Great Letters to the editor

From today's Wall Street Journal:

Some Are More Equal Than Others

Democratic leaders recently announced a breakthrough in their attempt to pass the health bill, agreeing to exempt union workers until 2018 from the 40% excise tax they plan to impose on "Cadillac" health benefits ("Health Negotiators Search for More Revenue; Criticism of Unions' Five-Year Tax Exemption Mounts as Lawmakers and the White House Consider Ways to Pay for It," U.S. News, Jan. 16).

This agreement, reached in a secret, backroom deal, not only violates President Barack Obama's promise of transparency, but conflicts with his avowed political philosophy. Classic liberalism is based on the equality of individual rights, which entails the denial of all individual prerogatives. The Democrats, however, are creating a situation where two workers, one a union member and the other not, who come from a similar background, make similar income and have similar benefits, will pay dramatically different taxes based on the proclivity of one group to vote for a particular party.

While this may be just another sordid example of how Washington works, it demonstrates how morally bankrupt the system has become.

Pete Hetherington

Houston


I thought the Constitution promised equal protection under the law for every citizen. Many in Congress, however, seem to believe that some people (those who live in, say, Louisiana or Nebraska, or who belong to powerful labor unions) are more equal than others. I'm afraid they've been reading "Animal Farm." Perhaps they should reread the Constitution instead.

Laura Nielsen

McLean, Va.


Where is the sense of scandal that this represents?

Zackary D. Barron

Marlborough, Mass.