Eight steps to our financial solvency

All Americans should support the following steps to deal with the crushing deficit that the Republicans are so upset about: tax all stock market transactions at some small, reasonable rate, a quarter or half of one percent; tax all advertising on radio and TV at the same rate; return to the tax structure in place in 2000 before the Bush tax giveaways; close all tax loopholes for wealthy individuals and corporations; penalize the use of tax havens for corporations that use them, by withholding government contracts to those corporations; begin to increase tariffs on imported goods 2 percent a year, and continue until we are able to buy goods manufactured in the U.S.; cut the military budget by 25 percent immediately, and set up a commission to study further cuts; pull all of our troops and private contractors out of Iraq and Afghanistan within one year; and close 50 percent of our overseas military bases within two years, and another 25 percent within four years.

Accepting our corporate-promoted free market/globalization economic philosophy has got to stop. And we certainly have to rethink our current penchant to solve our foreign affairs problems by the use of military force. There is much to do, and we need to get started.

Rudy Hazucha

Sleepy Hollow