O’Malley again targets the middle class
Gov. Martin O’Malley’s proposal to limit and eliminate tax exemptions is actually a second round of targeted assaults on the middle class.
Just four years ago, the exemption amounts were reduced. For Maryland residents filing jointly with adjusted gross incomes between $175,000 to $200,000, the exemption
was reduced 25 percent, from $2,400 to $1,800. For incomes between $200,000 and $250,000, they were cut in half, from $2,400 to $1,200 per exemption. For those
earning over $250,000, the exemption was reduced by 75 percent, from $2,400 to $600.
In each of these cases, the State of Maryland was actually increasing the taxable income for every family in those tax brackets.
For the most part, exemption amounts had always been treated as equal regardless of income, and are still treated that way in the Federal 1040 tax return. Maryland sent the message that exemptions were now a tool to differentiate between families based on income.
Under O’Malley’s proposed exemptions, a family with adjusted gross income of $150,000 to $175,000 would see their exemption amount reduced 50 percent, to only $1,200 per exemption. And any family with income
over $175,000 would see their exemptions reduced to zero. Even the Obama administration proposal to raise taxes doesn’t consider a middle-class income of $175,000 as reasonable to target.
Wiping out exemptions for singles with incomes over $125,000 and families with incomes over $175,000, especially during tough economic times, is cruel but usual punishment from this governor.
Alan Baldinger
Silver Spring
Obama’s energy policies are dragging us down
Re: “Tell America the whole truth about gas prices, Mr. President,” Editorial, Feb. 27.
President Obama’s superficial talk about having no easy answers to lowering gas prices is an abdication of leadership. Since the rise in oil production under the Bush administration, our offshore oil production is down 30 percent. Federal land oil lease sales are down 70 percent. And he stopped the Keystone oil pipeline to U.S. refineries from Canada.
President Obama is decreasing our national security, decreasing the value of the dollar and decreasing our income while inflating the size, scope and power of government, inflating the national debt, inflating the cost of energy and nearly everything else except housing.
During his campaign for the presidency, Senator Obama said that he would “fundamentally transform America” by representing himself as the Lone Ranger loaded with silver bullets of “change we could believe in.” However, his silver bullets turned out to be lead balloons, dragging America down.
Daniel B. Jeffs
Apple Valley, Calif.
Unemployment stats don’t tell whole story
The Obama administration and its friendly news media continues to insist that the unemployment rate is between 8 and 9 percent Don’t believe this. The real unemployment rate ranges close to 15 to 16 percent, reflecting the Obama administration’s failed economic policies over the past three years.
The administration’s fuzzy math does not reflect the millions who simply quit looking for work, jobs that are not counted in the unemployment tally, folks who continue to draw unemployment benefits and the underemployed.
Al Eisner
Silver Spring
