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                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, January 16, 1993                   TAG: 9301180347
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-11   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

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`TRICKLE-DOWN' ECONOMICS A FAILURE

NANCY Kamwell's letter (Jan. 12) in praise of the "trickle-down" theory would be much more persuasive had we not had the experience of the 1980s to demonstrate how the system really works.

President Reagan's "tax reform" resulted in shifting much of the burden from high-income to lower-income taxpayers. The result, of course, was not investment in plant and equipment in this country. Rather, the beneficiaries of the Reagan tax policy gleefully set out on a spree of junk bonds and takeovers. Industries that were not sacked and dismantled were moved out of the United States. It will be a long time before we recover from this fiasco.

President-elect Clinton really has a mess to deal with. If our nation is to reverse its present downward drift, everyone must be prepared to contribute. We've all helped create the problem. BILL WOODS BEDFORD

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