Speakout (3/19)

I am looking for a diet that appeared in the Woman's World magazine a few weeks ago. If anyone has a copy of that article, please leave a number in SpeakOut.

I am fed up with sending my neighbor on a once-a-year spending spree after receiving my tax refund. Taxes. The dreaded word. I don't understand why more citizens don't address the problem with taxes. It's not that we don't want to pay taxes, but we want everyone to pay their share. A nationwide sales tax instead of income taxes would be a way that all Americans pay taxes. The more you buy, the more you pay, but all pay. At the very least, the practice of giving refunds of more than you pay in should be stopped immediately. The present system gives money to people who do not pay taxes or pay little. No one should get more money than they have paid in. Earned Income Credit does this for millions of Americans. They pay little tax and get huge refunds. Some poor Americans get tax refunds on low income housing rent they pay. Young, old, rich, poor - no one should get a tax refund check if they did not pay in. For example: A taxpayer who paid in $745 last year and got a refund of over $5,000. This is another government handout that is costing us dearly. Politicians refuse to address this issue for fear of losing votes. Taxpaying citizens should demand a change in taxes or incumbents. You should be mad as hell that your tax money is being refunded to non-taxpaying citizens. Why not stop this practice and use the surplus from this to help overhaul Social Security or fund a prescription drug program. It's just a thought. We already provide housing, energy assistance, medical care, transportation, food and much more to many unworthy souls. Then we have to watch them spending our tax refunds.

I am tired of Kerry talking about the Sept. 11 attack and how it was President Bush's fault. The Clinton administration was teaching them to fly planes in the United States. They just wanted to land them, not take off. That should have told them something.

If Kerry is such a big hero, how come he lost the war in Vietnam. And he lost it - we lost it, brother. Believe me, because I was there.

I am fed up with John Kerry's anti-Bush speech. Kerry cannot run on his record, so he opposes the President on his record. Kerry is the No. 1 liberal senator from Massachusetts, more liberal than Ted Kennedy. He voted against every new weapon and every defense mechanism, he was for the nuclear freeze and he was anti-Persian Gulf War. If Kerry was president instead of Reagan we'd still have a Berlin Wall and the Soviet Union. If Kerry had been president at the time of Sept. 11, we would have never gone to Afghanistan, Saddam Hussein would still be in power. The war against terrorism (including the Iraq phase) is a success. We are a safer nation under President Bush. You liberal Democrats cannot take defeat. You cannot stand being the minority party. You will use any method possible to capture the White House and to capture Capitol Hill.