Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on September 23, 2022

Disinformation about IRS

As a former economist for the Office of the Assistant Secretary for International Affairs of the U.S. Department of the Treasury, I am disturbed by the magnitude of disinformation circulating over the internet and certain cable channels depicting the new agents being hired by the U.S. Treasurys Internal Revenue Service as being a bunch of black-booted thugs coming to kick down doors.

This conspiracy, like so many others, has no basis in fact. I have full confidence that the new IRS agents and support personnel the Treasury plans to hire will be fair and impartial. With new auditors, the IRS will have the resources to go after wealthy tax evaders, tax shelters and off-shore accounts that are forcing the rest of us to pay more taxes than we would ordinarily need to pay.

In addition, elimination of certain IRS tax programs would be helpful; this brings to mind the Carried Interest Provision that allows Hedge Fund Managers to tax themselves at the 15% long-term capital gains rate when in fact their gains are almost entirely short-term, and should have a taxable rate of over 30%.

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With additional resources, the government will be able to collect billions of dollars in lost revenue which will allow people like you and me to pay lower taxes. Hopefully, the new agents will help move us toward a more equitable distribution of the tax burden.

Asleep in Oklahoma

Two things I have recently read in the Tulsa World have shocked me. The first was Easy to miss democracy slipping away by Solomon D. Stevens.

He writes about what is happening and how our democracy is becoming lost while we dont bother to vote, read and see the detrimental underpinnings that are occurring. He addresses behind-the-scenes things that are taking place as we quietly go about our daily life. It was very frightening.

The second shocker was todays front-page headline, Oklahoma candidates mostly not contested, with GOP domination not many others bother.

I have said for a long time that Oklahoma is a one-party state, and that is why the politicians in office have free rein to do what they want. I am an independent voter now and plan to vote straight Democrat.

I pray Joy Hofmeister wins against Kevin Stitt now that she is a Democrat. We need to have balance if we are to be a two-party system. Otherwise, we will be an authoritarian government in Oklahoma. It seems to be that way at present.

How can a government run if there is no discourse? A one-sided government makes no progress. We are asleep in our state. We must change this and get balance. We are in trouble if we dont. Of course, I feel we already are.

Hold a standard

Editorial writer Bob Doucettes The fate of public schools on the ballot this November (Sept. 11) appeared on the same day that the New York Times published (on its front page) Failing Schools, Public funds, subtitled Hasidic Students in New York State Are Deprived of Basic Skills.

New Yorks Hasidic Jews were able to take over their local public schools, and thereby Hasidimize whatever was taught in their public schools including to the public school students who arent Hasidic.

In Oklahoma, the GOP is scheming to do what the Hasidic Jews in New York were able to do only in Oklahoma, with a GOP White Christian Nationalist curriculum, rather than a Hasidic one.

New York is now considering requiring all Hasidic public school students pass the same standardized test that is given to all public school students (which Hasidic students now fail), which gives hope to all youngsters in Oklahoma who deserve to become educated in one way or another.

Oklahoma should require all of its school-aged children be educated to the point that they can pass a standardized test which includes evolutionary science, global overheating, how a democracy is supposed to function, and what fascism did to Italy and Germany some 80 years ago.

Homeschooled, parochial schooled and private schooled kids would also be required to pass such a test. Give this suggestion to your candidates for the Legislature then vote accordingly.

Choose women

The recent letter Vote for women was right on. I agree with the writer, but let us not forget the corporation commissioner as well as the 2nd Congressional District race where two strong, qualified women are candidates.

Yes, most definitely, Oklahoma has an opportunity to place in our state Legislature and send to Washington, someone who will represent the state. The men holding federal and state offices now are an embarrassment to the state.

Yes, vote for our women. Whatever women do, they must do twice as well as men to be thought half as good. Luckily, this is not difficult.

Familiar pain

On Sept. 11, 2022, I, like most Americans, cant help but recall the tragedy that befell our nation that day as terrorists took down the World Trade Center towers in New York City, hit the Pentagon, and crashed a plane in a Pennsylvania field.

Being an Oklahoman, it takes me back even further down the tunnels of my mind to Oklahoma City and April 19, 1995, when 168 men, women, and children had their lives snuffed out by a U.S. Army veteran whose hatred for our government led him to blow up the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building.

One of the firefighters photographed carrying the lifeless body of a child from the rubble of the Murrah Building was a former student of mine in Del City in the late 1970s.

I remember crying scalding tears of grief and anger in both instances. I cried for the dead, the injured, and the heroic efforts of those firefighters who exhibited love in the greatest manner, to lay down ones life for another person. I cried again on Jan. 6, 2021, as hatred and anti-government sentiment led to another attack on our way of life with more needless death.

Among all the dead are Christians, Jews, Catholics, Muslims, Buddhists and agnostics, all with different ethnic backgrounds and political views. We didnt differentiate. We mourned them all as Americans. We didnt glorify the perpetrators in 1995 or 2001. Why should we now?

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Letters to the editor | | tulsaworld.com - Tulsa World

Category: Hasidic
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