Posted on 08/02/2004 5:57:43 AM PDT by downtoliberalism
**Exclusive**
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.
(Excerpt) Read more at drudgereport.com ...
Well, from what I've seen of Russia- the system may be "working" in terms of extracting 13% of everyone's income (except for the black market which seems to dominate everyday life)
What doesn't "work" in Russia is the give-back to its citizens in terms of goods and services. I've been all over the 3rd world and never saw a place as sad and depressing as Russian life in the boondocks. But the people are great- so much potential.
I don't know how ''cool'' they sound, but, having lived under a VAT regime for a time (and, no, the income tax didn't go away when they passed VAT, either), they are in practice just about the ''uncoolest'' scheme imaginable. A pain in the a&& all round, and very easily raisable by Parliament, er, sorry, Congress to confiscatory levels.
Ditto. Preferably the flat tax.
I'm a rich republican. I can afford to hire a CPA to do that for me. However, I would like to keep the money I am now paying my CPA and go with a Flat-income-tax.
I am afraid that a national sales tax would only make the IRS more powerful. They would just go after a different set of people. "Cash" (i.e. no record of sale) transactions would skyrocket as the Kerry's of the world try to scam out of paying their fair share.
No national sales tax, no VAT tax. Flat tax and be done with it.
No national sales tax, no VAT tax. Flat tax and be done with it.
Hello snowball, meet hell.
Next to the income tax, social security is teat #2 for the ever-thirsty piglets of the jackass party. Without this free source of disposable income, their hellbent rush to socialism will be mercifully sidetracked.
The result is the same.
The last bill for NRST called for a 23% tax inclusive rate, which translate into a 30% sales tax the way sales tax is traditionally calculated. You spend $1, 23 cents goes to tax and 77 cents goes towards the purchase. 23 cents is approximately 30% of 77. If you buy an item for a $1, it will cost $1.30 under the NRST.
It'll never happen.
When I cite Heinz, Kerry, Edwards, Kennedy and Gore, - I am talking about the extremely wealthy who pander to the poverty pimps while lecturing and berating the upper middle class for not paying a "fair share"
No one is ever going to win an argument about how much tax to pay in absolute dollars- it's about percentages. My family paid about 40% of our gross income last year in federal state and local tax. Did TerAyza pay 40% of her gross income? Did Teddy?
These wealthy demagogues employ a stable of accountants and attorneys to shelter their assets and draw allowances from tax-sheltered trusts while lecturing folks making $200K (entrepreneurs and salaried people) they are selfish to support the Bush tax cut.
I suspect a flat rate of 17-20% would milk more tax money from these hypocrites than they now pay. Of course, they evade full disclosure of their tax returns, so my hunch cannot be proven.
It would be interesting to see how corporations will be treated under this new proposal. I suspect that you and I both know that corporations don't pay taxes anyway- people do.
Fair point that I have wondered about; however, the fact that it is not "hidden", either in the cost of the goods or by withholding (there are still people who think the government gave them something when they get a "refund" in April) makes a change good. Very few people know what their real taxes are. Something on this order will at least give them the knowledge of the waste, if not the wisdom or power to do anything about it.
Having said that, I'm still of the opinion from the 1960s when sales taxes were coming into vogue that the government, not merchants, should collect their own damned taxes.
yes yes yes yes yes
please please please please please please
Make the senate and house a non-paid position, and make these people get real jobs. In my town, the board of education operates like this, and the city council.
The thing you are leaving out is that under the current layered tax system, that $1 item you will pay $1.30 under an NRST for, now costs $1.50.
Convert all this hidden taxation of corporate taxes, business taxes and all that stuff into a visible sales tax and people will realize just how much taxes the "poor" are really paying.
If people knew the amount of taxes they were paying that was already a part of the goods they buy, then you would have more people demanding fiscal responsibility. It's a liberal's nightmare and they would fight this to the death.
Plus, the tax rate would come down as goods and services adjust their product retail prices. Businesses will be unshackled and this economy would take off like a rocket. End result would be even more money in the federal coffers.
It is beyond interesting to consider the huge shift in fiscal dynamics that would take place in a sales tax scenario.
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