Posted on 04/15/2005 2:06:23 PM PDT by n-tres-ted
Hit the ping list, please.
bump
Tune in!
Test of the House Joint Resolution can be found here: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c109:1:./temp/~c109mzy2MT::
Text of the House Joint Resolution can be found here: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c109:1:./temp/~c109mzy2MT::
A Taxreform bump for you all.
If you would like to be added to this ping list let me know.
John Linder in the House(HR25) & Saxby Chambliss Senate(S25), offer a comprehensive bill to kill all income and SS/Medicare payroll taxes outright, and provide a IRS free replacement in the form of a retail sales tax:
H.R.25,S.25
A bill to promote freedom, fairness, and economic opportunity by repealing the income tax and other taxes, abolishing the Internal Revenue Service, and enacting a national retail sales tax to be administered primarily by the States.Refer for additional information:
Looks like Linder coming up just after the commercials.
Hey, thanks for the alert to others. Just heard JL and he was great! Kudlow was good to have him on, too, but the segment was not nearly long enough to really discuss the subject in depth. But JL hit every point he had a chance to hit. Embedded taxes, reduced costs, cheaper to collect, better for retailers because they get their compliance costs covered, and the ONLY way to finance SS and Medicare without breaking everyone! Wee need to get a transcript.
Fellows, I'll bet there's still some optimism left in you or you wouldn't be reading and posting at FR. Don't get caught being pessimistic in a world where lots of hope remains. Think what it would be like if we still had the Dems running everything, as was the case in the '70s. Not only are we past that, but we have great leadership now, probably the best of my lifetime.
I love to see and hear Art Laffer, because he is pointed in the right direction, optimistic and really has a good mind combined with good intentions. But I just have to go after him on the "flat tax is the other side of the coin of the consumption tax." Perhaps he just understands better what his interpretation is, but I don't see it. Kudlow said on the flat tax: everyone just totals everything they make and sends in 13% of it. That doesn't work!! Take a supermarket, for example. They sell a lot for very little margin of profit, maybe 2%. They (and every other business) must be permitted their costs of production, cost of sales or what have you; they cannot pay taxes on total revenues. And those deductions are where the complexities come in, not in the rate of taxation. Plus, as JL said, we passed a flat tax in 1913, and close to it again in 1986, and the income tax has been amended 10,000 times since '86. The flat tax is an approach to keeping the income tax in place; in fact, it is an income tax. JL says the Fair Tax does not want to co-exist with the income tax for a single moment, because both would grow back to be big taxes.
Embedded taxes, reduced costs, cheaper to collect, better for retailers because they get their compliance costs covered, and the ONLY way to finance SS and Medicare without breaking everyone! Wee need to get a transcript.
Definitely, hope someone got a recording of the segment.
I found the Laffer's description of the 13% flat tax plus 13% sales tax combination to be particularly eye opening as to what the "flat tax" proponents are really shooting toward, a tax imposed at both ends.
And Laffer's recognition that the NRST is a least the equal of the Flat Tax proposals is a major concession from those folks.
With Linder's amplification of the advantages reducing to a single NRST 23% instead of a dual tax system extracting 13% earning it and another 13% spending it under the flat tax, made a perfect comparison and lead into the advantage and difference that an NRST would provide.
Yes, I wish Kudlow would have him back for a more extended discussion. Of course, Kudlow said yesterday I think that he supports a flat tax. But he does that because Forbes and Laffer support it, and he's been known to change his mind from time to time.
It was interesting to note Kudlow's reaction when Laffer to him that the two systems were essentially equal in his eyes, LOL. That Laffer could be happy with either.
What I found of interest was Laffer's charactization of the flat tax as an income tax with a sales tax.
That should cause a lot of folks to stop and think about where that tax system is headed and why it has lost alot of support among those who have recognized its character as a wage tax plus subtraction method VAT as it's originators Hall & Rabushka and many other economists as well, describe it.
Sounds like a heavy dose of cynicism mixed with self-righteousness. That doesn't achieve anything, and it leaves the work to others. Your approach in 1980 would have left us in the hands of the Democrats, and no telling where this country would be now. I'm not looking to criticize, but take a second look at whether you're helping or hurting. If you can look at the Fair Tax and conclude that would be better for us and our children than what we have now, why not pitch in and do all you can to get it done?
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