Word: argumentative
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...Finals and the Super Bowl took only three hours each; how is it that you have reached some late date with no more written than you had December 9? This, too, comes with the territory. If you have been researching hard and have formed at least a rudimentary argument, you are in perfect shape...
...since former President Ronald W. Reagan has had the courage to openly make this argument the centerpiece of an economic agenda. It doesn't sit well with our egalitarian sensibilities. But it's true: those citizens whose incomes place them above the lowest marginal tax bracket are doubly penalized. First, they pay a greater amount than low-income Americans simply because they earn more money. This disparity would be true even under a flat tax. But we do not have a flat tax, and therein lies the second penalty. The financially fortunate pay a higher percentage on each dollar above...
...This argument probably seems a restatement of the obvious, which raises another important point. We have had a progressive income tax for so long that we accept it as a given. Here's the thinking behind our current income-tax system: the rich can afford to pay more than the poor, and since we need to finance our endless array of spending programs, we may as well take the rich for all they're worth. But universally accepted or not, it's a mistake not to ask whether this thinking is right. Yes, the wealthy can pay more than...
Regardless, the debate about President Bush's tax plan will continue along its current lines. Republicans won't voice the real issue, and they don't need to, because the tax cut will pass anyway. Even so, we should pause and consider the force of the ideological argument underlying Bush's plan. In the meantime, since everyone is in the business of coining slogans, let me offer one of my own: Stop taxing people for being good at what they...
...brought Washington and Beijing to the precipice of confrontation, after President Clinton moved a naval battle group into the Taiwan Strait to avert an invasion. But the prospect of putting U.S. forces into harm's way on China's doorstep has never been an appealing one, which fuels the argument in Washington for enhancing Taiwan's own ability to defend itself. But Beijing is insisting that it would be forced to up the ante if Washington upgrades Taiwan's defenses. And so the bidding war is under way in the latest round of high stakes poker...