An idea whose time has come. I think not.
It puts the entire burden of the tax on the poor, and middle class.
The rich will not spend their millions, thus only a small portion will be taxed.
The poor will be taxed on their entire income.
The middle class will be taxed on a good portion of their income.
People would be intimidated by a 23% tax at the cash register especially the majority that live hand-to-mouth.
An underground economy would be inevitable.
BUMP
Hastert's remarks are nothing but an indication that the lemmings in Washington are starting to realize belatedly that they have spent our country into oblivion and additional taxation has to be imposed. Forget about your own preference and delve deeper into the problem. Whenever a politician starts to talk tax reform, he means more taxes. Anyone could have predicted that with the huge spending increases, and deficit and debt problems that caused, that more taxes would be needed. This is the tax increase that you were expecting!
"The rich will not spend their millions, thus only a small portion will be taxed."
We're not entitled to tax "their millions," any more than we're entitled to tax your thousands or my seventeen cents.
"The poor will be taxed on their entire income.
The middle class will be taxed on a good portion of their income."
And the rich will take "their millions" and either spend like Mike Tyson or use it to create jobs to lift people from poverty to the middle class--or the upper.
Even if they put it into stocks, bonds, or savings accounts, it's still working for the common good. That's the capital that an entrepreneur borrows to start a company--like Microsoft.
We all benefit a lot more from that than we do from the state snatching it and wasting 99 cents for every dollar that arguably benefits a citizen.
People will be taxed based on their LIFESTYLE. I think this is certainly fair. If you live on bare necessities (food, clothing, etc), you will pay no tax...since those items will be except. But when you buy $8,000 plasma TV's, you can certainly afford to pay.
You either don't know much about the whole fair/flat tax idea and the proposals that have been made, or you are just a typical liberal who believes that he somehow has a "right" to other people's property, simply because they have more than he does. All of the flat or fair tax proposals make provisions for the poor - basically, that they pay no taxes on necessities, just as they now pay no taxes at all, and in many cases, actually get PAID by the government.
I am soooo tired of the patronizing and moronic argument that "the rich won't spend their money" in the "right" way (according to the liberals who believe that only they know how to spend everyone else's money). Its the same nonsense we heard about the last round of tax cuts, that the "rich" wouldn't spend the tax refund, or wouldn't spend it on the "right" things. As someone else here said, it doesn't matter if the "rich" spend it on frivilous luxury items, on groceries, on stocks, or simply put it into a savings account. What matters is that the money is in the private sector, where it generates economic activity.
Perhaps you've heard the story about the liberals increasing the taxes on things that only the "rich" buy, like yachts. The idea was to punitively tax the "rich" because they were (gasp!) spending their own money on things that the liberals thought were excessive or frivilous. The result? Those "rich" b*stards stopped buying new yachts. Who suffered? The "poor" and "middle class" people whose jobs were in the yacht construction, sales, and maintenance industries.
Get a clue, it isn't about rich, poor, and middle class, it's about keeping money in the private sector, it's about allowing capitalism to do what it does best: create efficient economic systems based on incentives and effort, not victimhood and government handouts.
It gives a rebate to EVERYONE. No one pays the tax on the amount below the poverty level. (current estimate 23,000)
Read HR25
A National Sales Tax is the fair tax. It is tax on items you purchase that are non-essential such as boats, cars and fancy doodads. That will not penalize the poor but place a fair tax on those who consume the most goods....those who make the most money. It will not allow them to deduct, deduct and deduct until they owe no tax, hence lying on the income tax form will no longer exist.
I don't care for flat tax and that does give unfair advantage to rich. Whereas they consume more and that would balance out in National Sales Tax.
not if you read the bill you moron
Everybody receives a rebate up to the poverty line for necessities