Maintain the American bargain
After working hard for more than 40 years, I’m now collecting Social Security and depending on Medicare for my health insurance, two systems I paid into all my working life. I’m in good health now, but if I ever need nursing home care I would rely on Medicaid, or MaineCare, to provide it. And this is how it should be; this is the American bargain: If we work hard, do our part, we’ll look after one another when we need help.
Unfortunately, one segment of society has not been upholding its part of the bargain: The nation’s wealthiest households are paying the smallest percentage of their income in federal taxes in 60 years. It’s true that the wealthy pay the bulk of income taxes, but that’s for the simple reason that they have the bulk of the nation’s income. And yet their taxes are kept artificially low through such loopholes as taxing passive income like dividends and capital gains at less than half the top rate for salary and wage income.
We can’t reduce our national debt or maintain the American bargain unless we collect sufficient revenue. One way we can start to do that again is by allowing tax cuts to expire on the two percent of households that make more than $250,000 a year. I sincerely hope Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe will support such a plan during the year-end Congressional budget debate.
Wanda Willey Halpin
Milbridge
Counting our blessings
Bangor Land Trust and its supporters were blessed during our 6th annual Pedal the Penobscot Road Ride in September. We sent off 164 riders who pedaled their choice of routes following the Penobscot upstream and then downstream. They had it all: crisp fall weather, bikeable roads following our scenic river bordered by trees, biking companions who embraced the effort and challenge of a good ride and a grand welcome at the finish line.
We were happy to follow their safe progress as reported to us by the Pine State Amateur Radio Club. We loved welcoming them back to the Sea Dog restaurant, where Larry Killam presided over the grill and personally made sure that every returning rider was well nourished. He throws a great party and is a real blessing to Bangor.
We are all the richer for living in a wonderful city and having our community’s vitality enhanced by a place to gather, mingle and share the glow of accomplishment.
Lucy Quimby
President, Bangor Land Trust
Bangor
A closer look
I read the opinion of Lawrence Piazza and pinched myself. Is he right or is it my lying eye deceiving me? Opinions like his disturb me, more so as I am a patient for the first laser surgeries here, and now my lying eye sees quite well. Subsequently, on WABI-TV, Channel 5, and the BDN, I explained, sight exceeded 20/200 in my right eye before surgery.
In minutes, my eye transformed quickly, painlessly to 20/20, like a miracle. Surgery is an unimaginable horror to me, so it was one tough decision. I see Piazza does not grasp the procedure himself nor has met outcomes like my own, as I am of the first cohort.
I walked out of surgery smiling and keep that smile today. Full vision and focus of youth came immediately with the precise cut, with not the slightest problem since that happy day. No dry eyes have I, no soreness, no infections, just normal eye, nothing more to heal.
Can Piazza say with a straight face or evidence it could be better, safer or faster with manual surgery? I am but a patient, yet attest to reality, and that eye sees more envy, jealousy and sour grapes than science in this Op-Ed.
Vision Care of Maine is the finest such clinic I have seen in 72 years and would return without a blink. I credit their laser, which tipped the scales for me.
James Tyvoll
Garland
Flights from BIA might not cost more
In reference to Kathleen Huff’s letter entitled “Pocketbook Landing,” I totally agree that airline loyalty would be appreciated, regarding higher fares from Bangor versus Portland. I used to consider a Portland departure a much better deal as well. However, there is usually the need to spend at least one night in Portland either departing or returning, which adds a hotel charge. Parking your vehicle while on your trip incurs a fee, plus an additional cost of gas to and from Portland. If you add up those expenses you might find that you’re not saving a substantial amount.
The author also doesn’t mention Allegiant Airlines. Allegiant has several nonstop flights to Florida from Bangor every week. When flying to Florida, the convenience of nonstop flying is worth a great deal to me. The luxury of not having to make a connection in a major hub is also a great plus.
Rodney A. Duplisea
Bangor
Maine Hockey fans suffering
Yes it’s true, the University of Maine hockey team is off to a horrible start. Although the team has some promising young players to go with skilled veterans, it has been really tough to watch so far.
This has many of us questioning why the people in power have decided that this is the year to start charging $10 to park in the lots up on the hill that have always been free. This is compounded further by all of the parking between the baseball field and field house no longer available.
When a business is struggling, it is imperative that it does anything possible to increase customers, and let’s face it, Maine hockey is a business. Yet, only about half as many free parking spots are now available on the hill compared to last year.
So as the weather gets frigid and the choice between a long walk or paying another $10 to watch a struggling team is what fans are faced with, don’t be surprised to watch the attendance continue to dive. Season ticket holders may be next. Boston College (defending national champs) offers lower-priced tickets and free parking for men’s ice hockey. It seems as though the university is trying to bleed the fans that are left for every buck it can instead of creating new ways to increase the fan base. It is a mistake to take us for granted.
