Dear Editor:

Bill Hunt (letters 2/2/17) is absolutely correct when he says “taxes have but little to do with profit.” Our tax codes are as large as they are because it is riddled with loopholes. I know this because after I got my accounting degree, I worked for the next eighteen years in the tax and finance fields.

The small business argument is a smoke screen. It conjures images of the hard working mom & pop operation. The reality is those who make over $200K are the top tier executives who run larger businesses, hospitals, and other institutions, as well as investors and trust fund drop outs. The fraction of small business that are highly profitable is tiny.

Mr. Hunt also tries to make a moral case for poverty as a choice. Really? People choose to be poor? If the working poor knew this was a choice all the slums would soon empty.

What we have is a failure of free market capitalism to provide jobs that reward an honest day’s work with an honest day’s pay. We have a moral obligation to intervene when the strong take undue advantage of the weak, much as the police would intervene in a robbery.

What is at stake here is nothing less than our heritage and birthright to democratic self-rule. Do we really want the government to decide everything for us?

Recently, Gov. LePage, frustrated with what we have democratically decided, talked about “a new form of government.” We, who value the very American ideals of democracy and the rule of law, should seriously consider what this means. We should be very wary of the democracy killing proposals LePage and Sen. Dow are supporting.

Every freedom loving American should be picking up their phones right now and calling their legislators to tell them to respect our democracy. Our legislators need to be reminded that this is America, not Russia.