Raise income tax to zap deficit

After seeing the Republican Party's “Pledge to America" and reading about the economic plans of both local and national Republican candidates, I'm beginning to think that they must all have had a very hard time in math class.

Steve Rauschenberger's economic plans are a case in point. While he does point out a few good places to cut spending, they don't come close to being enough to make a dent in the state's $13 billion deficit. The thing I find most disturbing about Rauschenberger's plan is his reliance on sales taxes. Sales taxes are the most regressive way to tax. They hurt the lower and middle classes much more than the wealthy. This is a recurring theme in Republican economic thinking. They repeatedly favor the rich over the working class, which results in the rich getting richer, the poor getting poorer, and the middle class shrinking.

Sen. Noland has supported real tax reforms that would both shrink the deficit and make our tax codes fairer in Illinois. He did support raising income taxes because it is the only fair and responsible way to dig our way out of the hole we're in, but he also supported tax credits for poor and working class families so the state's burden doesn't fall on our shoulders.

Sen. Noland's plan is the only one that does not require our state to borrow more money. We need to stop digging this hole deeper or we'll never get out.

The hard fact is that we can't hope to dig our way out of this hole without raising taxes. It's simple math, something Republicans like Steve Rauschenberger seem to have a hard time understanding. The real question is who bears the burden, the wealthy or the rest of us?

Janice Quisenberry

Elgin