Opinions
Drug use has early history
We have just read an article on
*the front page of The Wall Street
9 Journal by Meg Cox from which
we quote:
"In 1776, English soldiers in
Jamestown, Virginia, ate a plant
they called Jamestown weed - with
startling effects. According to a
history written not long after, one
of those who ate the weed "would
kiss and paw his companions,"
while another sat "stark naked ...
in the corner like a monkey grin
ding."
"The frantic condition con
tinued for 11 days, the history
reported, and was altogether "a
very pleasant comedy."
"There is no evidence that the
soldiers went on to make a habit of
the hallucinogenic greens (later
called jimson weed), as local In
dians did in puberty rites. But the
incident illustrates that drugs have
"^r~9r
People and Issues
been part of the American scene
since the nation's earliest days. In
deed, although the sheer variety is
unparalleled in U.S. history, there
has been a long tradition of ex
perimentation as well as periods
when the general population was
comparable to the present.
SCHROEDER ... Last week
William J. Schroeder was reported
improving rapidly with his ar
tificial heart, and could leave in
tensive care within a week, or
sooner, said his doctor. The
Human Heart Institute Interna
tional team successfully tested a
portable Helms power unit four
times, temporarily freeing him
from the 323-pound power drive.
HOSPITAL ROOMS ... We
checked the six highest room rates
in hospitals and the six lowest
rates.
The six highest room rates were:
District of Columbua, $280;
California, $276; Alaska, $266;
Pennsylvania, $2S8; Michigan,
$255; Nevada, $235.
We also checked the lowest
hospital room rates in the United
States, and note the following:
Mississippi, $110; Tennessee,
$139; North Carolina, $141; North
Dakota, $159; Alabama, $171;
South Carolina, $133.
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CftMr
Average American would suffer
under proposed Regan tax plan
The so-called "flat" tax proposed
by Treasury Secretary Donald
Regan would strip away the deduc
tions and exemptions that protect
most Americans from ultra-high
( taxes, and make it much easier for
Congress to raise taxes in the
future. No matter what they call
the Regan plan, it ain't tax reform.
As the great economist Milton
Friedman points out, the simplest
tax would have two lines: "1)
What was your income last year?
2) Send it in." A "simple" tax like
that may, appeal to a Walter Mon
dale or a Bob Dole ~ that is, to
members of the Washington
establishment regardless of party.
But people who work for a living
know instinctively that a tax in
crease now would doom the
recovery. It would throw people
out of work, reducing government
revenue and increasing expen
ditures and causing explosive
growth in the deficit.
The American people are
clamoring for real tax reform, that
is, for a genuine simplification of
the current tax system so that they
don't have to spend $60 billion a
year to hire people to fill out their
returns, and so that they don't
have to worry about an honest
mistake costing them a fortune or
landing them in jail. Any
simplification plan, though, must
ensure that taxes will go down, not
up, and that's the problem with the
Regan plan.
It would cut the number of tax
brackets from 16 to three. It would
cut the highest rate from 50 per
cent to 35 percent. It would reduce
corporate rates from 46% to 40%.
So far so good.
But it would also eliminate
deductions such as state and local
taxes, charitable contributions
below two percent of adjusted in
come, and mortgage interest for
houses other than the taxpayers'
main residence. Fringe benefits
like employer-paid health in
surance premiums and employer
contributions to pension funds
would be included as income. And
businesses would no longer receive
Richard
A.
Viguerie
the tax write-offs for new equip
ment that enabled them to moder
nize, increase productivity, and
hire new workers.
Secretary Regan claims that the
average taxpayer would pay less
under his plan, and there is no
reason to doubt him, other than
the fact that the predictions of the
"experts" at the Treasury Depart
ment are usually about as accurate
as predictions made by flipping a
coin. Even if one believes the "ex
perts," it is clear that the Regan
plan would put the American tax
payer in the position of depending
more than ever on the good inten
tions of members of Congress.
A little history lesson is in order.
The so-called progressive income
tax - "progressive" in its sense of
"increasing," not in its sense of
"favoring reform" ? began in
Prussia in 1891, with tax rates
ranging from less than one percent
to four percent. Within a few
decades, however, the progressive
tax spread to other countries, and
tax rates skyrocketed to as high as
91% in the United States and
97.5% in Britain.
In the U.S., Abraham Lincoln
imposed a (non-progressive) in
come tax to finance the War Be
tween the States, but the Supreme
Court wisely struck it down. In
1913, tax-hungry politicians
amended the Constitution to
reverse the court's decision, and a
two-level tax was imposed: a 1%
tax on income between $3,000 and
$20,000 and a 7% tax on income
over $20,000.
Once the principle of "pro
gressivity" is established, the sky's
the limit. Only five years after the
tax was adopted, the rates had
risen to a minimum of 6% and a
maximum of 77%! The rich were
paying much higher taxes
-although the creation of new tax
loopholes eventually eased their
burden - but working people were
the real victims of the tax in
creases.
In 1920 the income tax affected
only the richest 12% of the adult
population. By 1940, the richest
24% paid income taxes. The figure
increased to 57% in 1950 and 67%
in 1960. The income tax, intended
to hit only the wealthiest
Americans, now hits four out of
five.
Instead of the Treasury Depart
ment's complicated tax scheme,
how about a tax that is simple,
fair, and low? Congressman Mark
Siljander (R-Michigan) and
Senator Don Nickles
(R-Oklahoma) have proposed a
10% flat tax with a $2,000 exemp
tion per family member, retaining
the deductions that affect middle
income Americans. It would cut
taxes on workers and eliminate
loopholes available only to a few.
It would establish a 10% rate,
analagous to the Biblical tithe, that
would be far easier to maintain
than a three-tier system such as
Regan proposes. Once the princi
ple of "tithing," paying one-tenth,
is established, it would be more
difficult for Congress to hike
taxes.
Under the Regan plan, working
people would lose many of their
deductions and exclusions. The
Secretary says that would be more
than offset by a cut in tax rates,
but he is wrong: Congress would
simly wait till the coast is clear and
then raise the rates right back up to
where they were originally. The
burden on the average American
would be greater than ever before,
and the Secretary would be proven
correct in his one-time
characterization of the flat-tax
concept: "a snare and a delusion."
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