Posted on 01/30/2006 2:31:32 PM PST by groanup
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, January 30, 2006
Isakson Introduces Legislation to Repeal Tax Code by 2008 Requires Congress to Reauthorize Current Tax Code or Replace It with New System
Flat Tax and National Sales Tax Must Be Considered Among Options
WASHINGTON – Declaring that it's time to give relief to American taxpayers, U.S. Senator Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) has introduced legislation to repeal the U.S. tax code by 2008 and to force Congress to vote to reauthorize it or replace it with a new system.
Isakson's bill also creates a commission that would be required to examine and to recommend to Congress plausible replacements for the tax code. A flat tax and a national sales tax must be among the options it examines, under Isakson's legislation.
“The average person spends over 13 hours completing IRS Form 1040, and nearly three in five tax filers have to hire help to complete their taxes,” Isakson said. “The time has come for us to give some relief to the American taxpayer through a complete overhaul of our burdensome, confusing and overly complex tax code.”
The Tax Code Termination Act, S.2182, would terminate the current tax code on December 31, 2008. To ensure a smooth transition to a new system, Congress must approve a new tax code by July 4, 2008. If a new system is not approved by July 4, 2008, Congress would be forced to vote to reauthorize the current tax code.
“History has taught us that if we don’t impose a deadline and terminate the tax code by a date certain, overhauling our inefficient system is nearly impossible,” Isakson said. “All options should be on the table and the only way to fairly consider all of them is to start from scratch.”
To help Congress choose the best replacement system, Isakson's bill creates a commission to analyze reform options and report its findings to Congress. The commission would review the impact of the current tax code on the economy, families and workers; the compliance costs to taxpayers, small business and corporations; and the Internal Revenue Service’s ability to administer the current code.
The commission would be required to consider specifically whether the income tax should be replaced with a flat tax, a national sales tax or another option. The commission also would be required to identify the transition costs associated with any change to the present federal tax code.
The commission would also be required to report on the potential impact of any new system on the U.S. economy and on the government’s ability to collect revenue. Additionally, the potential impact of any new system must be presented and reviewed from both static and dynamic scoring models.
The bill will create a National Commission on Tax Reform within the legislative branch, consisting of 15 members. Two of the members will be required to come from businesses with less than 50 employees. The commission will be appointed by the president, the Senate Majority Leader, the Senate Minority Leader, the Speaker of the House and the Minority Leader in the House.
Isakson needs to be informed about the Fair Tax.
This guy is a pure politician. He wants a commission. He wants to study reforms. He wants..... to appear like he's on our side. He isn't.
He is a two faced politician.
Here's my bet - he'll lose in his primary to Hermann Cain. I hope so. Johnny's a liar.
My respect for Isaakson has just gone way up. Let's get busy!
This guy is a pure politician. He wants a commission. He wants to study reforms. He wants..... to appear like he's on our side. He isn't.
He is a two faced politician.
Here's my bet - he'll lose in his primary to Hermann Cain. I hope so. Johnny's a liar.
He is.
He's lying to you. He is not willing to "give away" (his words) the special tax laws relating to real estate. He's lying. He doesn't want reform.
He is, however, a pure politician. He won election - it was pretty close - over a nobody at the time, based solely on his support of HR 25. So Johnny said he would support it. But gee whiz, after election he won't. Fargin icehole bandage liar.
Go Cain Go!
He is. He doesn't like any reform - they would eliminate a special trading tax incentive for his real estate company.
He won't listen past the part about eliminating it.... even though his entire situation would be better. There's something else at work here.
Johnny lied. He promised to support it during a tough campaign in which is opponent strongly supported hr 25. So he promised to support it too. But he won't. I don't trust him as far as I can throw him - and I'm crippled!
Johnny lied. I'll never vote for him.
This legislation is not needed with the Fair Tax already before both chambers. We especially don't need another committee that will only burn more taxpayers dollars. I sent an email to Congressman Linder asking him to discuss the Fair Tax with Senator Isakson since they are both from Georgia. It may not help but it certainly can't hurt. Feel free to do the same if your so inclined.
Amen
We especially don't need another committee that will only burn more taxpayers dollars.
...and burn more time while Johnny tries to keep tax reform from happening
I sent an email to Congressman Linder asking him to discuss the Fair Tax with Senator Isakson ...
Good on ya Man50D.
Amen to that! Enough is enough! Pass the Fairtax into law NOW!
Johnny Isackson is a two faced liar of the first order! I would'nt trust him as far as I could throw him!
I sure don't trust him either. It's awfully familiar to how we got the income tax in the first place. From The FairTax book:
" Those who favored the idea of an income tax met with considerable success, capturing public sentiment with promises that the tax would "soak the rich." and leave the vast majority of Americans alone. Economic class warfare was as alive and well in the early 1900s as it is in the early 2000s.
