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♦ SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2006 4A Mousiittt Daily .Ijmmutl OPINION Daniel F. Evans Editor and Publisher Julie B. Evans Vice President Don Moncrief Managing Editor Higher taxes would hurt the economy Drumbeats already are getting louder to soak the rich with higher taxes, not because it is a sensible thing to do but because it would appease a large seg ment of the population that is envious. Stories are coming from many sources pointing out the disparity between the real wealthy and the average American, which does exist. However, punishing the wealthy by bur dening them with higher taxes would hurt the economy, rather than help it, and it would discourage entrepreneurship. The real wealthy, five percent of taxpayers the 719,910 of them already pay about 50 per cent of income taxes collect ed. They are rich people. They are a blessing to the rest of us, because they help keep our taxes down by paying so much. Envying them is a mistake. We say that we should encourage them to earn more money, but taxing them so that they lose incentive to do so would hurt all of us. Dragging them down with oppressive new taxes would not help the middle class, though it might make the middle class less envious. Presidents John E Kennedy, Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush lowered taxes and the economy benefited. Higher taxes put brakes on the economy and we fear that we are approaching a time when that will happen. Some who envy the very wealthy point to Tiger Woods and all the money he earns each year and claim that is not right. In our opinion, it not only is right but his success is an example of the real American spirit. Placing oppressive income taxes on Tiger Woods and others who make enormous amounts of money would be vindictive and counterproductive. In our opinion, a national sales tax (called the Fair Tax) is the right way to tax people. Tax them on what they spend, not what they earn. We should encourage everyone to earn as much money as possible, according to their talents and marketability. Tax everyone on what they spend. The middle class will be taxed according to its ability to pay. So will the super rich. An average man might buy a jon boat for fishing. He would be taxed on the few thousand dollars he pays for the boat. Tiger Woods, on the other hand, would pay the same percentage of the S3O million he paid for his yacht. Taxation would be in line with a person’s spending habits and would not act as a deterrent to accumulating wealth. Those who preach and encourage class envy are not doing any of us a favor. Most of them want a socialistic country and can accomplish this only by distribution of wealth by force, which already is under way. When you read and hear about the dispar ity between the super rich and those of us who are of the middle class consider the fact that most of them were middle class at one time and achieved the American dream. Letter to the Editor Flint building not needed Perhaps you have seen where Flint Energies is building an (unneeded) multi-million dollar complex on Russell See LETTER, page $A Foy S. Evans Editor Emeritus The real wealthy, one percent oltaxpayers the 719,910 of them already pay about 50 percent of income taxes collected. They are rich people. They are a blessing to the rest of us, because they help keep our taxes down by paying so much. Voter ID foes have it all wrong Opponents of a Voter ID law con tend that this is an answer to a problem that does not exist. Also, they say that requiring a per son to present a photo identification in order to vote is racist, which is about as sensible as saying that a cow jumped over the moon. A voter ID law, as proposed in Georgia and is under consideration in the United States Congress, is not racist. It is practical and the one sure way to be sure that anyone wishing to vote is actually the person whose name appears on the list of eligible voters. Georgia’s not so distant past includes instances of voter fraud. Dead people voted in some Middle Georgia coun ties in elections past. One likes to believe that the widespread of voting tombstones is a thing of the past, but it is possible for one person to vote under someone else’s name without any trouble. A Voter ID law puts up a barrier to this kind of fraud. News from New York State on this subject is interesting, A survey that was completed recently shows that more than 2,000 dead people voted in the last election in that state, most of them in New York City. Incidentally, more than three-fourths of these votes that were cast fraudu lently were Democrats, according to the survey. Usually, it is Democrats who accuse Republicans of tampering with the voting process. There may be enough blame to go around, but no rea son not to require potential voters to identify themselves in order to receive a ballot. It can happen. It is happening in New York State and can happen anywhere, even in Georgia, without a sure-fire way to make sure that a vote is being cast by a real person and is the person whose name is on the voter list. Opponents of the Voter ID law point out that absentee voting is more vul nerable to fraud. It may be. If so, this 'MWTS'mii MAMSWIUTJ<&? ©2006 CREATORS The Democrats' military disdain The Democrats’ failed 2004 presi dential candidate, Sen. John Kerry, may have just sabotaged his party’s highest hopes for the 2006 midterm elections. Karl Rove him self couldn’t have engineered a better campaign reminder of the Democrats’ utter lack of credibility when it comes to supporting, respecting and leading America’s military. Here is what Sen. Kerry told an audi ence of young people at a campaign event on the Pasadena City College campus on Monday held for losing California Democrat gubernatorial challenger Phil Angelides: “You know, education, if you make the most of it, if you study hard and you do your homework, and you make an effort to be smart, uh, you, you can do well. If you don’t, you get stuck in Iraq.” And this man aspired to be our nation’s 