In his PostScript column, “The Road to Flat City,” (Jan. 18) Arthur B. Laffer advocated a flat tax.

You can’t blame him for trying. Nevertheless, advocating a flat tax after the election of Barack Obama is like advocating bigger welfare checks after the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980.

It is not what the voters want. Indeed, it is opposite the direction in which we want to move.

A flat tax would raise taxes on working and middle-class Americans. We are the folks who lost ground during the Bush years, even as our employers made higher profits.

John Engelman,

Wilmington, Del.

I’m laughing at Laffer. There’s only one reason taxpayers think the flat tax is a good idea – each taxpayer thinks he will pay less. That’s it.

If every taxpayer is lucky enough to pay less, then the government will have less to spend. With less to spend, the government has two choices: cut spending or borrow.

The government may have two choices, but the first one does not count.

Chris Bischof, Brooklyn