Stay out of my financial life; fix the bigger issues

Dear Janet Yellen, I am so surprised that such a "progressive" as you would want to monitor everyone's financial transactions over $600 (sarcasm). That would give you a lot more control over people's financial lives. And the excuse is to catch tax cheats. Yeah, I believe that.

To me, it looks like you want the IRS to be turned into yet another spying operation (like it isn't already).

I have a better solution. First, tell Congress to stop spending more money than it takes in. Second, recommend that Congress institute a flat tax. Russia did it years ago and the government coffers got a lot richer. If you still want to have a progressive tax, make the poor pay 1%, make the middle class pay 10% and make the rich pay 15% and have no deductions for everyone.

Yes, even the poor should have some skin in the game.

By the way, Russia's flat tax was 13% for everyone. If you want to stop tax cheats, don't give them an opportunity like today with all the deductions, loopholes and carve-outs.

With such lower tax rates, it would be more trouble than it's worth to cheat. These are just a couple of thoughts you can use to help the economy and government revenue. Think it over.

John Zitkus

Mundelein