Will Women Be Drafted?

Dolores M. Klein, Peoria, IL

When women testified before 1920 on behalf of Suffrage, they were asked if they realized that men could vote because they were required to give their lives for their country. Invariably, they replied that they understood that. (I recall that President Reagan suggested that women be drafted because of a supposed shortage of nurses.) Women have died in combat areas: yet the specter of women being drafted helped defeat the Equal Rights Amendment in 1982!

The benefits of upward mobility are currently being denied to women in combat areas, according to those women who applaud the recent decisions.

There ARE many questions to be asked of those women who have already served in combat areas: an ex Marine officer has raised the issue of privacy for men in close conditions with women, such as a man suffering from dysentery, etc. How do women handle their monthly periods in close conditions with men soldiers?

The possibility of women being taken hostage and sexually abused is of course raised. It’s been known to happen to male soldiers. Then remember that for centuries, women all over the world have been “prizes of war.” It’s only in very recent years that it is considered a War Crime.

What of the disturbing details we keep hearing that women right in this country have been so far ignored and even penalized for reporting rape by fellow soldiers?!!

Should there be another unnecessary war like Viet Nam and Iraq, what’s the possibility that, if daughters as well as sons are to be sent to die or be maimed, ALL OF THEM AND US TOO, will say “hell no, we won’t go!!!!”

We can Dream, Can’t We?

Ed. Klein, Peoria, IL

Can we ever do more than dream about a lobbying system where no money or other favors are allowed by law to influence or buy outright legislation that benefits the highest bidder? A system in which the small business or organization would have just as favorable an opportunity to be heard as the multi-million dollar corporations in stating their case before Congress.

Try to think of the millions upon millions of dollars big business could use for better purposes such as creating more jobs, modernizing their facilities, or contributing to causes like disease eradication, research, or education.

Another benefit, and a very important one, would e helping to keep our elected officials honest, because they wouldn’t be faced with the corrupting influence of big payoffs for favors rendered. This would also act as a stimulus to put our legislators to work doing what their constituents elected them for: to serve without favoritism.

We would no longer be faced with the menace of big business trying to take over and run the government to suit their special interests and purchase immunity from legitimate taxation. This would hold for small as well as large businesses and include things such as oil refineries, steelworks, factory farms. Etc. All would be liable for water, soil and air pollution on an equal basis.

Finally, we would then be able to look up to and respect our legislators as people of honor and integrity, worthy of our support. Wouldn’t that be something to celebrate!

Oscar Wilde put this idea of dreaming for better things in perspective when he said, “Dreamers can only find their way by moonlight, but they are punished by seeing dawn before the rest of the world.”

[Editor’s Note: All three of these editorials are about the Fair Tax Bill, HR25.]

From Beverly A. Martin, Fulton, MO

Poverty has never been the American Dream. Revolutions aren’t fought for the right to become poor. Yet today, our nation sinks into joblessness because a tax code destroys the economy, the will to work, and ability to provide. The income tax is evil. Promoted in the Communist Manifesto as a tool to destroy capitalism, the income tax is working.

FairTax HR25 (a national progressive sales tax) ends the income tax, alternative minimum tax, death tax, gift tax, payroll tax, capital gains tax, self-employment tax. In data provided by David Tuerck, Beacon Hill Institute, in 2009 the FairTax would have generated $171 billion more than the IRS revenue and in 2010, $267 billion more! Americans will spend 4.6 billion hours figuring taxes. Government Accountability Office estimates compliance cost equals 1% of our Gross Domestic Product each year. Compliance cost plus efficiency costs in 2010 amounted to about a $1.165 Trillion dollar tax bill to citizens that did NOT include the taxes due. (www.advisorfyi.com/2010/10-tax-compliance-costs-exceed-one-trillion-dollars/)

Constituents in District 18 contact Representative Aaron Schock, member of the Ways and Means Committee (where tax changes initiate) to ask support for HR25. Call 220-225-6201, http://schock.house.gov/ orhttps://twitter.com/repaaronschock or write 328 Cannon House Office Building, Washington DC 20515.

From: Patrick R. Burkett, Bend, OR

The Fair Tax bill, HR25, awaiting hearings in the House Ways and Means Committee, will fund government in a new, simple, fair way. It completely eliminates income and several other taxes by taxing consumption at a rate that is revenue neutral with the taxes it eliminates. It lowers the overall tax burden for everyone now paying taxes, about 50% of the U.S. population, by broadening the tax base to include everyone who spends money on new goods or services. Yet it exempts low income families by refunding to them ahead of time (a “prebate”) the amount of the tax on necessities up to the poverty level, currently $11,170 for single adults.

The Fair Tax eliminates filing of income taxes and the need to hire it done. Ninety percent (90%) of taxpayers do that now and businesses spend over $6 billion complying with the current tax code according to a recent, legally required annual report to Congress (The Bulletin, Bend, Oregon; 1/10/2013). All consumers pay the tax including foreign visitors, many illegal immigrants, rich people who get their income from tax free investments, and other tax avoiders/evaders. Please ask Representative Aaron Shock to vote for this bill at http://shock.house.gov/.

Irving B. Welchons III, Charlotte , NC

The Fair Tax as proposed in H.R.25 is being considered by the U.S. House of Representatives. The Fair Tax will enable you to receive your entire paycheck instead of having deductions taken out for Social Security, Medicare and federal income tax withholding. It will eliminate the 72,000 page tax code that is riddled with loopholes. It will eliminate the IRS and the need to file a tax return. Under the Fair Tax everyone is taxed including those who obtain money illegally, yet no one is taxed on the necessities of life. H.R.25, the Fair Tax, includes all of this and more and yet is only 149 pages.

Congressman Aaron Schock represents District 18 in the U.S. House and is a member of the Ways and Means Committee. Please call, email, and write him and inform him of your position on the Fair Tax legislation.