LETTERS
LETTERS Assistant's Assistant Your "Tilting at Windmills" piece concerning the "Happy Worker" [June] brought to mind a question. Awhile back I tuned my television to C-Span and discovered a...
...when he worked at the Congressional Budget Office, he had a hand in helping Senator Bradley formulate "Fair Tax" What he says about tax reform and income distribution is correct...
...Thus, is it not a fact that somewhere in the great American government machine there exists an administrative assistant to the assistant administrator for administration...
...would protect her in case of a future Arab attack...
...This default led directly to the Six Day War...
...Many Israelis, remember, are either Holocaust survivors or their relatives...
...Finally, I hope the point of tax reform was how shared sacrifice benefits us all, and not the notion Minarik seems to hold, that by lowering rates we've taken away the incentive of the wealthy and powerful to find ways to weasel out of paying their fair share...
...As Mr...
...W.J...
...Following naturally is the fact that every administrator must have an administrative assistant...
...Their bitter memories of Western complacency and complicity in genocide before and during the Holocaust causes mistrust of the West's intentions, as does the entire legacy of Western anti-Semitism...
...Israelis, however, would rather be unpopular and survive than have Viorst and his ilk crying at their funerals...
...It may be unrealistic to assume Congress would tolerate the old rates without preferences...
...Questions...
...There was every anticipation that, if entangled with those questions, tax reform would never see the light of day, but that if it attained serious consideration on its own merits, tax reform would likely raise those other questions as well...
...I refer him to the full text, where I believe he would find that I address rather fully the complex issues he raises...
...No Losers I am writing in regards to Paul Savage's review of G.I.—The American Soldier in World War II by Lee Kennett [June...
...They also retained Bradley's strategy of not using tax reform to alter income distribution in a major way...
...The men I served with were the finest, most selfless persons I have ever met in my life...
...There is no international enforcement process...
...The most important dynamic feeding Israeli "aggression" is not "The Kissinger Covenant" but mistrust of the Gentile world...
...DAVID BERNSTEIN Boston, Massachusetts Milton Viorst replies: Except by war, a sovereign state cannot be forced to keep the terms of any obligation, even a fully ratified treaty...
...but he claimed that because of the nation's involvement in Vietnam, he was unable to A Plea To our long-time subscribers: Over the years, in responding to requests for hack issues, we have completely depleted our supply of certain issues...
...May I remind him that what The Washington Monthly published was an excerpt of my book, Sands of Sorrow...
...Hundreds of Israelis, meanwhile, died unnecessarily...
...In 1967, President Johnson acknowledged it to be a valid commitment, as I point out in my book...
...Senator Bill Bradley's "Fair Tax" did indeed involve no change in government revenue and no change in the income distribution...
...Bernstein's snide conclusion, my fear is that in the absence of what he designates "humanistic policies" (I prefer to call it common sense), we will both cry at Israel's funeral...
...Israel had to face the onslaught alone...
...Bernstein points out above, President Eisenhower made a promise to Israel in 1957 to maintain the freedom of navigation through the Strait of Tiran...
...CALDWELL Largo, Florida Charles Peters replies...
...Such efforts would not renew the spirit of shared sacrifice, but rather send us back to a nearvoluntary tax code for the wealthy and powerful that would again be the antithesis of any notion of social responsibility...
...More humanistic policies would help Israel regain popularity among Viorst and his progressive friends...
...But many, too many, were with the platoon barely long enough for me to get their names before they were killed or wounded...
...In a cynical world, Israelis have learned to deal cynically with West Bank Arabs, South Africans, and others...
...Testifying was a gentleman whose title was associate administrator for administration...
...I can recall instances when hiking up a road and hearing calls such as "suckers" or "losers" from some passing vehicle, but I cannot recall ever being called the "dregs" of an Army...
...We so-called "dregs" of the 9th Division sustained 23,317 battle casualties...
...Tax reform proposals did get somewhat more progressive as the legislation moved through the process...
...negates his otherwise persuasive arguments in favor of handgun control...
...fulfill it...
...That said, it is also true that a commitment made by a president of the United States is considered binding on his successors...
...WILLIAM SIMPSON Park Forest, Illinois Considering that he is Jewish, Milton Viorst displays an astounding lack of understanding of Israel and much of world Jewry...
...It is not true...
...The letter set no limits...
...The headline and then his attack on Handgun Control Inc...
...even the "pro-middle class, soak the rich" amendment of Senator George Mitchell made the most egregious concession right up front with its reinstatement of the capital gains exclusion...
...then again, most people thought tax reform itself was unrealistic...
...Bernstein makes a valid point...
...It truly saddens me that so many will be given the impression that the infantrymen of World War II were a group of semi-retarded individuals the government used as cannon fodder in the front lines, while brighter, more productive men were saved for posterity...
...This was a rhetorical device to separate the issue of tax reform from the associated but separate questions of the size and distribution of the tax burden...
...he is simply overstating my case to make it seem so...
...To Israel, the letter constituted a promise that no future president would withhold American economic or military assistance as punishment for antiterrorist reprisals...
...As to the public, if Minarik means all citizens, as opposed to rich citizens, then he's wrong—a more progressive tax code is precisely what opinion polls consistently show the majority of Americans prefer...
...Most of the media, and some highly charged (and charging) plaintiffs' attorneys contend that it was a Union Carbide plant that lost its load of methyl isocyanate, not Dow...
...As Glastris says at one point in his review but contradicts at another, the result is a more progressive tax law—as had been expected even from Bradley's "distributionally neutral" proposal...
...Viorst says it, but do the astute Israeli leaders really believe that the Kissinger private letter "constituted a promise that no future president [emphasis added] would withhold American economic or military assistance...
