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To the Editor: 

Our political leaders need to realize what we taxpayers and 401k pension-savers already know: that our economic system is under attack. 

Three imperatives are necessary to repair our damaged economy. 

1) We need a special prosecutor to investigate the corporate accounting cheats, from the President and Vice President all the way down. 

Their self-serving actions have betrayed the trust that fuels our free market system. They have attacked our country just as surely as Osama bin Laden did, and have caused far more economic damage. 

2) The ill-gotten gains of the stock market cheats must be confiscated. Their bank accounts must be frozen and put in the U.S. Treasury. Take back their money, here and abroad, where their profits are being tax-sheltered by Bush's “tax reform” that allows an “exception for active financing income,” which enables multi-national corporations to shift their money to off-shore subsidiaries, away from our economy. 

3) Rescind the tax loopholes that were passed last year. Bush's repeal of the alternative minimum tax [back to 1986] gave corporations “free” money with no incentive to use it to help support the economy from which they sprang. The estate tax reductions [which the Republicans have tagged as the “death tax”] is the only tax that some well-sheltered wealthy people have to pay. It must be rescinded immediately as well. 

The economy is in the tank and government finances are deep in debt, while security spending is higher than ever and necessary social programs are being cut. It is time to rescind those tax breaks for the rich. Taxpayers need a fair system where those that have benefited most in our country pay the most to maintain it. 

Bruce Joffe 

Piedmont