Jody Theberge
Hermon
Sears Island
The industrialization of Searsport and the upper Penobscot Bay seems to be solidly in the works. In addition to the proposed propane tank, there is a bond issue for dredging between Mack Point and Sears Island.
The corporations will do anything to win. One has to wonder how they have approached our local politicians and the five members of the Searsport planning board who will make a decision affecting thousands of people who live here, plus all the summer people and yachtsmen who love to visit our shores and would have to deal with the enormous tankers.
Jane Sanford
Searsport
Is Lucy Quimby related to Roxanne Quimby?
Not sure, but they’re both ultra environmentalists. Lucy Quimby is Geoff Gratwick’s wife, though, and he supports Quimby’s national park up North. Probably just another pawn for the liberals to get stuff nobody wants through the legislature.
Wanda Willey Halpin, good letter. I too am on SS and Medicare with the supplement that I pay for. I don’t feel that I haven’t taken responsibility for my life. I have worked at one thing or another for 57 years. Paid my taxes, served my country, and only once for a couple of months collected partial unemployment.
I, like you, can remember when the very wealthy paid a lot more in income taxes than they do today. They were proud to say that they had reached the 90% bracket. They sent their sons into the military to share in the defence of our nation.
Today the 1% seem to be the biggest whiners and have the werewithall to buy Congress to insure that their taxes don’t go up. They no longer send their sons or daughters into harms way to defend their corporate interests, maybe that’s why we have drug out a war with a 3rd or 4th world power for 10 years and counting. They want it to continue indefinetly because they are making money hand over fist. After all, it’s not their children comming home with missing limbs, or worse.
They have been given tax break after tax break with the unmet promise that they need this money to create jobs. Can anyone tell me when these mystery jobs are supposed to happen in this country?
Ms. Halpin, I could not agree more. It is an outrage that Romney pays a lower percentage of his gross income in taxes than I do.
Wanda Willey Halpin–Good letter, I suppose you may have heard that Mr. Romney plans on giving everybody an additional 20% cut in taxes, in theory by cutting loop holes, to make it revenue neutral. Don’t believe it, it will be another cut to the rich so they will be paying even less than they are now. Of course we could ask Romney/Ryan to explain it, but wait, they will not talk to anybody in the press. That makes you feel real good I am sure. Why anybody would vote for someone who 1. Won’t show anymore than 2 years of taxes 2. Won’t explain why they have money in overseas banks. 3. Won’t explain their so called tax policy. 4. Won’t tell you if they would have signed the Lilly Leadbetter Law. 5. Has had so many positions on various things that nobody knows where he stands. 6. Out and out lies in many of his ads.
W. Halpin, R. Duplisea, J. Theberge: good letters.
Addendum to the Maine Hockey letter. Food prices have increased drastically, the quality isn’t always there, and the redo of the front food counter to a multiple line format degrades service. Enough to make one consider bring one’s own food.
Calling people names doesn’tmake your argument any more stronger. It weakens it, in fact.
There’s a difference between calling someone a name and describing someone.
Totally false. You have no basis whatsoever for your name calling.
Please, pointing out that someone is doing something dumb is not name calling if that person has done something dumb.
Perhaps if the writer wants to say that he or she believes a person has done something dumb, that what he or she should say. There’s a difference between doing something dumb, which most of us probably have at one time or another, and being an imbecile.
If a person keeps doing the same dumb thing over and over does not make them imbecilic, or maybe just insane.
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Sooo, if he had just said imbeciles you’d be OK with the assesment? You are really complaining about the use of liberal not imbecile. Interesting
You guys cry and say there is a war on Christmas if someone wishes you a happy holiday — quit acting like you have this thick skin and everyone else is just too sensitive.
I have never said anything about a war against Christmas, Christians, Jews, Muslims or any other darn thing and Yes many people ARE too sensitive about almost any darn thing.
case in point … changing place names to cover a very sensitive minority.
Wanda Willey Halpin;Why do you mention the wealthy successful people, who actually do contribute more than you do to SS and Medicare, and you don’t mention the 47% who get a free pass, contribute nothing, yet draw the same benefits as you?
Unfortunately, one segment of society has not been upholding its part of the bargain:
Your statement is true, but it’s not the people who had the ambition to be successful.
What about the people who had the ambition to pick the right name on the crib, like the greedy little Walton brats? I find it very ironic that their father built his empire on selling American made products and taking care of his employees that helped build his business. His kids do neither. Most of the insane wealth in the top 1% is inherited money, not earned money. You can tell if it is inherited or earned by the way they treat others.
A study by NYU’s Edward Wolff & Manny Gitterren of DOL shows that 14.7% of the wealth of the top 1% is inherited. Hardly most of the wealth.
