Dear Editor,

The Republicans are woeful about $4 trillion in debt ran up in recent years. (The GOP conveniently fail to point out that this debt was primarily due to Bush and Trump tax cuts for the rich.)

According to the Senate Republicans we couldn’t possibly afford almost 2 trillion more for Biden’s American Rescue stimulus plan. The Senate GOP now claims our debt problem of a total of 6 trillion (about the same as at the end of World War II) is way beyond our means.

Is there an adequate source of income, without serious inflation, to finance all necessary government operations and manage the debt? Of course there is. After all we did pay off our WWII debt.

We could always tax the super rich to pay a big portion of the debt they helped cause in the first place so they could have their private jets, multiple mansions, yachts, etc.

How did the rich get more than their fair share? They just took it.

In the United States, the income gap between the rich and everyone else has been growing exponentially, by every major statistical measure, for more than 50 years.

According to the IPS (Inter Press Service): “Today, the wealth of the average top one percent, 33,000 lucky souls (plutocrats), is nearly 1,000 times that of the average American.”

Almost all plutocrats are conservatives claiming their great wealth is a result of their smarts and hard work. Truth be told, their wealth was mostly inherited and grew with vast welfare giveaways from the United States government.

Effectively, taxes on the ultra-wealthy have nearly been eliminated. The members of the top 0.1 percent pay only one-sixth of what they paid a half century ago in taxes.

That is beyond gross unfairness–it is criminal.

The filthy rich whine and whine. I couldn’t agree more with Juan Cole of Informed Comment when he declared: “conservatives are angry. Life isn’t fair to them (even though they are the richest and most privileged people on earth). They are angry at minorities for asking for equality under the law and eroding their white privilege.”

And even with such great wealth and related power and privilege, conservatism today cannot accept any criticism, any defeat on any issue at all.

If they appear to lose, it is because of a conspiracy.

So where do we get the coin to get at least half the debt reduced from 6 trillion to 3 trillion?

We enact a combination of wealth taxes on the top 10 percent of the richest people, such as: (1) a tax on income–including capital income (it makes no sense for super rich people to earn millions in dividends while they sleep); (2) a tax on assets; (3) repeal of the Trump tax cuts; (4) an increase in the capital gains tax; etc.

We should be able to get the rich to cough up about 3 trillion over about five years and a grand total of six over ten years.

So when the plutocrats are required by law to pay a significant wealth tax you can be sure these super rich billionaires will cry like newborn infants. They’ll just have to get over it.

Bill Bryant

St. Clairsville