The tax cut President Bush has proposed is neither compassionate nor conservative, it is mean-spirited. It denies tax relief to those Mainers who have not profited by a rising economy and a runaway stock market. Their wages have barely kept up with inflation. It says to these struggling middle- and lower-income citizens, “You aren’t worthy enough to share in the surplus.”

This tax cut is not conservative, it is extravagant. It lavishes riches on the already very wealthy; riches we, as a nation, may not be able to afford in the long run.

States like Maine with a large percentage of lower-income citizens will lose twice. Our economy won’t share in the surplus and we will have services cut to pay for this potlatch for the rich. I am distressed about the basic unfairness of the redistribution of a surplus everybody has worked hard to create.

Janet M. Alexander

Old Town