To The Reader’s Forum:

At the debate between Tom Reed and John Plumb, a question from the audience asked Mr. Reed what known policies of the presidential candidate Mr. Trump does he, Mr. Reed, support?  He spoke but never mentioned any policy of Mr. Trump’s that he favors or does not favor.  So here is an answer Mr. Reed could have said. “I am against Mr. Trump’s proposed tax policy because: 1) it would raise the rate on income of $18,500 from 10 percent to 12 percent.  2)  It would cut the tax rate for incomes over $225,000 down to 33 percent, giving the top one percent a 44 percent share of the tax cuts.

“I would also be against Mr. Trump’s proposed tax policy because I think that anyone saying ‘tax cut’ is using a euphemism (from the Greek ‘eu’ meaning good, and ‘pheme’ meaning speech), trying to say something nice about something unpleasant.  To say ‘tax cut’ is a deceptive way of saying that he wants to cut funding for public education, cut funding for police and fire firefighters, cut funding for public water systems, cut funding for national parks, cut funding for infrastructure maintenance, and cut funding for the IRS (to reduce staff so the rich do not get audited).  So a tax cut is simply another way of saying he will reduce the amount of money we the people use together to make our lives better and give it to the rich.

“I would also be against Mr. Trump’s proposed tax policy because he wants to reduce the corporate tax rate from 30 percent of profits down to 15 percent even though corporations are making record profits.  Mr. Trump also wants to give corporations a one time chance to bring the money they have overseas ($2.9 trillion) and tax it at 10 percent instead of 30 percent.”

For Mr. Trump’s proposed tax policy alone we should vote for Mrs. Clinton.  For no one deserves our vote who tells us he wants to reduce our ability to make our lives better.  And, anyone who has the attitude of proposing a tax policy that benefits himself rather than the lowest income earners also is not a good choice for president.

Mr. Reed could have given an answer like that, but he didn’t.

Timothy Hoyer

Jamestown