‘Supply-Side Surge’

The announcement that the United States federal budget deficit will come in well below the earlier estimates of $427 billion, as well as below last year’s figure, comes as no surprise to those that have accepted the simple truth that tax cuts work [“Supply-Side Surge,” Editorial, July 13, 2005].

Considering this Congress has shown no restraint in spending federal dollars, the decline in the deficit has come mainly from the president’s economic policies like tax cuts, which we were told don’t work by Democrats who promised to roll them back if given control of the White House.

The tax cuts the president gave hardworking Americans were poured back into the economy, leading to job growth, increased profits for businesses, and higher tax revenue. As reported by the Congressional Budget Office, corporate tax revenue has increased 41%, something that wouldn’t have been possible if all that money hadn’t been given back to the consumer.

The lesson is that tax cuts work. When given the choice of having a dollar spent by the government versus a dollar spent by the people, the people will always spend that dollar in a fashion that is in the best interest of the whole economy. Lately, Democrats have quieted their cries about how tax cuts don’t work: Maybe they’re finally catching on.

NICHOLAS J. VERTUCCI
Treasurer
New York Young Republican Club
Manhattan

‘Saddam and Al Qaeda’

I read with interest the op-ed piece by Claudia Rosett on July 14, 2005 [“Saddam and Al Qaeda”]. Ms. Rosett comments on the recent speeches that George W. Bush has given concerning the war on terror. I agree with Ms. Rosett that it is time for the president to “confirm clearly and directly” the connection between the Hussein regime in Iraq and Al Qaeda.

Up to this point in time, I have been disappointed in the president’s inability to make his case. I felt that the speech of Tuesday, June 28, was a rather poor attempt to explain to the American public, and to the rest of the world, what the war on terror is truly about. I do believe that this is a war of ideas, as much as it is a conventional war, and at this time America is losing that war of ideas.

The president needs to explain the roots of Islamism, and why the “terrible schizophrenia” of the West (as Sayid Qutb described our condition), is nothing more than people exercising their right to live their lives as they please.

PAUL SANDERS
Manhattan

‘Cafta and New York’

Re: “Cafta and New York,” Editorial, July 12, 2005. Do New Yorkers want to be merged into a super-state modeled after the European Union – with open borders, pooling of currencies, regulation by unelected bureaucrats, and courts higher than our own? That’s the question you should have been asking in your July 12 editorial, “Cafta and New York.”

Cafta’s real purpose is to serve as a stepping-stone for the hemispheric FTAA (Free Trade Area of the Americas).That motive is stated boldly in Cafta’s preamble: “[The Cafta nations] resolved to contribute to hemispheric integration …” New York, run! The three-step stealth plan for “integrating” the Western Hemisphere goes like this. Step 1 was Nafta, which rounded up Canada and Mexico (costing a mere 900,000 American jobs in the process). Step 2 is Cafta, which will round up the rest of Central America and cost more jobs. The final step, FTAA, will round up all the remaining countries of the hemisphere.

Our fate? To wake up one morning inside a giant spider’s web that looks like, talks like, taxes like, regulates like, adjudicates like, has foreign bureaucrats, pooled currency, and open borders like the European Union.

The New York congressional delegation is to be commended for opposing Cafta. They know what’s bad for New York.

BRUCE BROWN
Manhattan

‘Unite Local Transit’

Re: “Smart Card Would Unite Local Transit Systems,” Jeremy Smerd, New York, July 12, 2005. Mr. Smerd’s article makes a number of valid points, but it also creates an erroneous impression that the Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee to the MTA supports the development of a light rail system for the 42nd Street corridor. The 42nd Street corridor is already served by two subway lines and two New York City Transit bus routes. In a time of scarce resources and major competing demands for capital funding, we believe that there are many other proposed transit projects that would yield more benefit per dollar spent.

WILLIAM HENDERSON
Associate Director
Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee to the MTA
Manhattan

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