Letters to the Editor

This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

The New York Sun

‘Bush’s Advisory Panel’


The recommendations of President Bush’s Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform reported in your paper November 2, 2005, go a long way toward accomplishing the simplification our nation’s tax code so badly needs [“President Bush’s Advisory Panel Present Tax Reform Proposals to Snow,” Meghan Clyne, National].


Unfortunately, one of the recommendations made by the panel could also subject U.S. consumers to nearly $200 billion in new tax costs that would drive up the price of daily necessities ranging from clothing to gasoline. The advisory panel seems to have forgotten that the majority of consumer products sold in U.S. stores are made overseas.


A key provision in the panel’s “Growth and Investment Tax Plan “option would take away U.S. retailers’ ability to deduct the cost of imported goods, effectively subjecting those items to a 30% tax. With $648 billion in consumer merchandise imported last year, that would amount to $194 billion that retailers would be forced to pass on to consumers. Retailers can’t easily switch to domestic products to avoid the tax because most consumer goods are no longer manufactured in the United States at competitive prices.


The proposal would also apply to imported raw materials needed by U.S. manufacturers and – unfathomable during a time of sky-high gasoline prices – the imported oil that fuels our cars and trucks and heats our homes. It would also be illegal under World Trade Organization rules, potentially subjecting U.S. exports to billions of dollars in retaliatory sanctions.


Consumers need to contact Mr. Bush and Congress immediately with the message that this tax increase must be rejected. If this is tax reform, Americans can’t afford it.


TRACY MULLIN
President and chief Executive officer
National Retail Federation
Washington, D.C.
www.nrf.com


‘Windfall Taxes’


Your editorial “Windfall Taxes” was excellent [November 2, 2005]. Especially the revelation from the Tax Foundation that the government has made more money from gas taxes in 25 of the last 28 years than the energy companies have managed to earn. What’s really needed is some serious tax relief at the pump.


CHRIS WIGERT
Manhattan


‘Windfall Taxes’


Oil companies have a right to their record profits. The oil companies earned their profits honestly, and have a right to keep them. Their profits are a just reward for decades of investment and production [“Windfall Taxes,” Editorial, November 2, 2005].


If politicians are really concerned with the effect on the public of high oil and gas prices, they could do many things about it. They could cut gasoline taxes, eliminate regulations mandating gasoline blends, and free energy companies to drill at will. These measures would increase the supply of gasoline and reduce its cost – without violating the property rights of oil companies.


Oil companies, in pursuing their own profit, provide us with an invaluable product, without which our modern civilization would suffer immensely. We should be grateful for their good work, and our government should protect – not expropriate – their well-deserved profits.


DAVID HOLCBERG
Irvine, Calif.



Please address letters intended for publication to the Editor of The New York Sun. Letters may be sent by e-mail to editor@nysun.com, facsimile to 212-608-7348, or post to 105 Chambers Street, New York City 10007.Please include a return address and daytime telephone number. Letters may be edited.


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