over the majority role next year, the Republicans appeared to immediately surrender leadership and pack their bags for home. One would have thought they would exercise some strong leadership and push through all of the agenda items that had been languishing much of the past year. Instead they shut down early to go Christmas shopping.

I hope they develop some spine, commitment and patriotic statesmanship before the 2008 election and step up to putting our country on a solid footing again by showing the upcoming generation the benefits of a true republic.

Lyle Topham

Saratoga

Welcoming a new supe

Congratulations to Ed Jew on his winning the District 4

supervisor’s seat. I’m not too happy, though, that he promises to focus on his district and the Chinese community — the Balkanization of San Francisco is not a good thing. I suspect, too, that Supervisor Jew’s comment that we must “cut the fat” has the entrenched self-servers smiling — “another rube crusader, he’ll learn.”

Still, in a city that changes governments less often than Sweden, it is nice to know that there are pockets of resistance here and there. Don’t forget us on the letters page, Ed. Ideas have consequences.

Paul Burton

The City

Half-baked economics

The Rent Board, with Board of Supervisors acquiescence, now allows a PG&E power pass-through to be based on the landlord’s PG&E bill in 1980 subtracted from his PG&E bill in 2005 (and so forth). The 1980 bill is not indexed to reflect CPI, PG&E costs or rent increases. It is just cast in stone in nominal 1980 dollars. The greater the time difference, the greater the regressive tax on aging.

This is an illogical and meaningless calculation that has one sure outcome — it penalizes renters for getting old in San Francisco. Rent control and age discrimination should be separate issues. It seems that they have been irrevocably joined by the Rent Board and Board of Supervisors with the new Rent Board Rule 6.16. This is truly half-baked economics by a lot of so-called regulatory and legislative progressives.

Brian Browne

The City

Barry Christmas

Given that this is supposed to be the season for giving, I wonder if Barry Bonds can part with some of his new $16 million contract to send personal trainer Greg Anderson a Christmas card. Spending both Thanksgiving and Christmas in jail for remaining silent should at least merit something.

Larry Hurley

Daly City

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