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I would like to talk about what I recall about American presidents in my lifetime. I graduated in the fifties. At that time we had a Republican president. It was President Eisenhauer. Everyone called him Ike, and everyone liked Ike. Ike inherited a humongous national debt when he came into the office. It was from the 2nd World War. He immediately raised the income tax on the top 1% to 90% to try and pay off that debt and made it understood that the more you made, the higher percent you would pay for income tax. By the end of his reign, he said that all billionaires should donate everything they earn to the government. He said no one needs more than that to live on. I strongly agree, and I would bet everyone who reads this letter will also agree. Anyway, the more you made the higher percent you paid in taxes worked well until the Reagan Bush era when Reagan lowered the taxes on the filthy rich. He called it Trickle-Down Reaganomics. It caused the biggest deficit to us since the 2nd World War. At the end of Reagan’s reign, George Bush senior ran for president. His motto was “Read my lips. No new taxes.” Weak-minded people swallowed this barf and voted him in. He realized that trickle-down economics didn’t work, so he raised taxes. He lost the election for his second term. Between Bush’s raising taxes and Bill Clinton’s policies, the deficit got paid off, and he handed it over to George Bush Jr. in the black. George Junior claimed Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and put us in the longest war we have ever been in, and we haven’t paid for that yet. Just so you know, each and every one of you who is reading this letter owe over $80,000 in order to pay off this debt. Taxes are going to have to be raised, and the wealth has got to be redistributed from the filthy rich to average Joe. It was on the national news not long ago about that millionaire bragging that his secretary paid more taxes than he did. I think it is a sad state of mind when the American people have accepted this to be OK. People should brag about how much they pay in taxes to show their appreciation for living in this country. Trump never mentioned that deficit one time when he was president. I am still bragging. I didn’t vote for Trump.

Wayne Thorson

Albert Lea