Tax Deductions and Entitlements

Combining the reasonable and the unreasonable in an article must be much like telling half-truths; it confuses the issues and allows that which is totally unreasonable to pass for that which is reasonable. Although the tax deductions Goldberg criticizes are questionable indeed, his equating them to entitlements and subsidies is even more questionable. The only assumption that makes this equating of deductions with entitlements sensible is that all earnings belong to the government. Does anyone who is not a politician or bureaucrat really accept that assumption?

JOHN A. SCHMIDT

Los Angeles