Posted on 04/18/2002 12:55:01 PM PDT by RetiredArmy
MAYBE ZELL MILLER REALLY IS A DEMOCRAT AFTER ALL
If this isn’t one of the nuttiest idea I’ve heard in a while.
What is the purpose of the government levying a tax? The purpose is to raise revenue for the proper functions of government. Nothing more.
Ask yourself – should government use tax policy to direct or to control the actions of its citizens? Should politicians get together and agree to raise taxes on individuals who are doing perfectly legal things the politicians don’t like, and lower taxes on people who are doing perfectly legal things they do like?
Evidently Georgia Democrat Senator Zell Miller thinks that is exactly what politicians should do. He believes that a person’s income tax rate should be dependent not only on how much that person makes, but on how that person makes it.
Here’s Miller’s idea. He wants to lower the income tax rate on teachers!!! (WHAT????) New teachers who have not yet worked for five years would get their federal income taxes cut by one-third. With five to ten years service the cut would be two-thirds. Over ten years? No federal income taxes at all.(I WANT IN ON THIS DEAL ALSO!!)
First --- even if we accepted this as a good idea, there are problems:
The teacher’s unions would get in on the act immediately. They would use their incredible clout in Washington to make sure that this tax cut was only made available to teachers working in government schools.
How about parent’s who home school? They are teachers in every sense of the word, and the fact is that they seem to do a much better job than the government teachers in the government schools. Do they get the tax break? Why not?
Do these years of teaching have to be continuous? What if you teach for two years, then leave to have a baby, and then come back to teaching six years later after your offspring starts (probably private) school? Could someone scatter a few years here, a few more years there, and eventually qualify for a complete income tax exemption?
Would there be any accountability tied to these tax breaks?
What about school administrators? Why should teachers get their tax breaks but administrators can’t? Aren’t they just as important to the educational process?
What about coaches? Don’t they help shape the hearts and minds of our children? Shouldn’t the football coach get his tax break too?
Fact is, it’s a horrid idea. As much sense as Zell Miller has been making lately, I’m surprised he came up with this load of nonsense. Perhaps the DEA should send a low-flying fling-wing over his property in the North Georgia mountains to see if he’s growing anything unusual up there.
In short – Miller is proposing a tax system that rewards taxpayers if they chose to pursue a profession admired and approved by politicians. This amounts to nothing less than using tax policy to control and change taxpayer behavior. That is not the purpose of taxation and would, in a country actually inhabited by people who love freedom more than government, be cause for a tax rebellion.
Think this through, folks. If we establish precedence for the government rewarding people who work in certain professions with favorable tax treatment, then why can’t that same government punish people who work in certain professions with unfavorable tax treatment? If politicians think that teachers should pay less tax, why couldn’t they decide that athletes or entertainers should pay more taxes! Or how about radio talk show hosts? Can you imagine what type of tax rate the Democrats (if, God help us, they ever get control again) would heap on talk show hosts? Maybe conservative talk show hosts could be required to pay a higher rate because of the negative impact they have on society! The leftist talk show hosts could get a break to reward them for their superior sense of compassion.
This policy could even be extended to corporations! You could raise or lower corporate tax rates on certain industries based on their acceptability to the leftist political intelligencia!
Speaking for his absurd proposal Zell Miller offered this excuse: “They need this money back home more than we need it up here – and I guarantee they will spend it more wisely than we will.” Doesn’t this apply to every single taxpayer out there? Is it only teachers who need their money more than the government does? Are teachers the only group that would spend the money more wisely than the Imperial Federal Government?
Come on, Zell. You haven’t even drafted the legislation for this absurd idea yet. Just turn this dog loose. It won’t hunt anyway.
This will certainly get the media chasing their collective tails.
Go Zell, Go!!!!
Even though I am a teacher and think - to me personally - that this would be really cool ;-) - I know that this idea is obsurd. But I would like to argue the point quoted above -
How would favorable tax treatment for people in certain professions be any different than favorable tax treatment for corporations in certain industries? Cities/Counties/States, etc regularly give incredible tax "deals" to corporations for them to move plants or businesses there.
Still, I honestly think the idea of special tax cuts for specific careers is ludicrous.
The flat tax or the value added tax are both much better than the income tax; anything than eliminates the income tax is great. Stopping the social policy rules inherent in the tax code would make any system more efficient.
Miller belongs in the Democrat party. We don't need his ilk!
ONE MORE TIME:
IT’S ABOUT P O W E R AND C O N T R O L!!
SIGN THE PETITION AT HTTP://WWW.VOTR.ORG. Then find out how you can do more to end American’s peculiar SPRING MADNESS.
Ask the farging bastiches in Europe how they like the HIDDEN VAT.
It's a politicians dream come true.
And the flat tax is missing a word in the middle: It's a flat INCOME tax and, thanks to modern technology, will quickly grow from the cute little monkey we started out with in 1913 to the surly 800# gorilla we have today.
Check out www.salestax.org to see why the NRST makes the most sense.
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