...We need a united front to offset the money and congressional lobbying power of the NRA...
...Therefore, Glastris's and Robert Reich's proposal to raise substantially the maximum tax rate misses the entire point of the campaign for tax reform...
...But what I wrote is not wrong...
...Nor has Israeli history improved the image of Western Gentiles in Jewish eyes...
...Why can't the associations get together...
...Meanwhile, France, which had been Israel's main arms supplier, inexplicably cut off all weapons shipments to Israel, even those already paid for...
...In the spring of 1967, with an Arab attack imminent, Johnson informed the Israelis that he was too involved with Vietnam to live up to the agreement...
...our readers...
...If politicians put in tax preferences as "intended compensation" for high rates, they normally do so quietly, meanwhile selling "the public" on the notion that such breaks create incentives that are good for the economy and society...
...I must admit I cannot recall any Doughs in my platoon with master's degrees or PhDs, or, for that matter, bachelor's degrees...
...The loopholes were an intended compensation for the high tax rates, not an accidental violation of a realistic standard of progressivity stated by the marginal tax rates...
...After the Sabra and Shatila incidents, for example, Menachem Begin, who barely escaped Nazi-occupied Poland, summed up the feelings of many Jews: "Goyim [gentiles] kill goyim, and they blame the Jews...
...Since I was in the infantry during WWII, it is not surprising that I definitely don't think we were the dregs...
...In 1957, Israel withdrew from Suez with American assurances that the U.S...
...The "dregs" that remained were still fighting when relieved...
...as the holiday gift-giving spirit fast approaches, we ask you to dig into those unopened boxes from three residences ago and dust off those old issues to see if you have any of these: 1969—February, March, April, May, October, November 1970—April, July 197I—January, March, June 1973—July-August 1974—May, November 1975—January, May 1976—October 1977—February 1981—September, October 1982—All months except December 1983—January, February, March, April lb reciprocate this spirit of generosity, for each issue you send to us, we'll extend your subscription one month...
...In 1948, no major Western democracy was willing to provide Israel with arms, while the Arabs were armed to the teeth...
...Otherwise we are patsies for them...
...JOSEPH J. MINARIK Reston, Virginia Paul Glastris replies: I admire Mr...
...IRVING ENNA Portland, Oregon Gas Pains In the June edition you've stubbed your factasserting toe ["From the People Who Brought You the 1Winkie Defense," Blake Fleetwood...
...BILL LEATHERS Strongsville, Ohio The editors reply: This embarrassing mistake was entirely an editing error...
...A nation's commitment is only as good as its sense of moral obligation...
...Sorry, Dow...
...How can the policies of one president bind another, even of the same party, should that president be of a different persuasion about some issues...
...Once again, proof of how much we depend on you...
...It is not true and gives the impression we served in the infantry simply because the Army had nothing else we were capable of...
...In 1973, Kissinger held up emergency arms shipments to Israel during the Yom Kippur War in order to soften her up for peace negotiations...
...Finally, it is unrealistic to assume that the Congress and the public would tolerate the old law's tax rates, or anything like them, without the old law's preferences...
...In one ten-day period, October 6-16, 1944, two regiments, the 39th and 60th, suffered 4,500 casualties in the Huertgen Forest...
...The proof is readily at hand...
...Pistol-Packin' Patsies In Josh Sugarmann's article on gun control ["The NRA is Right," June], he does a disservice to all of us who believe in handgun control...
...Until the top rate approaches zero, the Gucci boys will continue to have plenty of eager clients...
...As for Mr...
...STEVEN D. RITTENMEYER Macomb, Illinois Bitter Memories Milton Viorst says in your June issue ["The Kissinger Covenant and Other Reasons Israel is in Trouble"]: Kissinger filled the gap with a private letter promising America's approval of any response to terrorism that Israel might choose to make...
...Glastris is therefore incorrect when he concludes that tax reform, in reducing the highest marginal tax rate, implicitly accepted the loopholes created over the past three decades...
...So there must also be an assistant administrator for administration...
...Given that the rates the rich as a whole actually pay are about the same now as before tax reform, but substantially lower than 20 years ago, I don't see how he can avoid the conclusion that tax reform was an implicit surrender to the previous incursions of lobbyists, lawyers, and accountants...
...Still, when it looks forward instead of backward, the review contains an error of fact, a resulting error of interpretation, and a crowning unfortunate policy prescription...
...I do not believe Savage was correct in characterizing we combat infantrymen of World War II as the "dregs" of the Army...
...But Glastris is wrong in his assertion that the Treasury and the Congress followed Bradley's expositional approach...
...Rate Rancor Paul Glastris's review of Jeffrey H. Birnbaum and Alan S. Murray's Showdown at Gucci Gulch ["Inside Tax Reform," June] provides a useful view of the passage of the Tax Reform Act of 1986...
...Awhile back I tuned my television to C-Span and discovered a Senate subcommittee hearing dealing with FAA matters...
...The casual reference to "the Dow Chemical catastrophe in Bhopal, India" is, by most accounts, indisputably incorrect...
...That got me to thinking that where there is an associate anything there must be an assistant...
...Both of the Treasury proposals and the Tax Reform Act of 1986 raised taxes on corporations, a step toward greater progressivity, and then distributed those additional revenues among individuals in a progressive way, with the largest tax cuts in percentage terms for those with the lowest incomes...
...Minarik...
...LETTERS Assistant's Assistant Your "Tilting at Windmills" piece concerning the "Happy Worker" [June] brought to mind a question...
...I cannot count the times I saw a man risk his life to protect another soldier whom in many cases he did not even know...
Vol. 19 • September 1987 • No. 8
