LETTERS: DON'T DISTORT THE LEGACY OF THE REPUBLICANS

To the editor:

I read with some amusement W.T. Woods' recent letter to the editor. His inaccurate and one-sided attack on Republicans is typical of the tactics of the present-day Democratic Party. Promoting class hatred seems to have served the purposes of the Democrats very well over the years, but the tactic is really a pathetic one.

Woods agrees with his president that it is "risky" to let people keep more of the nearly 40 percent of their incomes that is paid in taxes yearly. Some estimates put this amount much higher when hidden taxes are included. Of course, Mr. Woods claims that the Republican tax-cut plan is just a ploy to help the wealthy. One Republican plan is for across-the-board tax cuts for all Americans. This would help Americans of all income levels. I personally have no animosity toward the wealthy as long as they have earned their money in legal and ethical ways. The econony would especially benefit with a cut or even elimination of capital-gains taxes. Other Republican plans target the tax cuts to lower-income Americans and eliminating the marriage penalty. In any case, tax cuts are not only needed, but necessary in whatever form they take.

Woods goes on to blame President Reagan for the current national debt. This is absolutely false. Reagan pushed through the largest tax cuts in history during the 1980s. Federal revenue increased dramatically, and some of this was directed toward defense spending. A stronger national defense was one factor which led to the United States' winning the Cold War and destroying the communist hold on Eastern Europe. Reagan wanted to move toward a balanced budget and constantly pushed for a line-item veto and a balanced-budget amendment to the Constitution. These were denied to him and the nation by the Democratic Congress.

Much of the increase in federal revenue during the 1980s was spent by a Democrat-controlled Congress. This was the beginning of the exploding national debt. Keep in mind all spending bills originate in the House of Representatives that was controlled for over 40 years by the Democrats until the Republican takeover in 1994. Take note, Mr. Woods, the first balanced budget in decades has been passed by a Republican-controlled Congress. The Democrats are the party of tax-and-spend and the enemy of not only the well-to-do, but the middle class and the working poor. I am sure that Mr. Woods and other partisan Democrats will continue to disguise the truth with slander and stereotype. This may convince the simple-minded but not-thinking people.

JOHN HELDERMANWhitewater