Letter to NYTimes explaining Federal unenployment benefits...

Chicago Tuesday AM 4 January 2011

Editors, The New York Tmes

Gentlepeople:

The New York Times editotrial 'Deficit Hypocrisy' of 29 December opens accusing Republicans of “holding unemployment benefits hostage.” Federal unemployment benefits come from a tax on employers, allegedly deposited in a sinking fund to be used to smooth out periods of higher unemployment. Since the so-called sinking fund is emty, Republicans only think it's fair to take money away from other spemding to extend benefits. Democrats, of course, want to kep buying the votes of the unemplloyed for as long as it takes to keep the Democrats in office.

Further, the editorial refers to “pay-as-you-go rules adopted by Democratic majorities in the House and Senate in 2007...” These rules were allegedly implemented to end the outrageous $20 billion average monthly deficits racked up by President Bush and the Republican Congress, but actually raised that monthly average deficit to $35 billion. Continued enforcement of those pay-go rules under a Democrat President raised that monthly average to $135 billion.

The editorial concludes this subject: “The new Republican rules will gut pay-as-you-go....” If gutting Democrat pay-go got us back to the Bush/Republican $20 billion monthly average deficit it would be a gutting well worth the effort.

The editorial uses the word 'tax' 16 times. Taxes are the sole source of Federal government income. The 2010 Statistical Abstract of the US shows in 2008, 2/3 of total federal government income of $2.745 trillion came from employer bank accounts as withheld wages and social security, not from individual voter bank accounts. Since all employers must do this, there is no competitive reason not to pass this cost to customers in higher prices, silently converting income taxes to a national sales tax.

Fixing this scam needs only a majority of the House of reps, 60 Senators, and a President with backbone enough to change the US Tax code from "every employer making payment of wages shall deduct and withhold upon such wages a tax..." to "every employer making payment of wages shall pay all of those wages to the employee...."

Requiring voters to send in a check for 20% of their take home pay every month would quickly demonstrate to them who they shold elect to Federal office.

Arnold H Nelson