When the GOP cared
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Editor,
Why can't the Republican Congress follow the example set by their most famous leader, Abraham Lincoln? When our country faced a debt crisis, he took action and solved it with the help of his Republican Congress. They instituted the very first federal progressive income tax and also repealed the flat rate tax that was established in 1861.
That was the beginning of income tax being withheld at the source by the employer. The super wealthy were those with an annual income exceeding $10,000. Adjusted for inflation, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, means that today the super wealthy income would be an amount exceeding $220,000. Incomes below the highest level would pay income taxes at a rate that was 40 percent lower than those at the top.
Lincoln and the Congress of 1862 realized that revenue enhancement was the fastest way to correct the debt problem. To their credit, they also specified that it was to be considered a temporary measure.
Lincoln was a man of action, not rhetoric. The current Republican Party ignores the examples displayed by the man they say exemplifies everything the party stands for. The current crop does not represent the principles and leadership of their forefathers.
Peter Daniels
Polson
