The liberals who believe our money is better spent by putting it into the hands of the federal government are busily bashing President Bush’s tax plan. They seem to believe that it is somehow immoral to be successful, even in a small degree, and especially to become “rich.” Look carefully, however, at how they describe “rich.”

Of course, if you inherit wealth, like some well known families who dabble in politics in one of our neighboring states, that is ok.

So the “Robin Hood” syndrome takes over. They say “let’s take the money from the right and give it to the poor.” And they expect the government to do the taking and giving, overlooking the well known fact that the government does mostly taking, very little giving.

The idea of a tax cut – giving some of the people’s money back to the people who earned it, then paid it into the federal Treasury – is the antithesis of their way of life. Better to use it to create a new entitlement program or to finance a new pork barrel project in some congressman’s home state.

If you haven’t noticed, many members of Congress are very eager to spend any money that falls into the hands of the federal government. And by the way, they are equally eager to accept money (they call it campaign contributions) in return for favors granted – an amendment here, a tax break there, etc.

Our recent president worked this into a fine art, this taking of money for favors granted. Only history will tell just how much he took and what favors he granted, beyond totally incomprehensible pardons to felons and fugitives.

The liberals have made much of the fact that in the proposed tax cut, the so-called “wealthy” will benefit more than the less wealthy. They totally ignore the fact that the wealthy have paid in far more in taxes than the less wealthy, who have paid in more than the “middle class,” and so on. If the federal government has collected too much money in income taxes, more than is needed to run the government, then it should be returned to those who originally paid in the money, not passed out to those who paid little or no income tax to begin with.

To do otherwise is simply to create yet another welfare program. In a master stroke of inconsistency, those liberals who went berserk over President Bush’s plan to revise the Social Security program have now said that people who pay no taxes but Social Security should get some of it back as a “tax refund.” They want it both ways, these hypocrites.

Our economy is in trouble. We do not need more entitlement programs or government giveaways. What we need is more of our hard-earned money left in the hands of those who earned it. They are the ones who should decide how it is spent.

James A. Williamson Jr. Lincolnville