Reader's View: We need to tax top earners again

Republicans seem to want us to believe it is normal practice for people to hold off paying off debts while figuring out budgets. I do not know of a single responsible person who does this. I may need to adjust my budget, including spending cuts and new revenues. Through the course of my life, I have done both to get my finances in order. For Republicans to only look at spending cuts to solve problems, while not considering revenue increases, is simply unrealistic on a $31 trillion debt. Never do I neglect my debts, and I still have a great credit rating.

We have the same debt today, relative to our economy, as we did post-World War II. We paid off that debt in 15 years, and we built the Interstate Highway System. It wasn’t done with primarily spending cuts. The tax code looked much different than it does today. The biggest change is that the top bracket is taxed at 37% instead of the 91% in the 1950s. In a country where the more money a person has the easier it is to make more money, this change is becoming extremely harmful.

I know my income did not get a 53% tax reduction. A 53% tax discount on top earners is a lot of money no longer flowing into our government. We may be able to cut some spending, but if we want to cut into our debt we need to increase the taxes on the wealthiest citizens who are most capable of paying taxes.

We did this before and can do this again, but it will take a change in the tax code.

Tim Velner

Duluth