I am truly amazed at how some people read things without checking the veracity of such claims with a reputable website. Recently, a letter to the editor stated that Sen. Harken, D-Iowa, and Rep. DeFazio, D-Ore., are pushing a bill that would tax all bank transactions. In fact (according to http://www.politifact.com/oregon/statements/2010/oct/01/chain-email/e-mail-claims-defazio-wants-tax-transactions/), neither had anything to do with such a bill. A similar bill has been introduced that would tax all financial transactions by 1 percent to lower the deficit but is dying a quiet death because it has no other support — especially not Obama’s finance team. What DeFazio and Harkin have introduced would impose 0.25 percent tax on stock transactions, excluding retirement plans like 401(k)’s, education and health plans. In addition, the first $100,000 of investments per year would be exempted.

Many of the very rich do not want to pay their fair share of taxes — they prefer to pass the bulk of tax burden onto the middle class and poor. They don’t want to talk about the deficits caused by the Bush Administration. It seems that they want to go back to the Hoover era. Some Tea Party candidates (with no dispute from Republican leaders in Congress) are talking about getting rid of the minimum wage (instituted in 1938) and unemployment insurance. Note the word insurance. We (as do businesses) pay through our taxes for this “gift.” We’ve already heard our Republican candidate for Minnesota governor say that he would like to eliminate the minimum wage for restaurant servers and bartenders because they receive tips. If the big banks and corporations haven’t made enough profit, now, other Tea Partiers have stated they want to eliminate the minimum wage for everyone.

Some banks and corporations are “bragging” about the profits they made this past year: the record bonuses they’ve paid out and the record funds (more than $1 trillion) they have “retained” for the future. All this while millions of Americans (officially 9.6 percent) are unemployed due to the large banks’ immoral if not illegal transactions for profit, the big corporations’ job outsourcing, etc. with the explicit assistance of Republicans as well as some Democrats who lost their way.

The things that Democrats, sometimes with the help of very few if any Republicans, did over the past two years was to undo, to some degree, the unfair things Republicans fought tooth and nail to obtain for the rich and powerful while they had the power of majority.

If you are sick and tired of the big banks’ and corporations’ recklessness with our homes, retirement accounts, student loans, job losses, etc., then please do the right thing. Put the blame back on the big banks and corporations who got us here in the first place and vote for Democrats and urge them to make things right.

Patti Kimble

Emmons