[ETERNAL WARMING]

Fair Tax?

I have a better idea. Put the Constitutional provision, tariffs, on every good and service entering the country. Not only will we pay NO taxes, we'll all have decent jobs when the factories and investment capital come running back home. Talk about a win-win.

[ancient_geezer]

I have a better idea. Put the Constitutional provision, tariffs, on every good and service entering the country. Not only will we pay NO taxes,

Hmmm,

Federalist #35:

"if the jurisdiction of the national government, in the article of revenue, should be restricted to particular objects, it would naturally occasion an undue proportion of the public burdens to fall upon those objects. Two evils would spring from this source: the oppression of particular branches of industry; and an unequal distribution of the taxes, as well among the several States as among the citizens of the same State."

"The maxim that the consumer is the payer, is so much oftener true than the reverse of the proposition, "

"When they are paid by the merchant they operate as an additional tax upon the importing State, whose citizens pay their proportion of them in the character of consumers. "

"Suppose, as has been contended for, the federal power of taxation were to be confined to duties on imports, it is evident that the government, for want of being able to command other resources, would frequently be tempted to extend these duties to an injurious excess. There are persons who imagine that they can never be carried to too great a length; since the higher they are, the more it is alleged they will tend to discourage an extravagant consumption, to produce a favorable balance of trade, and to promote domestic manufactures. But all extremes are pernicious in various ways. Exorbitant duties on imported articles would beget a general spirit of smuggling; which is always prejudicial to the fair trader, and eventually to the revenue itself: they tend to render other classes of the community tributary, in an improper degree, to the manufacturing classes, to whom they give a premature monopoly of the markets; they sometimes force industry out of its more natural channels into others in which it flows with less advantage; and in the last place, they oppress the merchant, who is often obliged to pay them himself without any retribution from the consumer. When the demand is equal to the quantity of goods at market, the consumer generally pays the duty; but when the markets happen to be overstocked, a great proportion falls upon the merchant, and sometimes not only exhausts his profits, but breaks in upon his capital."

we'll all have decent jobs when the factories and investment capital come running back home. Talk about a win-win.

With no federal taxes on manufacturing with an NRST, exports leave the country at our competitive advantage, exports are fully taxed on retail sale treated the same as domestic manufacture for the first time.

The potential of going to a retail sales tax only system:

Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee,
Rep. Bill Archer (R-TX)
August 12, 1996

• "A recent survey was done, in Europe and Japan, of the major corporations and I was astounded at the results. They were asked, 'If the US abolished its income tax and went to a sales tax, would that have any impact on your decisions?' Eighty percent of the corporations said they would build their factories in the United States of America. Twenty percent said they would move their international headquarters to the United States of America."

[voicereason]

Put the Constitutional provision, tariffs, on every good and service entering the country.

Hear, Hear......Wouldn't we need to ask the benevolent WTO first, if that was OK?

[n-tres-ted]

That was the idea (tariffs) behind Smoot-Hawley in 1929-30 that led to a 68-69% drop in our exports-imports by 1933, and 25% unemployment in the U. S. The result would be the same today. And the "foreigners" don't pay our tariffs - we do - in the prices of the goods we buy.

[CSM]

So you support making my dollars worth less? You support the isolation of American goods and services to the NA market only? You support trade wars? You support the restriction of goods available to American consumers?

BTW, the 16th made the income tax constitutional, so your "get back to the constitutional method of taxation" stance also implies that your supportive of income taxes as the revenue to fund the Fed. Gov't.

[dljordan]

But that would piss off our "trading partners" such as China.

[js1138]

I have a better idea. Put the Constitutional provision, tariffs, on every good and service entering the country.

There are all kinds of taxes. Tariffs would result in higher prices to the consumer, a net wash, assuming no unintended consequenses.

I favor a sales tax for the simple reason it is visible every time you buy something. The psychological effect would be worth any inconvenience.

[Melas]

Bad plan. The problem with tariffs is two-fold. 1, counter tarriffs can be enacted killing our exports. 2, foriegners don't pay tariffs, the American consumer does with higher prices.

[Remember_Salamis]

"I have a better idea. Put the Constitutional provision, tariffs, on every good and service entering the country. Not only will we pay NO taxes, we'll all have decent jobs when the factories and investment capital come running back home. Talk about a win-win."

-- Sweet! Then all our competitors can rataliate and destroy global trade. (sarcasm)