I rely on my fellow Freepers to insulate me from anything from the slimey Times....that paper has ZERO credibility in my opinion, esp when quoting the President.
Well the quote was accurate; but just about everything else was wrong.
It starts out by talking about food and clothing exemptions, and then "low-earner" identity cards ... nothing in the article bears the slightest resemblance to HR.25.
And just to get in a slap at Bush and company it ends with:
The national sales tax might have the upper hand in one area, however.As part of its drive to create an "ownership society," the White House is chipping away at taxes on financial income and wealth. The estate tax is scheduled to vanish, taxes on dividends and capital gains have fallen, corporate income tax loopholes have grown, and proposals for enormous tax-free saving accounts would allow the sheltering of most portfolios.
All of these efforts point to a system that taxes only labor income like wages and salaries. Under this system, high-earning people might be able to shift their income into primarily nontaxed sources - for example, by taking their pay only in stocks, bonds and derivatives like options. With a national sales tax, at least, the top earners in the nation would have a much harder time avoiding taxes altogether.