Lori Schlieve, Devils Lake
Let's keep in mind the truth about the" 1 percent" and the fact that the Republican party has no intention of helping and protecting anybody but themselves. Most everybody in this town works hard at at least one job to support themselves and/or their families. The 1 percent just in Devils Lake provide enough of an example of the country-wide problem. I know of at least one dental office that does not even offer health insurance to employees. A friend worked for a local grocery store a few years ago that advertised (and still does) that they offer great benefits, including medical. In reality they offer an affordable single plan. If she wanted to include coverage for her spouse, who is not covered by any other insurance, she would have had only a few hundred dollars left of her salary to pay for other living expenses. This is not providing a benefit. Other long-standing "job creators" follow suit with no benefits or unrealistic "benefit packages" for their minimalist-wage employees. Yet we see these "job creators" buying, building or improving their extravagant homes, purchasing summer lake homes, buying all the recreational toys they desire and traveling at will.
Meanwhile their employees can only hope to continue to be able to afford ever-increasing rent, food and medical costs, and keeping their car running. The 1 percent doesn't want a nationwide healthcare plan because they can afford to get sick! They can pay an unexpected five-figure medical bill at the drop of a hat. Much like their candidate Mitt Romney, they're completely out of touch with the reality of middle to low class living.
I've got no beef with hardworking, successful people except when they forget to take their employees along for the ride and just amass more and more off the backs of their poorly paid staff. If your employees can't afford your benefit package, a mortgage payment, and a car payment you are not a job creator. You're a creator of another person who lives at or near poverty level (the ones Republicans want to complain about so much) and need to supplement their incomes with government assistance. If the 1 percent did more than pay a starving wage to their employees, we "liberals" would be a lot more sympathetic to your whining about paying the same tax rate the majority of America has to. Had you not been so selfish for past decades we wouldn't need government to force you to provide something decent to your employees. Mitt Romney is not the only "Thurston Howell" of the Republican party.
All these rich, out of touch business owners are writing letters to the editor about how horrible it will be for them to be expected to pay a far tax rate. I'm more interested in what their profits are, the average annual salary of their employees, and the real cost of any benefit package they may offer them.