Tax Cuts

A letter to the editor in The Record recently made the following claim about tax cuts for wealthy individuals. He said the rich will spend some of that money-which it seems is what we want people to do-but most of the tax break will be put into "safe federal, state and municipal bonds". These bonds will pay interest in later years, interest provided by all taxpayers, and in most cases the interest paid will be tax-free. Thus the rich will preserve their tax cut gains and in the long run create more wealth in the form of interest. As he says "no wonder the wealthy grow richer while average taxpayers get poorer". I don't know enough to know if he is right or not, but it is an interesting thought.

(Source: The Record "letters to the editor" on 9/28/10)

Discrimination in the US

I read an interesting comment in an article about the health care legislation in the news in November regarding discrimination. The writer noted that if a company wanted to fire someone who was a smoker or who was obese, they could. Discrimination-which is what this would be-laws do not cover every category or reason for being fired. The law only prohibits discrimination based on "age, sex, race and religion". Some smokers or over weight employees have sued but all have lost.

(Source: The Record on 11/22/10. Title of article and author unknown to me)