Letters to editor: Collect more Social Security from the wealthy
No Social Security cap
After cutting corporate taxes and increasing federal expenditures, Sen. Mitch McConnell now promises to cut Social Security benefits. Instead, his Republicans should enact one simple change to fix Social Security: Remove the cap.
Today, a hard-working nurse who earns $50,000 pays 6.2 percent of her income to Social Security. In contrast, a CEO earning $15 million pays 0.5 percent. That’s because Congress enacted an earnings cap on Social Security levies to protect high-income executives. Workers are only subject to the tax on annual earnings up to $128,400. Executives pay no tax above this cap.
Remove the cap and new dollars would flood into the coffers, ensuring a future for our kids and grandkids. Better yet, tax individual earnings above $500,000 at a higher rate and create a surplus to safeguard the system for generations. Of course, Republicans would never do this and risk offending their wealthy donors. Yet another reason to vote for Democrats next month.
Stacy V. Bearse
Nicholasville
Political climate change
I wonder how our state and national representatives are going to explain to their grandchildren why they did nothing to stop the radical change in climate that is coming.
“Grandpa, if you knew about our regular heat waves, catastrophic rain and snow events, higher sea levels, famine and displacement of millions of people, why did you call climate change a hoax? You saw it happening, but you not only voted against legislation to curb carbon emissions, but to repeal the attempts that were made. Why, Grandpa?”
Their grandchildren will not understand the power of lobbies, why industry won’t look beyond the quarterly balance sheet, representatives’ need for re-election money and how constituents took the planet for granted. They will want to know what it was like to have a New Orleans or Miami to visit or what the Winter Olympics were like.
What are our representatives going to say?
John Greenway
Lexington
#MeToo, but ...
I am all for the #MeToo movement. Unwanted sexual advances have no place in modern society. I am glad men like Bill Cosby and Bill O’Reilly have taken great falls. However, let me pose some questions.
How many Hollywood starlets over the years have willingly used sex to land major leads in movies? How many women over the years have willingly used sex to get promotions in the public and private sectors? Finally, how many wives, girlfriends and mistresses have used sex to get expensive gifts such as cars and jewelry?
Just saying, every coin has two sides and it takes two to tango.
Jerry Johnson
Lexington
Yemen the biggest tragedy
While I am outraged by the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, the Saudi journalist-in-exile and Washington Post columnist, by the Saudi government, I am more concerned that few know that the U.S. is backing a war the Saudis are waging in Yemen that is leading to the starvation of millions of innocent people.
As Joseph Stalin famously said “a single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic.”
R. Peter Taylor
Lexington
Contradicting adults
Hillary Clinton says Monica Lewinsky was 22 at the time of her tryst with Slick Willy. So in her twisted, perverted mind, it was between two consenting adults, and therefore OK. The next time a teacher is arrested for sexual contact with an 18-year-old student, keep this in mind: It’s between two consenting adults. No harm, no foul. Right liberals?
William R. Elam
Lexington
Election letters: Letters about the Nov. 6 election are limited to 150 words and must be received by 5 p.m. Oct. 22. No op-eds endorsing candidates. No letters from candidates, family members or campaign staff.