21st-century commander in chief with that Neanderthal 1960 s atti tude? Both a local NBC news affiliate reporter and a Pasadena Star-News reporter mentioned Kerry’s statement without fully realizing the condescend ing slam against our, ahem, all-vol unteer armed forces embedded in the remarks. The Star-News did observe that the derisive comment was met with “a mixture of laughter and gasps.” But it wasn’t until after KFI-AM Los Angeles radio show host John Ziegler posted the audio on the Internet and a You Tube user posted video of the event that a firestorm broke out on the air waves and across the right side of the blogosphere. America has the best-trained, most professional, most well-educated mili- OPINION flaw should be corrected, but should not be an excuse not to close a loophole at the polls. ■ ■■ Contrast: Every American life lost in Iraq is tragic. News media remind us every day how many have died. The number for October was 101. We mourn them. But did you know that there were more than 1,000 murders in the state of California during October that went unmentioned anywhere except locally? ■ ■■ A new Zogby poll shows that the average student now takes 6.2 years to graduate from a four-year college. Gives them more time to party. ■ ■ ■ Will Rogers once said that he did not belong to any organized political party, he was a Democrat. If he were alive today he could say that about the Republicans, too. Because of ineptness and in-fighting they have blown their opportunity to become the dominant political party in this country far into the future. ■ ■■ I’m anxious to see how see how effec tive President Bush’s campaigning in tary in the world. But the moonbats want only to hear the myths of the soldier-as-victim or the soldier-as-bru talizer or soldier-as-indentured ser vant. Never mind that for every two volunteer recruits coming from the poorest neighborhoods, there are three recruits coming from the richest neigh borhoods, as The Heritage Foundation recently reported. Never mind that 99.9 percent of the enlisted force have at least a high school education. Never mind that 49.2 percent of officers have advanced or professional degrees; 39.4 percent have master’s degrees; 8.5 per cent have professional degrees; and 1.3 percent have doctorate degrees. Kerry’s response to the backlash from military families around the globe? An adviser admitted to the National Journal that his boss’s botched warn ing to students was “mangled.” But a Kerry press release instead attacked Rush Limbaugh, White House spokes man Tony Snow and “assorted right wing nut-jobs” (present!) for the words that came out of his mouth and his mouth alone. The Associated Press water-carrier for Kerry and the Dems, left-wing reporter Jennifer Loven, duti fully recycled the Democrat line that Kerry was really targeting President Bush, not the lazy, uneducated troops H Foy Evans Columnist foyevansl9@cox net " ******j- Ipfslfi mm. Ik jH *% « # jflgjl Michelle Malkin Columnist malkin@comcast.net HOUSTON DAILY JOURNAL Georgia on hehalf of congressional can didates pans out. I’d say it is anybody’s guess today. ■ ■■ Centerville Mayor “Bubba” Edwards’ suggestion that Houston County think big time and seek to make an airport in Houston County an alternative to Hartsfield in Atlanta is real think ing out of the box. Like he said, you have to think bold to do big things. Someday, as Mayor Edwards points out, there must be an alternative air port in Middle Georgia to Atlanta. An airline pilot, he is more knowledgeable on the subject than most of us. ■ ■■ If you read the Atlanta newspapers (and the stories from the AJC that are rewritten an published in other newspapers) you get the idea that was something that smelled about the Oaky Woods property purchase by local developers and that Sonny Perdue had a hand in it. The AJC stories come right out and say that Sonny”s 100-acre purchase has more than doubled in value because Oaky Woods will someday be developed into a subdivision instead of remaining a hunting preserve. I don’t believe that the property has increased so much in such a short time. In my opinion, Sonny’s land would be more valuable if Okay Woods was not going to be developed because there would be 20,000 acres less land in Houston County to develop, making land that was available harder to find. This really is a moot point since Sonny says he intends to come home and live there once he completes his second term as governor. This is all politics. After all, the Atlanta newspaper did endorse Mark Taylor for governor after serious soul searching, according to them. “stuck in Iraq.” Nonsense. The intent was clear enough for at least some in the audi ence to “gasp,” as the local reporter on the scene described. This is no isolated case of Democrat incompetence and insensitivity toward the military. Kerry’s party is the party of Dick Durbin, who likened American interrogators and Gitmo military staff to Nazis, Soviet gulag operators and genocidal maniac Pol Pot. Kerry’s party is the party of Patty Murray, who praised Osama bin Laden’s charity work with nary a nod to our men and women in uniform who have sailed and flown to the most far-flung regions of the world on reconstruction and humanitarian missions. Kerry’s party is the party that approved of him tarring American troops as terrorizers in Iraq last year. And Kerry’s party is the party whose national party website couldn’t even find an American soldier to illustrate a page dedicated to “Veterans and Military Families.” Until a military reader of my blog called attention to it, the DNC site erroneously featured a photo of a Canadian soldier named “Abdul” in its attempt to show support for American troops. Can you trust a party with such entrenched disdain and contempt for the military to use that power well and wisely at a time of war? America made a choice in 2004. Two years later, the Democrats have said and done nothing to earn the nation’s endorsement now. Michelle Malkin is author of “Unhinged: Exposing Liberals Gone Wild.” Her e-mail address is writemalkin@gmail.com.