Dear Editor:

I have yet to encounter someone who told me that they got a raise in pay because their boss got a tax cut. This illustrates the hollowness of those promises from business owners like Senator Dana Dow that tax cuts for the rich will improve the economy.

For those who are unfamiliar with our tax history, here is a quick and approximate recap of the top rates: The Roaring Twenties – 25 percent; Depression and WW2 – 63 percent; Post war – 94 percent, Sixties and Seventies – 70 percent; and the Post Reagan tax cuts down to 39 percent.

What is interesting is during the times of higher taxation, most wage earners had a better deal than we have today. Additionally the DuPont, Forbes, Kennedy, Roosevelt, and Mellon families made it through those periods of high taxation with their fortunes intact.

Senator Dow recently complained that our taxes are high compared to other nations. He seems to be unaware that our tax burden as a percentage of GDP is among the smallest of industrialized nations at 26 percent compared to UK at 34 percent, Germany at 41 percent, France at 48 percent or Denmark at 51 percent.

He is correct in asserting that the tax code is overly complex and unfair but Dow recently missed an opportunity to propose a simple common sense tax reform for all of us; that of increasing the standard deduction giving everyone some relief. Instead he gave the privileged rich yet another tax break leaving the average wage earners to pay the bills.

We need tax reform to make it fairer for all taxpayers but when tax cuts are not universally shared, they merely concentrate wealth and power in the hands of a privileged few making America poorer.

Haven’t we had enough of these empty promises of tax cuts and loopholes that benefit only the privileged rich? For decades we have cut taxes for the top incomes while living standards of wage earners declined. If we want to improve our economy we need to get more Americans working and pay them enough so they do not have to rely on the public dole to make ends meet.

Fred W. Nehring

Boothbay