Letters to the Editor

Can't tax citizens into prosperity

Karen Heller states that Mitt Romney enjoys "a lower tax rate than workers dependent for income on jobs" ("GOP's rich men strive to be regular guys," Wednesday). Please read Colin McNickle's article on the same day's editorial page: "Romney's 15% tax rate higher than most." The 15 percent tax rate refers to investment income, which is taxed at a lower rate than earned income.

There is no country that can tax its citizens into prosperity. But bad tax policy can certainly limit prosperity.

I was a representative in industrial sales for 40 years, starting in 1969. There were hundreds of manufacturing plants in this area that have either closed or moved away. A messed-up tax system and overregulation were the causes of this situation. I saw it happen personally. K Street lobbyists in Washington have helped give us a tax code made up of more than 70,000 pages of confusion that no one can figure out.

William Ruane, Garnet Valley, ruane-bill@comcast.net

GOP: Greedy Old Party

How can it be that Mitt Romney makes more in one day through investments than the average American does by working an entire year, yet pays only 15 percent in taxes?

Isn't this a very strange, bizarre, and distorted scenario? The GOP has a whole lot of explaining to do, starting with the infamous Bush tax cuts to the wealthiest 2 percent, if it doesn't want to become known as the Greedy Old Party.

David W. Long, West Chester, davidwarrenlong@comcast.net

State of the campaign speech

The American people wanted solutions to the economic mess and high unemployment in the State of the Union ("Obama draws the battle lines," Wednesday). Instead, what we got was a campaign speech full of finger-pointing and empty rhetoric. It could have been delivered in 2010 or even 2009; in fact, many of the president's promises and phrases were lifted, word for word, from earlier speeches.

There were no concrete plans for job creation, just vague talk about chasing the chimera of "green energy" with more Solyndras. He didn't explain why he vetoed the Keystone pipeline, killing 20,000 immediate, and as many as 200,000 near-future, jobs, and likely driving Canada into a partnership with China.

Unable to run on his record, he resorted to the politics of blame, division, and envy, the time-honored tactic of "Down with the rich!" that has appealed to the pitchfork brigade since the French Revolution.

Nick O'Dell, Phoenixville, nickodell16@yahoo.com

Adopting class-warfare rhetoric