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Letters to the Editor

Your opinion that "raising tax rates on the wealthiest taxpayers is a necessary step toward fiscal sanity" is insane ("Let most keep tax cuts," Tuesday).

Small businesses need tax cuts

Your opinion that "raising tax rates on the wealthiest taxpayers is a necessary step toward fiscal sanity" is insane ("Let most keep tax cuts," Tuesday).

Small-business owners are usually taxed on the owner's returns using individual tax rates. Many have substantially more than 50 employees, which means they must provide health insurance under Obamacare. Using the 2011 federal income-tax rate of 40 percent and the state rate of 10 percent, the combined marginal income-tax rate for New Jersey businesses will be about 50 percent. In other words, the government will take half of the profits.

When the government takes more, there is less to grow the business and hire people. In President Obama's zest for redistribution of wealth, he is making employment prospects worse.

William Love Sr.

Medford

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Kill the tax cuts to reduce the deficit

Your editorial Tuesday, "Let most keep tax cuts," said the $700 billion needed over 10 years to preserve tax cuts for the wealthy would "simply accelerate the unsustainable path of deficits." You failed to mention that cuts for everyone else will cost more than $1.4 trillion.

Since middle-class cuts would cost twice as much, extending them would accelerate deficit growth at an even faster pace. I agree that our fiscal path is unsustainable. We cannot afford tax cuts. Raise everyone's taxes, and reduce the deficit.

Ken Mitchell

Mount Laurel

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Stem-cell decision was wrong

A federal judge guaranteed that a firestorm would once again rear its ugly head by striking down President Obama's reversal of George W. Bush's ban on research involving soon-to-be-discarded embryos.

Even Nancy Reagan was an avowed believer in this research, since it promises to bring hope to millions of suffering people. As in the Dark Ages, religion continues to trump science. All the pro-lifers are popping champagne bottles while the crippled and suffering see the end of their hopes.

Anthony J. Frascino

Swedesboro

artgardenr@aol.com

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Diplomats aren't immigrants

Jan Ting mentions the status of diplomats' children as an example of U.S.-born noncitizens ("Not all born here are born citizens," Tuesday). Ting should know countries have that exclusion because members of the diplomatic corps are not under the jurisdiction of the countries in which they are accredited.

That is why they cannot be arrested or tried even for common crimes. On the other hand, illegal immigrants are under U.S. jurisdiction when on U.S. soil.

There was a time when those born of Chinese ancestry, legal and illegal, were denied U.S. citizenship. That state of affairs was put to rest in the United States v. Wong Kim Ark Supreme Court decision. Is Ting really asking for a revision or retroactivity of that decision?

Ana Carvalho

Philadelphia

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Assembly has ideas on Atlantic City

Amid much speculation that an agreement is near on a plan for Atlantic City's future, I am making it very clear that much work remains to properly examine all facets of New Jersey's sports, gaming, and entertainment industries.

Assembly members have ideas, and I have no intention of deciding the proposed state takeover of Atlantic City without those ideas being discussed. Issues include the future of the Meadowlands; Monmouth Park; testimony before the panel that wrote the governor's report; and details on how the report was compiled, since it was done outside of open-meetings laws.

Assembly Speaker Sheila Y. Oliver

D., East Orange

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Complacency about food won't do

How do the duties of the FDA and the USDA differ in terms of protecting the public? Do they, in fact, work in coordination with one another? If not, why not? Does one agency communicate with the other? Does one know what the other one is doing? Is there enough money and personnel to adequately do the work they are pledged to do?

Complacency is inexcusable as it pertains to the health of the public. Whatever has to be done must be done to ensure the health of the public, whose lives are just as important as those of government officials and politicians.

Barry Jacobs

Philadelphia

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Government jobs coveted in bad times

You can always tell when the economy is in the tank. Suddenly, people covet the jobs of policemen, firemen, highway repairmen, and government-office workers.

As a federal employee, I cannot remember anyone coveting my 2 to 3 percent yearly cost-of living increase when Wall Street was rocking and the service industry booming. The real object of jealousy now is the job stability and reasonable sense of insulation from the vagaries of economic performance that a goverment job provides. I'd like to go into this more, but I'm off to my house in the South of France.

Mike Shortall

Hatboro

mikeshortall@comcast.net