Dear Editor,

Socialism’s in the news as Bernie Sanders runs for president, backed by radical congresswomen Omar and Ocasio-Cortez.

News items reported Bernie promising 1) No one making under $29K would pay income tax and that 2) All others would pay increased taxes.

You correctly labeled Bernie’s plan “hallucinatory economics” last year. He keeps proving it.

The following statistics come mainly from the tax policy center, congressional budget office and wikipedia; the latter lists references for its articles (e.g. census).

The lowest earning 20% (quintile) of the population had an upper income limit of $24,638 annually. This was 2017, the last year of complete figures.

Tables show this rises a bit each year so it should be closing in on Bernie’s $29K “cut off”!

All of the lowest quintile is under Bernie’s cut-off and generally pay no net income tax due to refunds. The refunds in some cases are further increased by EIC (Earned Income Tax Credit). Struggling folks should have the refunds. But Bernie is promising something they already have.

The next quintile would start at around $29K with an upper limit of $47K. This includes a lot of people. The mean family income in Warren is $42K; spite of these modest incomes, Bernie will raise their taxes.

He’d tax the top quintile most severely. In a typical year those folks pay 68 cents of each dollar the federal government collects. So, let’s can the lie that high earners don’t pay their fair share.

What does Bernie and his disciples want to do with the money?

Medicare for all, including illegal aliens; free public college tuition; college debt forgiveness; $15 per hour minimum; “new green deal” (eliminating fossil fuels so we’s lose energy independence); ending “ICE” raids (so illegals can skip immigration court hearings); punitive taxes on job creators (to drive up prices and unemployment); etc.

The above is unaffordable and would ruin the economy.

Of course, Bernie may lose the nomination to Biden, but Joe is drifting left. And, Bernie’s aforementioned disciples in the house are still young.

After the New Hampshire primary, Bernie boasted, “This victory marks the beginning of the end for Donald Trump!”

So, he disapproves of low unemployment, energy independence, secure borders, and military strength? I had no idea so much economic ignorance could be attained in only 78 years.

Coronavirus hurts any economy. Thank heaven Trump strengthened ours before it hit.

Sincerely,

Terry D. Hallock,

Warren