Taxation is not punishment

On July 8, in a letter titled, "More and more taxes are not the answer," Mr. Stephen Phillips made two illogical arguments against taxation. Taxation is not a punishment for hard work, as he suggests. Paying taxes is a citizen's responsibility.

Argument No. 1: "Increasing taxes does not increase revenue." He'll need to provide some documented evidence of that statement. President Carter rejected proposals for welfare reform because they increased spending, and his taxation proposals were rejected by Congress, so I'm not sure why he would use Carter's term in office as an example of his claim. However, if he has been paying attention over the past 39 years, he may have noticed that lowering taxes does not generate higher revenues.

See the Reagan, Bush and Trump presidencies. Trump is still riding the positive economic wave produced under Obama, but coming soon will be the same results we had under the Reagan and Bush tax cuts. The lower tax rates by the Reagan administration decreased tax revenues significantly and contributed to the massive increase in federal debt during the 1980s. Bush's tax cuts led to the Great Recession.

Even more illogical is argument No. 2 against the progressive income tax. "One works harder only to lose more income to increased taxes. How does this incentivize anyone to try and better his position financially?" Again, Mr. Phillips will need to find someone, anyone, who turned down a raise or a promotion, because they did not want a higher income, because they did not want to pay more taxes.

I know I never gave higher taxes a second thought when I was working for 40 years. I welcomed every salary increase that came along. Most people would look at the tax bracket they are in as an indication of success.

Diane Niesman

Wheaton