OCR Text |
Show f y ' ' : M . 4 r U ! "Z ' ' - ' ' '''' ' - 4' ' ' A h -, ' j. I & s . f ..' ; i - - X ' I I . , I v - p I ' ' - ' : '.X 'jl ' ' . o mnrwii 1 1 iimiii ' A ? 1 DeANN YORK ' 'Not fair to anyone. ' JAN MORRIS "Middle income supports country." GARTH OLSEN "Idon'teven know." VALERIE WHITE ' 'Donate wages for a day." How can we solve the problem of the budget deficit? - - K.y. ' "' I - - J f f I'' 4 : r t-y- S , -y vyyW" : fCVV " k " 9 . ' ' ''' V ' '' ' ' , ' MX ''' ' " ' ' "' " : : j JOHN HORKAN "Don't eliminate incentives." RON OSBORN ' 'Bottom line is too much waste.' ' i By JUDY JENSEN Editor The budget deficit is the nation's top news right now, and all over the country Americans are discussing the best way to fix the fiscal mess the United States is in at this time. The House is being asked to approve ap-prove the second-largest tax increase in-crease in history, a $144 billion plan to boost taxes on gasoline, tobacco, alcohol and higher-income Americans. Congress is having a hard time deciding which sector of the population should pay the stagger- . ing debt. Increasing the tax rate on the wealthy to 33 percent as proposed pro-posed by some would, according to some estimates, have a cumulative five-year effect of adding $41.9 billion to the budget. The majority of people we asked to respond to the question, "How i can we solve the budget deficit?, favored taxing the rich as a solution. DeAnn York saio she doesn't think it's fair to take the money away from any government programs pro-grams or any group if people. "The only place wc " v' get extra money would b; bv r 'ng taxes for the rich. I'm on v. i i"' "o I'd get some money," she said laughingly. Valerie White offered another solution. T think if everybody shut down for a day and donated that day's wages to the deficit, maybe it would solve the problem. ' 'I don't even know what will work," said Garth Olsen. "I think it would be a good idea to tax the rich though," he said. According to Jan Morris "Before anything is done with income in-come taxes or in other areas, we need to cut the waste. I don't know who to blame, but it seems the middle income people are supporting suppor-ting the country. It's time for the wealthy to add some more to the . . system," she said. "We've got to live within the budget I have to live within my budget, and so should the government," govern-ment," said John Horkan. Horkan said he doesn't know if taxing the rich is a good idea. "They are the ones that keep the government going. go-ing. They'll quit investing if we remove all of the incentives. That's what causes a depression, money not circulating," said Horkan. Ron Osborn said the answer is not raising taxes. "There is so much waste already. I worked for 4 the government years ago, and it was ridiculous to see the amount of waste. If government was required to be run like a private business this waste could be eliminated. We need more accountability. I live in Farmington, Farm-ington, and every time I pass the tennis courts in the afternoon, the water is on. Fiscal accountability is a contradiction in terms. The bottom line is there is too much waste," said Osborn. |