Posted on 10/16/2010 9:33:00 AM PDT by GOPGuide
First the infamous proposed “truce” on social issues, now this. No wonder he’s David Brooks’s candidate of choice.
Alternate headline: “Mitch Daniels continues quixotic bid to disqualify himself from Republican nomination.”
Daniels recited from Kahn’s book: “It would be most useful to redesign the tax system to discourage consumption and encourage savings and investment. One obvious possibility is a value added tax and flat income tax, with the only exception being a lower standard deduction.”
“That might suit our current situation pretty well,” said Daniels, who served as George W. Bush’s Office of Management and Budget director and was a senior adviser in Ronald Reagan’s White House. “It also might fit Bill Simon’s line in the late ‘70s that the nation should have a tax system that looks like someone designed it on purpose.”…
In a brief interview after his speech, Daniels downplayed the significance of his comments. He stressed that he would support a VAT “under only the right circumstances,” reiterating his desire for it to be paired with a flat income tax.
“If you think that the paramount problem for the country is the debt, and we’ll never get on top of it without really robust growth, one of the things you want is a very different, more pro-growth tax system,” Daniels told POLITICO. “And a quarter century ago, (Kahn) was writing about one. That’s all. There are other ways to get at it.”
He also sounded warm to the idea of a tax on imported oil. Let me play devil’s advocate here, knowing full well that tax nerds will jump down my throat in the comments: While Daniels has said before that we might need to raise taxes to eliminate the debt, the “VAT + flat tax” system would be geared mainly towards greater efficiency, not necessarily towards a heavier overall tax burden, right? The reason the VAT makes righties shudder is that it’s typically mentioned by Democrats as a new tax on top of the 25+% income tax brackets that most people currently find themselves in. All Daniels is suggesting, I take it, is replacing the brackets with a single income tax rate of, say, 15% and then dropping, say, a 10% VAT on goods and services, which would in theory make tax collection vastly more efficient while giving taxpayers an extra measure of control in deciding how much tax they pay. Want to reduce your debt to Uncle Sam this year? Simple — under a VAT, you’d just spend less.
snip
Using the VAT to target sugary drinks? Surely our government would never do that. Exit question: Is this actually clever “strategery” on Daniels’s part, as his old boss once famously said? Everyone in the GOP field is trying to throw the hardest “true conservative” fastball to impress the base and yet here he is snapping off curves and sliders to appeal to the rest. Hmmmm.
Well, Mitch won’t be getting my vote.
Add me to the opposers of a VAT. There are people on this forum who are all for it as a replacement of the current income tax, that, of course will never happen, it would be in addition to the income tax.
Their reasoning being, that all would pay, including those who pay no income tax now. They are too simple minded to know that any tax the so called "poor" pay through a VAT would be refunded to them, plus a little extra for their troubles. Remember the E.I.T.C.?
You may be confusing VAT with the NRST, two totally different animals.
Yes, however I could care less about Dimocrat or Republican, I never have and I never will.
I'm a conservative and vote conservative to keep a clear conscious.
Although I have never voted for a dimocrat for the closest to conservative dimocrat would be Zell Miller IMO and Zell isn't in the market.
Read my lips, Daniels D*ckhead
NO NEW TAXES.
Mitch Daniels is a jerk!! Last year he came out with the quip that we should move on from the principles of Roanld Reagan. Now he’s talking about a VAT tax. He should stay in Indiana and put the VAT tax where the sun don’t shine.
But the VAT .... yikes. Supposedly it works well in a utopia. But my idea of a utopia doesn't have taxes...
Mitch Daniels is another “great white hope” promoted by the “anybody but Sarah” crowd. David Brooks was hyping Mitch last week. Between his statements on “a truce on social issues” and the VAT, his 15 seconds are about up.
The wannabes keep self-destructing and the little lady keeps getting stronger.
Daniels is somewhat a nany stater. That said, I do appreciate that he is being honest rather than leaving his real beliefs for you to figure out.
It is easy to spout old cliches about how a conservative would govern, a lot harder to actually come up with solutions and be unafraid to be massively unpopular.
He isn’t my favorite by any means. I will decide that when I see who enters and who has the guts to actually articulate solutions to the Obama mess.
Won’t be easy folks.
That’s all we need, another big tax nanny stater Republican, who would produce a gigantic target for the press and Democrats to win elections. Yeah, nominating him would be brilliant.
Actually, I would prefer a national sales tax not a VAT that is designed exclusively to pay for ALL government entitlement programs, social security,medicare,medicaid,welfare,etc.It will be adjusted each year to reflect the annual cost as assessed by the CBOE for those programs that year It is the best way to control government spending because the DEMS will no longer be able to buy votes with entitlements by borrowing money or taxing “the rich”.Just see how many bleeding heart liberals there are out there when there is a direct route from the additional entitlements they want to their pocketbooks through an increased sales tax.
Why not have a VAT?
(of course that means the SS and income taxes go away....)
Another politician cooks his own goose. This time, it is not just well done, but chernobylized to a cinder.
The VAT is nothing more than a gravy train for politicians at our expense. No thanks!
This is a huge problem with the political class of either party. All are sitting around dreaming up schemes to use hard working people as tax cash cows. If it isn’t setting up tax cuts to expire, it is schemes like cap and tax and the VAT.
A Pox on all their houses. I say repeal the 16th Amendment to the Constitution and institute the Fair Tax!
Somebody get the fork..this turkey is done.
Agreed. This is insidious. the plan is to redistribute our wealth to the world through the UN.
Spot on! I have heard allot of anti Palin people throw out Mitch Daniels and others as the best hopes for 2012. However I know very little about most of them.
I do know one thing however, they are not out trying to beat back the commie bastards in DC. They are mute and unable throw a punch.
I want a fighter and someone who will say what I am thinking.
I have a way to make money for the taxpayers - 99.9 % tax on all politicians salary and 100%tax on all lobbyist money given to politicians. See this will keep the politicians honest. they only live .10% of income. think this will work. I prpose this as an ammendement to the Constitution effectively immediately and back dated to 1789.
Dittos.
A vat tax will send is into a slave plantation and permanent depression.
And Tom McClintock for Speaker of the House!
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