Reforming our tax code

The gist of President Obama's latest lecture on the country's need to compromise was that besides spending cuts the rich should pay more in taxes by closing tax loopholes.

This may sound appealing to those who choose to join in the president's class warfare, but there is another side to this story.

Which loopholes are bad?

How about Obama's favorite bogeyman, the corporate jet loophole? These jets are almost exclusively produced in this country, so how would Americans be helped if these jobs went abroad?

Closing the mortgage deduction could result in the further collapse of the housing market and many more job losses.

If we closed the deduction for charitable giving, as this administration has advocated, wouldn't organizations like the Salvation Army be negatively affected?

Surely we could close the tax loopholes for the big, bad oil companies. But wouldn't that raise the price of gasoline?

In every case, poor and working Americans would be hurt.

How many movies would not have been made here in Pennsylvania by eliminating their tax breaks?

And couldn't we encourage manufacturing and business enterprise here by lowering the corporate tax rate?

Job creation could be better if we lowered taxes, rather than give selective breaks to friends of the administration, such as General Electric. Apparently, President Obama had no problem with that particular loophole.

The president's request for more taxes from the "rich" sounds very high-minded, but is it?

Remember! The best government is that which governs least.