Replies

Question to the 999'ers:

I'm all for abolishing the IRS. And I am certainly for eradicating the nefarious "hiding" of real taxes via withholding.

But what does the Fair Tax or 999 or Flat Tax or any other "tax debate" we discuss have to say about the PRICE OF GOVERNMENT.

These are all "how to collect" arguments, only remotely connected to "how much it costs."

Can we all agree that no matter what the "plan" is, the resulting tax law coming out of Congress will be different, if not unrecognizable, eventually amended with all sorts of prebates and social engineering which will use "fair" as a term to give special exemptions to farmers, "working families" (unions) and gay/lesbian/transgender housemates.

So my question is, other than Cain's proposal that bringing the uniform tax down on everyone will indirectly pressure congress to keep rates low*, is ANY candidate proposing ANYTHING else to address the "how much" argument (total taxes vs GDP, etc.)??

AFAIK, the answer is no.

Unless the amount being collected is small enough to allow freedom and liberty, then it doesn't matter what the method/formula for collecting it is.

* And BTW, everything that is done by Congress "for the people" is not done universally, but instead by the majority for a specific subset of constituents. I can't think of an example where that is not the case. Thus, is there any reason not to believe that anything done to "keep rates low" will actually be done to "keep rates low for a subset of constituents" somehow, some way, with offsets, prebates, rebates, credits, exemptions, etc.

Unless the amount being collected is small enough to allow freedom and liberty, then it doesn't matter what the method/formula for collecting it is.

I have asked for this as well from ALL of the candidates. We keep talking about "revenue-neutral". I don't really care about "revenue-neutral", but the pols do. I want a legitimate balance sheet displayed from SOME candidate showing WHAT needs to be funded and HOW MUCH those things cost. It's like shopping for a new car. The BASE PRICE of the car without all of the extra bells and whistles is X. When you add this bell or that whistle, X increases to Y. I want a debate for WHAT X IS!

But what does the Fair Tax or 999 or Flat Tax or any other "tax debate" we discuss have to say about the PRICE OF GOVERNMENT.

Absolutely nothing.

Those are two completely separate issues. That's why they have a "Ways and Means" (or taxation) Committee, and an Appropriations (or spending) Committee.

is ANY candidate proposing ANYTHING else to address the "how much" argument (total taxes vs GDP, etc.)?? AFAIK, the answer is no.

Actually the answer is yes, namely Ron Paul with 1 Trillion in cuts.