It is flabbergasting to hear John McCain accuse Barack Obama of planning on redistributing wealth with his tax plan. Since Ronald Reagan was president, the Republicans have used tax law to redistribute wealth from the middle class to the very wealthy. All Obama is trying to do is get some balance back into the system.

We have seen the middle class shrink over the last 30 years as a result of Republican tax, business, trade and other policies designed to reduce American wages and job security. Obama is just trying to get these policies back into the balance created by years of liberal policies that created the strongest economy in the world and enabled the high standard of living we were all used to in the 1960s but have seen fade since then.

The current financial crisis is a direct result of Republican attempts to undo liberal policies that protected our country from the greed of the very rich. With the failure of insurance and banking in our country we can see they were very successful at removing those protections. Obama wants to fix all that; McCain wants to continue policies that prove Republicans hate American workers.

Steve McGourty

Arlington