That’s not really illuminating though. What percentage of the wealthy came from wealth? They may not have inherited their money, but it’s much easier to be successful when you have things handed to you.
There will always be socioeconomic advantages but doesn’t mean the opportunity is not there for most. According to the book the Millionaire Next Door 80% of millionaires are first generation. Having a socioeconomic advantage does not necessily equate to having “things handed to you”. Many “dynasty” fortunes are quickly dissapated by second and third generations while other family businesses are turned into huge successes by the second & third generations. One of the most successful people I know is a childhood friend. When we were growing up he spent many hours from the time he was ten working in his father’s business. After college when he joined the business full time the business was worth no more than a couple hundred thousand giving him a lower middle class income. I watched him work 24/7 into his thirties before any great success was realized. He is now a multimillionaire employing over 400 people. He many have had a hand up but I don’t think it comes close to having “things handed to him”. By the way he made his father who started the business from scratch with no socioeconomic advantages a millionaire after his father retired.
I don’t care if you can pluck examples from obscurity and hand select the facts that bolster your argument — upward mobility is on the decline. We’re behind many other nations in that regard, even Canada. So you can obsess about my word choice, but the reality is that being a success isn’t all brains and hard work It’s the opportunity your parents give you. If you come from wealth, you’re likely to be wealthy. That’s fine, your children should be able to benefit from your position in life, but to lie and make these excuses that poor people are poor because they don’t have drive? To lie and say that the working class and the middle class are leeches on the country? That’s wrong and it’s worse to use those lies and argue for increased tax cuts for the wealthy.
Where did I argue for tax cuts for the wealthy? Where did I say the working class & the middle class are leeches? I replied to a post that stated most of the wealthy inherited it. You didn’t debate that. You asked what percentage of people received their wealth from wealth. I gave you one souce which you don’t have to accept. You also replied that is it easier to be sucessful when you have things handed to you. I replied that there will always socioeconomic advantages but I don’t agree that is equivilent to having things handed to them. To me that means they didn’t work for it. Many of those “socioeconomic advantages” come from middle class parents and being a success can mean being middle class. The goal should not be to gather the most wealth. I have never said poor are poor because they don’t have drive. There are those who do not and will work to their abilities but they are far from the majority.
Believe it or not, the world isn’t revolving around you. This is a comment thread — the original comment speaks about half the country being leeches.
I did debate your point. I said it’s not illuminating and it’s plucked from the bulk of facts and presents a skewed version of the truth.
So most of the money of the top 1% is inherited wealth?
I would say there is extreme privilege inherited through growing up wealthy. That’s undeniably true — upward mobility is happening less and less, and to the extent that it is, it’s the wealthy getting even wealthier, a steeper pyramid. That reality goes against the original nonsense comment from Ranger266.
I never argued against your statistic, so you don’t have to play a little gotcha game about it. I just said it’s not illuminating and it skews reality. You don’t have to specifically inherit money to have been given money or have been given privilege. That all goes against the claim that the top 1% is so much smarter and harder working than the 99%.
You are clearly clueless as only 23% of millionaires inherit their wealth.
OK, try the figure for Capital Gains and dividends. They used to call it “coupon clipping”.
AND many of THEM are lifelong liberals who give nothing to charity personally but love to share what you earned with our most needy. Go think.
Millionaires are not insane wealth. Billionaires are. Go back and Google how many of them were born into it. Like the Koch brothers or the Walton brats. There is nothing wrong with wealth. Insane wealth and greed are wrong, period.
You are wrong.
The 47 pay into SS and Medicare at an overal higher rate than the rich, FICA does not get taken out of income over $106,000 so the rich pay smaller percentage than the working poor. The 47%, the people not carrying their weight, include retirees who worked their entire lives, military members fighting to protect people like you, people with familes making less than $50,000 (and they pay the max amount of FICA and Medicare taxes), the working poor (you know people who work at places like Walmart)
Stop drinking the Romney Kool-aid.
Why do people like you always drag in the elderly who worked all their lives? That’s who it’s for, and nobody has a problem with that.
The class envy on this website is pathetic.
Another political myth. If you are employed–aboveboard–FICA is withheld and many of the 47% get a refund. Those in the higher income bracket–true income– should pay more than they do in FICA, namely raise the FICA ceiling limit.
Just as a point of information many millions get back in a “tax refund” more than they contribute in income taxes medicare Fica combined.
Wanda also fails to get that Social Security and medicare is not paid for by Income taxes.
Ms. Halpin – On your next Social Security check, actual check or direct deposit, look to see how this check is described. In my case, I paid into SS for 53 years. Now, this check is called a government “benefit.”
I like to think of mine as a return on investment.