Posted on 08/01/2004 6:08:53 PM PDT by NeoCaveman
A domestic centerpiece of the Bush/GOP agenda for a second Bush term is getting rid of the Internal Revenue Service, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned.
The Speaker of the House will push for replacing the nation's current tax system with a national sales tax or a value added tax, Hill sources tell DRUDGE.
"People ask me if I’m really calling for the elimination of the IRS, and I say I think that’s a great thing to do for future generations of Americans," Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert explains in his new book, to be released on Wednesday.
"Pushing reform legislation will be difficult. Change of any sort seldom comes easy. But these changes are critical to our economic vitality and our economic security abroad," Hastert declares in SPEAKER: LESSONS FROM FORTY YEARS IN COACHING AND POLITICS.
"“If you own property, stock, or, say, one hundred acres of farmland and tax time is approaching, you don’t want to make a mistake, so you’re almost obliged to go to a certified public accountant, tax preparer, or tax attorney to help you file a correct return. That costs a lot of money. Now multiply the amount you have to pay by the total number of people who are in the same boat. You can’t. No one can because precise numbers don’t exist. But we can stipulate that we’re talking about a huge amount. Now consider that a flat tax, national sales tax, or VAT would not only eliminate the need to do this, it could also eliminate the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) itself and make the process of paying taxes much easier."
"By adopting a VAT, sales tax, or some other alternative, we could begin to change productivity. If you can do that, you can change gross national product and start growing the economy. You could double the economy over the next fifteen years. All of a sudden, the problem of what future generations owe in Social Security and Medicare won’t be so daunting anymore. The answer is to grow the economy, and the key to doing that is making sure we have a tax system that attracts capital and builds incentives to keep it here instead of forcing it out to other nations."
Bump!!
I would like to see a national sales tax.
Doing away with the IRS :^).
Doing away with all that stupid bookkeeping :^)
I think the key will be how to frame this issue. Otherwise, Bush will be attacked for wanting to support the rich again by the Dems/Kerry.
They're not exempt from the horse>car scenario. Go for it.
Matt, why are you saying this is Bush's centerpeice? Seems to me it's just an excerpt from Hasterts book.
That should get about 99% of the undecided and 50% of the democrats! What a great idea.
What about the vast number of "married couples with 2 kids that make under $32,000" that fell off the tax rolls? I don't think they will like it.
Stay Strong
Fuzzy
VATS are evil and confiscatory.
Hastert needs to drop the VAT bs. Flat tax is ok, VAT is not.
I'll take what we got, mess that it is, over a vat.
I don't know if it's a centerpiece or not, but I do know that Bush has been hinting at this since before 9/11.
I saw on a John Stossel special about getting rid of the department dealing with welfare (whatever that's called) and he said something to the effect that those who receive a check only get a few hundred dollars per month, but if they got rid of the department and the employees and the bureaucracy, the savings would allow the Federal government to just write a check to each individual for something like 20 to 40 thousand dollars per year and end their poverty.
Even if the elimination of the IRS does not come to pass....just floating the idea presents Kerry with a huge delimma..."what in the hell do I do now???"
For all Bush lurkers....way to go guys! you finally are starting to play real hard ball.
B.O.
The only problem with a flat tax is the IRS is still around to abuse people!!
Internal Revenue Service.
Isn't that the same sort of service the bull gives the cow?
Good riddance to it! Bring back Dick Armey to run the transition.
It would be hard to imagine that the elimination of the IRS would not be a popular platform for the convention, and would certainly get the tongues wagging in the media.
I propose a wealth tax on gigolos and their sugar mommas......
Only time you pay federal taxes would be when you actually spend the money - thus any and all savings plans would be a sort of "tax-defferred" sort of plan...?
Could our Congress Critters & Senators POSSIBLY have the guts to do this? It seems so logical....
"until spending is brought under control it won't matter."
And that is where we lost Bush.
Of course, we're talking Federal Tax here, not State..
Individual States will continue to operate their own Income Tax, Property Tax, Sales tax, etc..
Regardless, this will NOT get rid of the IRS.. There will still be taxes to be payed, and recieved..
Someone will have to enforce whatever the new tax laws are..
There will still be some sort of Central Agency for Revenue and Taxes...
I prefer the national sales tax.
The main reason being that everyone pays taxes (the drug dealers, the prostitutes, those that perform work under the table, they guy that runs the car wash, etc.). ---Not just the honest people that have a job and actually file taxes.
I am sick of seeing people not paying taxes when I have to. The rich will pay more because they spend more. How can the Democrats argue with that?
The income tax exports our jobs, rather than our products. The FairTax brings jobs home. Most importantly, U.S. exports are not burdened by the FairTax, as they are with the current income tax. So the FairTax allows U.S. exports to sell overseas for prices 22 percent lower, on average, than they do now, with similar profit margins. Lower prices sharply increase demand for U.S. exports, thereby increasing job creation in U.S. manufacturing sectors. At home, foreign imports are subject to the same FairTax rate as domestically produced goods. Not only does the FairTax put U.S. products sold here on the same tax footing as foreign imports, but the dramatic lowering of compliance costs in comparison to other countries' value-added taxes also gives U.S. products a definitive pricing advantage which foreign tax systems cannot match.
Above is from:
http://www.fairtaxvolunteer.org/
Check it out - it would be a great thing for our country.
They argue with it because it makes sense and is a conservative idea. The triclk is to make them think it is their idea.
Of course, then the GOP will argue with it because it is a democrat idea....
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