Income inequality is real and pervasive. Since President Ronald Reagan’s administration, the wealthy have continued to pay less in taxes as their wealth has exploded. This is one of the main reasons our national deficit has risen and will continue to rise. Currently, the Trump administration and the Republicans in Congress have two goals. One is to cut spending by decimating programs that are important to the vast majority of Americans. The second goal is to implement more tax cuts for the ultra-wealthy and corporations. Simply put, these folks don’t need more money — they need more accountability.

Our capitalist system is, at its core, not an inherently unfair system. Greed has perverted that system into what it has become today. Studies have shown that just a little more fairness in the taxes paid by the ultra-wealthy and corporations would ease our deficit over time. Before Reagan and his trickle-down baloney, the wealth tax was around 70%. It is currently half that or less. If we are going to cut programs for the majority, it is only fair that we should be willing to tax wealth as well. It would be a good start toward reconciling the last 40 years.

Paul Pelchat

Thornton