House Tax Cuts for Families

* Re “Families Get Lion’s Share of the Tax Cut,” Column Right, April 9:

Good old Bill Buckley--always ready to preserve and protect the very rich. He wants us to worry about the top 1% of U.S. taxpayers, who now own 40% of the nation’s wealth, because they are forced to pay 28% of the income taxes. Maybe his perspectives are the ones that are terribly out of focus.

HAROLD HORN

Santa Maria

* Buckley should stick to philosophy and leave math to sounder, more practical minds. While $11,000 is meaningful to an income of $200,000 (5.5%), $137 is paltry to an income of $30,000 (0.5%).

MARK LIPSON

Los Angeles

* Now that the tax cuts have been passed by the House of Representatives (April 6), they will focus on major spending cuts. These President Clinton can’t even veto. Thus the Republicans will have succeeded in slowing down the colossus that was big government, and giving a fair measure of control back to states and the individual. Just the right formula to demolish Clinton in 1996, as well as leftover Democrats in legislatures all across America.

From here on we can watch the Senate use the Republican majority to push the rest of the House-passed bills through. The fact that 1996 is an election year will cause moderate Republicans and Democrats to start voting for the conservative agenda. Liberals are effectively out of the action now, except for potshots from television and the print media.

The next shoe to fall won’t be Big Bird, but could be the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. It will get lost in the struggle for dollars which are declared nonessential spending.

ROBERT MILLER

Newport Beach

* Re Tax credits, children and votes:

The House has just passed a tax credit of $500 for each child in a family and a lot of tax exemptions for selected businesses. This is the machine politician’s way of buying votes.

There are two tragically serious impending disasters that the House members don’t think are as important as their own incomes: The national debt and the desperate needs of public schoolchildren. This $500 per child giveaway that totals $34 billion per year should at least be designated only for books, equipment, better maintained buildings, school breakfasts and lunches as needed, field trips, medical care, dentistry, counseling, and most of all, smaller classes, i.e., 25 students per class.

The House members are stupidly unaware that the future of our democracy depends upon our children, their literacy, competence and ethical conduct, and if they have hope for themselves in their future.

LYMAN ENNIS

Pasadena

* I wonder if the people who would eliminate the income tax and instead advocate a flat or sales tax have considered what their proposal, if enacted, would do to the municipal bond market.

If income from bonds either ceases to be tax exempt or remains tax exempt but the tax rate is lowered to 17% to 20%, the prices of the bonds will plummet and current owners of such bonds will suffer a significant loss of capital. Governments issuing bonds will then have to pay close to market interest rates, which will result in higher local costs and higher taxes.

JOSEPH GRODSKY

Los Angeles