Rep. seeks new source for Social Security

Associated Press ^ | 1/23/2005 | William C. Mann

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WASHINGTON - The chairman of the House tax-writing committee said Sunday that President Bush's drive to overhaul Social Security should lead to consideration of a value added tax or other ways to fund the entitlement program.

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Looks like the "vat" might be coming our way, BUT the income tax will still be in place. And this from a republican......

[TXBSAFH]

BOHICA. We got to fight this.

[PeterPrinciple]

Read my lips......no new taxes.

[coconutt2000]

Umm... relax people.

There will be no VAT, there will be no increase in payroll taxes.

The Democrats and liberal media are working very hard to try and split up the Republican majority.

Yes, some Republicans are tossing out bad ideas. That's what happens in the debate process. Let's be careful about flying off the handle every time a bad idea is tossed about. Wait, listen, and see where the debate is going.

We don't want to let the liberals manipulate us into trashing the unity our Rep. reps need by allowing the liberals to sow discord in our ranks. Be polite, be firm, but don't attack first and ask questions later.

[Final Authority]

I have been writing about this eventuality for the past four years with respect to how I see the NRST or FairTax play out. The way I see it is the sales taxers will have their way, that is we will have a national sales tax but the problem is we will still have the income tax and the IRS. The government needs more of what the producers earn to give to the lay-abouts to build their liberal power base. The sales tax has worked in liberalizing at least two states that come to mind, NY and MA where the sales tax was added onto an income tax and in the case of MA a surtax was added on top of that. It keeps the populations under the thumb of liberal politicians.

We will have an income tax and a sales tax, you can bank on it, or not.

[television is just wrong]

hmmm, let's start taxing that underground economy. those people who send $$$'s to their home country.

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hmmm, let's start taxing that underground economy. those people who send $$$'s to their home country.

I'm sure that will be one of their selling points when the legislation comes up.

[Constitutionalist Conservative]

BTTT

[Nick Danger]

Yeah, this Social Security debate is going to bring a lot of tax-raisers out of the woodwork. It's just as well we smoke them out.

[AmericanChef]

Fire that man. In these times there should be NO one on a tax committee that approves of taxes. New taxes are not a solution, they're the problem. I won't pay it. They can pry the money from my cold, dead hands.

[untrained skeptic]

"Looks like the "vat" might be coming our way, BUT the income tax will still be in place. And this from a republican......"

It sounded to me like he was suggesting removing the income tax portion because it's a "job killer" and replacing it with the VAT.

The number of people working just can't support the number of people who are retiring in the near future, and raising income taxes harms the economy.

A VAT tax spreads out the expense of Social Security over all consumers. It also taxes imports which means that we are protecting our markets in the same way other countries are currently protecting theirs.

I'd rather have free trade, but if they're going to put VAT on things they import from us, shouldn't we return the favor?

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It sounded to me like he was suggesting removing the income tax portion because it's a "job killer" and replacing it with the VAT.

After reading the article again, I could see he might be saying that. We'll have to wait....

[hchutch]

We're gonna hear a lot of ideas. I don't think that is an inherently bad thing.

For instance, if we were to replace the current setup (with an income ceiling) with a straight flat tax at a lower rate, I would not mind that.