Tax cuts for the rich hurt everyone else

Ignore partisan hit jobs on proposals to restore sensible taxes for high-income people at a time of enormous deficits and debt. Those people have benefited for years with tax breaks we just cannot afford.

Deborah Thornton's Aug. 19 letter sets up false scenarios in Congress by talking about what happens “if all the tax cuts expire.” Nobody is talking about letting all cuts expire.

Instead, focus on what would happen under the actual proposals:

l Lower-income families would keep important work supports with the Earned Income Tax Credit and the Child Tax Credit, while also keeping their taxes low.

l Taxpayers would save about $1 trillion over the next 10 years by dropping the tax cuts for the highest-income 2 percent of households (married couples with incomes above $250,000 and individuals over $200,000).

To pass new tax cuts for the highest-income people means that

working families making far less - not to mention their children and

grandchildren - will pay for it now and in the future.

Linda Carrillo

West Branch