The American Legitimate Tax Second Party
alt2p.org
Posted on 02/23/2012 6:54:29 AM PST by Brookhaven
There is currently a $7,500 tax credit for the purchase of a Chevy Volt automobile. It also applies to some other electric car purchases, but it’s clear this particular tax credit was aimed at the Chevy Volt. President Obama is proposing to raise this tax credit to $10,000.
The only legitimate use of the tax system is to raise revenue for the operation of the government. This tax credit does not meet that standard.
It redistributes money from one set of taxpayers to another.
This doesn’t raise any revenue for the government. In fact, it reduces government revenues, and thus shifts the $10,000 tax burden from one person to another.
Our founders envisioned that everyone would be treated equally under the federal tax system. But, when you reduce one person’s tax burden by $10,000, the tax burden of another citizen has to increase to balance it out. This is not treating everyone equally, it is tax favoritism.
It uses the tax system as a tool to distribute money to individuals.
If the federal government wants to give money to people for purchasing a Chevy Volt, it should require them to go down to their local welfare office, fill out a form, and pick up their Chevy Volt welfare check. Distributing the money via the tax system gives the money an air of legitimacy it doesn’t deserve. A $10,000 tax credit sounds much different than a $10,000 welfare check, but the truth is they are the exact same thing.
The tax system was never meant to be a tool to allow the government to distribute money to people. It is a tool to raise revenue for the operation of the government.
It is economic engineering.
The purpose of this tax credit is to encourage people to engage in a specific economic activity and prop up a specific industry. That’s not a legitimate use of the tax system. The founders envisioned the tax code being neutral as to economic activity–neither encouraging or discouraging any specific economic activity.
If the federal government wants to increase Chevy Volt sales, they should just pass a law requiring citizens to purchase a Chevy Volt. Unconstitutional? Sure, and that’s the point we’re trying to make. The federal government is using the tax code to accomplish something it does not have the constitutional authority to do: increase the sales of a commercial product (the Chevy Volt).
It is social engineering.
The federal government is using the tax code to promote a green social agenda–a social agenda supported by some citizens, but not supported by others.
If the government wants to control the lives of its citizens, it should just create a department of social engineering, and pass regulations requiring that citizens live their lives according to the government’s wishes and dictates. If a citizen chooses not to live their life according to the government’s dictates, they can be fined or jailed. If they follow the government’s social regulations, they can be rewarded.
This sounds ridiculous on its face (certainly it would be unconstitutional), but isn’t this exactly what the federal government is doing with the Chevy Volt tax credit? Rewarding citizens that live their lives in a certain way (going green) with $10,000, and punishing citizens that refuse to live according to the government’s wishes.
We’re agnostic on the merits of electric vehicles, because it is outside the scope of our second party’s goal. We don’t hold a position one way or another when it comes to electric vehicles. We do hold a position on the misuse of the federal tax system (as described in this article) to promote electric vehicles.
The federal tax code was never intended as a tool to allow the federal government to do an end run around its constitutional limitations. Yet, that is exactly how it is being used here. The Chevy Volt tax credit should be eliminated, because its purpose does not meet the only legitimate use of the tax code: to raise revenue for the operation of the government.
The American Legitimate Tax Second Party was established to accomplish the following goal:
Re-establish that the only legitimate purpose for a federal domestic tax is to raise revenue for the operation of the government, and restore the federal tax system to its legitimate purpose.
Our website is alt2p.org.
The American Legitimate Tax Second Party
alt2p.org
Obama might as well just write rebate checks from the treasury and skip this “tax credit” charade.
“It redistributes money from one set of taxpayers to another”
Then again, Hussein never lets breaking the law stop him. It’s good to be king.
That would be preferable to distorting the tax code.
The reason we have a 90,000+ page tax code is we’ve gotten away from its original purpose: to raise revenue for the operation of the government.
Volts for dolts.
It would also be a classier move than the “cash for clunkers” that condemned to a gruesome mechanical death a lot of gas hogs that could have been used to advantage for low mileage travel. Unfortunately it wouldn’t do anything to really help the electric car as we know it today catch on with the mainstream American, and if it did it is not clear that it would help oil importation needs.
bkmk
EXCLUSIVE: GM Dealers Get Chevy Volt Tax Credit for Sales to Gov't (Outrageous)
This tax credit should be repealed:
Everyone should be contacting their representatives in congress to support Rep. Mike Kelly’s bill to kill the $7,500 tax credit.
This tax credit is for all EV’s that qualify and includes the Chevy Volt and Nissan Leaf.
Taxpayers have already bought all the Volts, we are now trying to sell off the inventory to the few who would buy them, recoup some money anyway.
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