Get real, Kirk, on tax extensions

Senator Kirk, you and your party are out of touch if you think the American public endorses your extension of the Bush tax cuts to all Americans. Are not residential for-sale signs commonplace in your neighborhood as your neighbors struggle with foreclosures? Are there not for-lease/rent signs popping up on commercial properties near your home as a result of business losing the battle with keeping their doors open?

Apparently, you haven't sufficiently studied the history of the Reagan years when these very same cuts that cost the middle class $256 million while lining the pockets of the top 5 percent by $1.4 trillion and adding $1.7 trillion to the debt. Senator Kirk, do you know that 80 percent of small business owners earn less than $250,000 in a year? These employers are the very ones who make our country move. Not the top 5 percent. The expiring tax cuts would increase the income taxes on the top wage earners by only 5 percent.

Why do the highest earners need more when they have been sitting on $2 trillion, selfishly holding the American masses hostage rather than making investments in our nation's communities.

Senator, why would you deny unemployment benefit extensions to people in need, but at the same time want to ease financial burden by millions for those who are affected by the progressive tax laws that are in place; people whose life's necessities are more than met and actually have disposable income the actions of yourself and your Republican counterparts indicate how out of touch you are with the needs of average Americans. In addition, the cuts you are holding out for add $700 billion to the debt, for which the middle and lower class will have to pay. Get real, Senator.

Tom Rajcan

Wheaton