LETTERS: REPEAL INCOME TAX TO FORCE CUTS

To the editor:

As was pointed out in Speak Out recently, what is an opinion page without discussing tax cuts? Congress spends a lot of time debating this issue. It has a dilemma. It debates on how to curtail intrusive programs, how to give control of their lives back to the people, how to stop wasteful spending, how to control the IRS, how to expand educational choices and how to help take care of children and the elderly. What is Congress to do? How many programs and debates will it take?

A simple suggestion: Initiate an amendment to repeal the federal income tax. The federal government then would have to live on the other taxes it collects. This would automatically help cut back on intrusive government programs.

As for finding an additional $350 billion in programs that could be cut in addition to the $350 billion that the federal government admits it wastes, let's start with the $65 billion Congress spends on corporate welfare each year.

Thanks to 100 separate business-subsidy programs embedded in the federal budget, corporate giants like Rockwell International, Westinghouse, Tyson Foods, B.F. Goodrich, McDonnell Douglas and AT&T have pocketed billions in taxpayers' money. According to a report from the Cato Institute, recent examples of congressional pork du jour have included $125,000 to the Texas-based Sire Power Inc. to see frozen bovine semen, $500,000 to the Popcorn Institute, $14,000 to High Mountain Jerky, $75,000 to the Mohair Council to advertise fabrics made of goat hair, $308,000 to Ocean Spray to sell fruit juice, $3 million to the California Raisin Board to run dancing-raisin ads and $120,000 to sell alligator hides.

The federal government collects about $700 billion in federal income tax. Add the $350 billion in waste to the $65 billion in corporate welfare programs, and we only have to find another $285 billion worth of programs that could be eliminated. Will all the choices out there, this should be easy.

MARY NALL

Marble Hill