2008.09.29
Overhauling the federal tax system
We're working on an editorial for later in the week about the federal tax code. The code stinks. We don't know what form a new tax system should take, but we do know we haven't seen it yet. In particular, we'll observe that House candidate Sam Rasoul's "graduated flat tax" is naive and unworkable in Congress (Read more about it on his Web page). In that regard, it doesn't differ much from the fair tax or Bob Goodelatte''s plan (he's Rasoul's opponent) to just toss the whole thing in three years to force Congress to come up with something.
Congress needs to have a serious discussion about taxes, but too few appear willing.
What ideas do you have for reforming the tax code?
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Congress is unwilling to discuss reforming the tax code because it would mean giving up power and the means to do social engineering thru the current tax code.
By this quote, "In that regard, it doesn't differ much from the fair tax or Bob Goodelatte''s plan", it appears you folks over at the RTEB haven't done your homework on the Fair Tax. Read the book by John Linder/Neal Boortz and the follow up, 'The Fair Tax, Answering the Critics'. The Fair Tax proposal is a very well thought out piece of legislation which unfortunately is constantly demagogued by those who would lose political power with its implementation. The IRS would be eliminated along with the 8,000 page tax code. It's revenue neutral so the Feds would still have plenty of tax dollars for their pet programs and giveaways. Best of all it would be a boost to the economy and make the USA a haven for business.
Read the book, check out the website and don't judge it by what you read in editorials.
http://www.fairtax.org
Comment by Nick — September 29, 2008 @ 2:38 pm
Nick,
But the Fair Tax would remove the class envy card from the deck. The RTEB would oppose it on that, alone.
Comment by Josh — September 29, 2008 @ 4:29 pm
Josh,
Yeah, you're probably right. So many pundits would have to remove 'tax the wealthy' from their playbook.
p.s. If you folks @ the RTEB don't have or can't afford the Fair Tax books, I'll loan you mine. Honest!
Comment by Nick — September 29, 2008 @ 4:53 pm
Josh and Nick,
As a fellow supporter of the Linder/Bortz plan, I would like to remind you that it is FairTax, all one word. That distinguishes it from the straw-man version the RTEB (and others) disparage, that they call "the fair tax".
We know our opponents won't talk about the actual plan, and they won't refer to it by it's correct name. We, however, should always be careful to.
Comment by Rob Miles — September 30, 2008 @ 7:08 am
Is it safe to assume you won’t have any response to the “debunking” of your anti-FairTax stance?
Meaning: are you going to regurgitate all of the misinformation without acknowledging the clear and positive corrective rebuttal? By the looks of the responses already I think your favorite readers would really enjoy it. Maybe you guys know something we don’t and we could learn something.
This post was written yesterday, but it got turned down. I guess the small analogical play I wrote was a little too “something” so I received a hand to the face. I love censorship by an editorial board (I know you don’t think it’s censorship, so you don’t have to explain it).
Note: apologies for any grammatical errors.
*Such profound statements are almost beyond comment and should only be taken at face value. Terry’s is indeed one of them. –Will
X 2 – Blue John
Comment by terry — September 30, 2008 @ 9:09 am