Letter to the editor - Feb. 13

Conservatives don’t balk at helping rich

Conservatives get a tad uptight when a proposal is made that benefits someone other than the rich and corporations.

Remember the conservative uproar over Trump’s tax plan that benefited the rich and corporations and vastly increased the deficit?

There wasn’t one, but there was wailing and gnashing of teeth over Obama’s plan to address the recession because “It will increase the deficit!”

The economic inequality is greater in the U.S. than any other advanced country and the reason is governmental hands on the scales to tilt it to the benefit of those who have the money.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is a big cog in this. Growing income inequality equals shrinking opportunity, contrary to myth we are not at the top when it comes to upward mobility.

Joseph Stiglitz in his book, “The Great Divide,” writes, “The top 1 percent may complain about the type of government we have — but they like it; too gridlocked to redistribute, too divided to do anything but lower taxes.”

Your recent editorial opposing a minimum wage increase says “the state needs to let freedom ring.”

“Freedom,” for the last 40 years, has been showering goodies on the rich and corporations, also known as upward redistribution.

“Right to work laws” left out two important words — for less. They are nothing but anti union to keep salaries down by suppressing individuals’ power to negotiate.

The University of California at Berkeley did a study of restaurant workers’ minimum wage increase in six states effect on jobs. There was no discernible effect.

Leon Logan

Tucumcari