THE EDITOR, Sir:

Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller is perhaps the most confused person in her Cabinet. Does she not realise that if you kill the rich and business sector with taxes, you will be killing the poor, too? The poor do not employ the poor. And if there is no incentive for the business class to operate, it will not employ.

The more pressure that is applied is the more aggressive she and her ministers become, which suggests arrogance and an unwillingness to listen to the people who put them in the position of authority and responsibility.

Policymakers have used tax dollars to fund 'run-with-it' programmes that have not benefited us a nation, and now the loan has to be repaid. Now it's the same set of hard-working Jamaicans that have to foot the bill. Who is to dictate whether or not National Housing Trust contributions, totalling $45 billion, will be wasted again?

I believe it unfair and unreasonable to ask us to give up so much, yet I have heard nothing of the Government's plans to tighten its belt. When will Mrs Simpson Miller cut her large and ineffective Cabinet? When will the consultants be cut? When will allowances be reduced? Is a wage freeze also applicable to government ministers?

I suggest that Mrs Simpson Miller prepare to minimise her Cabinet and retire ineffective ministers, such as A.J. Nicholson and Roger Clarke. The prime minister would be well advised to remove all junior ministers, who I find to be a waste of government resources.

T. RICHARD

St Andrew