The historical timeline now brings us to Texas Senator, Joseph Bailey, a conservative Democrat. Deciding to play the game of partisan politics, Bailey cooked up a scheme to humiliate Republicans. Though he was opposed to the idea, Bailey introduced a bill calling for an income tax. He mistakenly thought that the Republicans would rush in to kill the this legislation, thus furthering the image Democrats were trying to cultivate of Republicans as hostile to the poor and concerned only about protecting the wealthy. Wouldn't you know it, things didn't turn out as Bailey had planned. Liberal Republicans, backed by Teddy Roosevelt, actually came out in support of the bill. Passage seemed all but certain.
Conservative Republicans were panicked. They needed a way to derail the Bailey bill and the growing threat of an income tax. In one of the worst examples of legislative play-calling in history Republicans came up with the brilliant idea of announcing that they would support the idea of an income tax on one condition: if and only if it came about as the result of an amendment to our Constitution. Even though this group of conservative Republicans felt that there was some slight chance the proposed amendment might actually make it through the House and the Senate, there was just no way in the world that three-fourths of the states could vote for ratification. Yeah...right.
Big opps.
The amendment sailed through the House and the Senate. The vote in the S3enate was 77 to 0, and the House approved it by 318 to 14. It was off to the House for ratification. Conservative Republicans were still confident that the effort was doomed. They were as wrong as they could be.
Smelling victory for one of their long-held goals, the Democrats launched a massive effort to convince the people that any income tax would be directed only at the wealthy, and that ordinary Americans would be left virtually untaxed.. Conservative legislatures in the West and the South convinced their constituents that the adoption of the income tax would have little effect o them, since incomes big enough to be taxed were rare in these areas. The people, thus anesthetized, raised little objection and the Sixteenth Amendment was ratified on February 12, 1913. This date should be added to December 7, 1941, and September 11, 2001, as date in American history that shall live in infamy."
Do you see any similarity to what Johnny Isakson is attempting? This time it's not one side of the aisle against the other side. It's the politicians against the people. The Tax Code Termination Act, S.2182, that is, Isakasons agenda, is to provide cover for members of congress to do anything but pass the FairTax. Thus leaving the present in place or a watered down version -- VAT, flat or otherwise -- that retains tinkering with the tax code, class warfare, special interest sweetheart deals.
The second thing on his agenda is to divide and conquer. Throw an obvious bone into the mix. A bone much more tantalizing to politicians than HR25 and S25 (The FairTax), easier for the main-stream media to facilitate and draw man-in-the-street to get behind.
The bill:
*Sets a deadline for elimination of the income tax. I haven't seen that before.
*Calls for consideration of the best plan (fair tax) and second best plan (flat tax). What other legislation does that other than HR 25?
*Forces our reps and sens to vote for re-authorization of the most hated entity of the Fed Gov, the IRS and its most hated document, the code, if they can't come up with a better way to fund the gov.
What's with you guys? The legislation is out there now. Are you guys just going to pooh pooh it and call Isakson a prick?
If I stretch far enough to blow out a few tendons. I think Isakson has caved in to the pressure of the fair tax and is worried because it has so much support in Georgia and he isn't a co-sponsor.
I'll tell you this though, it wouldn't be very hard for me to get a very obstreperous bandwagon on Isakson's butt if he is trying to pull something here. I'm not as cynical as you guys but I'll not be tampered with by this guy.
He's probably angling for votes (and then he can drop what he thinks is nonsense). We've had "sunset the tax code" bills before and none have worked.
If this on should do so I'm all for it; however I'm quite skeptical and I think Principled's reasoning may be on track. (darn it)
NO WAY!
I HATE THE FLAT TAX!
We need to go with the FAIR TAX!
NOT FLAT- FAIR...
He is using this as a delaying tactic (anyone with any political experience at all knows that the way to kill anything is to appoint a commission to study it!) while attempting to appear pro tax reform to the folks back home in Georgia. He flat out lied in order to beat Cain. I DO NOT trust liars!
The bill can be used to the FairTax advantage. Now is not the time to get behind it. What would Sun Tzu do? I've done a couple cursory hypotheticals that I won't discuss in public. Least wise not at this time.
Wow. I remember all the talk about this guy Johnny Isakson being some kind of a liberal when he was running for his seat. Hats off to Johnny!
That's my point! It is concrete. Much more so than the everlasting fair tax threads on Free Republic (G-d bless them all). The bill is something we can all write to congress about. We had a book (that's nice) now we have a bill. It is a building block. Ranting and raving like I do on these threads is one thing, moving something through congress is another. C'mon guys.
I'm inclined to ask why kick the can down the road with yet another commission. In the final analysis, we will have to fight the Fair Tax through to adoption. So let's get at it now.
remember to call my senator bump!
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