From 2006. Even more insightful today:
http://buchanan.org/blog/pjb-how-to-bring-manufacturing-back-home-109
This is why we should adopt the Steve Forbes flat-rate income tax starting as early as the 2012 income tax year. When the Forbes tax plan has these advantages:
1. Exempts the first US$13,000 per adult (in a two-adult household) and US$9,000 per child of income (e.g., US$44,000 for a family of two adults and two children) of earned income from income, which right there untaxes the poor.
2. Eliminates all the other complicated credits, deductions, exemptions and preferences in the current tax code that ends up costing over US$300 BILLION per year in compliance costs, freeing up over US$200 BILLION per year for more productive economic activity.
3. Eliminates the complications of alternate minimum tax, estate tax, and additional taxes on high income earners.
4. Eliminates including bank account interest, capital gains and stock dividend payments as part of earned income. This would drastically slow down the practice of "offshoring" millions of jobs, thousands of factories, hundreds of corporate headquarters, and possibly as high as US$14 TRILLION in American-owned liquid assets for income tax avoidance reasons. That means lower unemployment and our banks will have enough liquidity to issue loans and lines of credit so necessary for business expansion.
5. With no more bank account interest being taxed, it encourages American residents to create their own financial "nest eggs" for retirement and medical bills tax-free, allowing us to wind down both Social Security and Medicare.
So what are we waiting for? I'm surprised that no country has adopted the Forbes tax plan, because it would result in an economic boom to that country. Can you imagine what would happen to a country like Brazil if they were to adopt such a business-friendly income tax system?