Mike Wells works hard and resents having to pay taxes to help people living off the government (Sept. 28).

The American middle class is taking a beating. The rich manipulate the tax code, pay lobbyists to influence legislation, conceal assets and move American jobs overseas. Businesses are laying off workers and forcing the rest to double their workload, which helps profits. Meanwhile, the middle class works harder and harder without getting ahead.

Congress has shifted the tax burden away from big business to individuals. Corporations now pay about 20 percent and workers 80 percent of federal income taxes, while many huge corporations pay no income taxes whatsoever.

The U.S. spends billions more on its military than the rest of the world together, and the endless wars enrich military contractors and manufacturers.

Voters focus their anger on welfare cheats, Muslims, abortion, immigration and the deficit. This focus distracts them from the fact that the Republican Party and a few Democratic turncoats exist mostly to make rich people richer.

Pretending to care about workers, they are plotting to phase out Medicare and Social Security. If Republican leaders cared about the deficit, they would join Democrats opposing tax breaks for the richest 2 percent of the country.

The middle class is burdened with taxes, but not because of the poor, disabled and elderly. If billionaires and their gigantic corporations paid their fair share and the military cracked down on fraud and waste, taxes for the middle class could go down.

Ellen Field, New Gloucester