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Tax Foundation Rips Santorum Tax Plan (Grade: D+)
The Wall Street Journal ^ | 1/6/2012 | Kristina Peterson

Posted on 02/18/2012 11:26:25 PM PST by JediJones

An antitax advocacy group zinged Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum’s tax plan, giving him a grade of “D+” grade and the dubious honor of proposing what “may be the worst idea of any of the Republican candidates.”

”The good news is Santorum has gotten more specific about his tax plan since last month when we gave him a D+,” economist William McBride wrote on Thursday. “The bad news is… he’s gotten more specific.”

Mr. McBride said the biggest problem with Mr. Santorum’s proposal is the sharply different corporate tax rates he would establish. Mr. Santorum would halve the corporate tax rate to 17.5% from its current top rate of 35%. Manufacturers, however, would not have to pay any corporate taxes.

Mr. McBride said the idea is “grossly unfair,” and unlikely to gain traction in Washington. If it did, he said, many businesses would “suddenly claim to be a manufacturer.”

The tax group also took aim at Santorum’s suggestion to triple the tax deduction families can take for each child. “This is obviously a big tax cut, and might spur growth, or it might just spur child making,” Mr. McBride wrote. The Tax Foundation echoed concerns expressed earlier this week by the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center that tripling the child tax deduction could push more low-income families off the tax rolls.

While the Santorum campaign has filled in some of the details in recent weeks, big ones remain missing, Mr. McBride wrote. The plan would collapse the current six rates to just two — 10% and 28% — but it doesn’t specify who would pay those rates, he said, adding: ”That’s kind of important.”

(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.wsj.com ...


TOPICS: Breaking News; Business/Economy; Constitution/Conservatism; Government; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: heybigspender; manufacturing; montholdarticle; notbreakingnews; notconservative; oldarticle; primary; ricksantorum; rinosantorum; santorum; santorum4romney; taxes; thetaxfoundation; willmcbride
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To: PGalt

It is an interesting thread.

That is why I pinged the FairTax list. We need to be aware of what the PooBaahs have in mind for us, don’t we?


181 posted on 02/21/2012 8:57:07 PM PST by Taxman (So that the beautiful pressure does not diminish!)
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182 posted on 02/21/2012 8:58:32 PM PST by musicman (Until I see the REAL Long Form Vault BC, he's just "PRES__ENT" Obama = Without "ID")
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To: onyx

Ultimately, Santorum’s tax plan is what its always been: Higher taxes for small business. that pleases his union owners.


183 posted on 02/21/2012 9:01:31 PM PST by editor-surveyor (No Federal Sales Tax - No Way!)
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To: editor-surveyor

I didn’t read the details. I like Newt Gingrich’s. He’s the only one who actually put thought into his plan.

He’s remains the only solid and serious candidate. I pray he rebounds.


184 posted on 02/21/2012 10:08:47 PM PST by onyx (SUPPORT FREE REPUBLIC, DONATE MONTHLY. If you want on Sarah Palin's Ping List, let me know.)
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To: Taxman
We need to be aware of what the PooBaahs have in mind for us, don’t we?

Yes, we do.

185 posted on 02/21/2012 10:17:56 PM PST by PGalt
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To: Jim from C-Town

I believe somewhat differently. When during years of paying income taxes with two children I often thought that it was wrong that government forced someone without children, we had several such married friends, to pony up for our children. I believe it is much better to have people pay for their own children. A similar situation exists with young people having babies others have to support


186 posted on 02/21/2012 10:47:58 PM PST by noinfringers2
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To: Kellis91789
can’t reduce your tax below 10% of AGI.

True, that would enable lower rates generally for everyone and bring a lot more people back onto the tax rolls. I just don't like the government to stake claim to every dollar I make. I agree I don't like opening the door to social engineering with deductions and credits. But I'd also like to see people keep 100% of the first dollars earned as a personal exemption. Everyone gets it and it is the same for everyone - a subsistence exemption. It doesn't make sense for someone on a low income who can barely afford food and lodging to pay taxes then need foodstamp assistance. Overall though I'd still prefer eliminating taxes on wages, and switching to a tax on consumption.

187 posted on 02/22/2012 7:56:39 AM PST by JTHomes (Free markets now!)
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To: Apollo5600

I never join those trial offer deals and “Specified Organs Required” concerns me, Apollo. I see a possibility of some folks being automatically discriminated against in your fan club. Anyone supporting Anyone but Gingrich has effectively been lobotomized, so I trust brains are not required??:)

I don’t qualify as a star or a cool cat, but I appreciate someone fighting the good fight. Fight on , McDuff!


188 posted on 02/22/2012 2:42:32 PM PST by conservativejoy
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To: JTHomes

“Everyone gets it and it is the same for everyone - a subsistence exemption.”

But this is based on a false premise. The assumption is that government is not a “necessity” in the same league as food. While the vast majority of federal government is worthless, there is SOME government that is indeed a necessity — national defense, judiciary, penal system, etc. These are the government services that provide relative freedom for the individual without constantly needing to use violence to protect your property. It is morally incorrect for anybody to expect others to provide these services to them at zero cost.

Today the personal income tax collects a total of $1T each year. This is less than 10% of total personal income. I posit that even the minimum wage worker should be required to pay a dime out of every dollar they earn to pay for those service above that I think everyone would agree are necessary and can best be provided by government. Taxing the amount that you term “subsistence level” at 10% will only provide $250B per year and comes nowhere near paying for those “proper” government services. The vast majority (the other $3T) of government services — which we as conservatives think of as improper government spending — will still need to be paid for by taxes on earnings “above subsistence” if you will. So I am not asking the “poor” to shoulder a lion’s share, just a minimum that doesn’t even really cover their share of the “proper” government they benefit from. It is enough of a tax bite, however, to make them aware that government isn’t free.

This “subsistence” premise applies to consumption taxes as well. The FairTax would only need to be 15% to replace the income and payroll taxes, but by the time you add in the prebate for “subsistence” it leaves large groups of people paying nothing and others paying 23%.


189 posted on 02/22/2012 3:09:06 PM PST by Kellis91789 (The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools.)
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To: JediJones

You wanted an article. http://www.eubios.info/EJ124/ej124i.htm

This one is by a bunch of fascists who believe in overpopulation. But my point about labor force participation lowering fertility is part of this commie document.


190 posted on 02/22/2012 5:21:20 PM PST by impimp
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To: JediJones; Kellis91789

A FReeper from Germany just made this post that bears on whether encouraging Earners and TaxPayers to have children:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2850249/posts?page=50#50


191 posted on 02/23/2012 9:08:44 AM PST by AFPhys ((Praying for our troops, our citizens, that the Bible and Freedom become basis of the US law again))
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To: Kellis91789
All well reasoned and logical points. I've argued the same points about everyone having skin in the game myself. But one thing that keeps me on the fence, if we're talking false premises, I'd offer that just because you are born in a country, that is not an affirmative consent to be governed by whatever power claims control over a geography. And further, just because one benefits from a service that they didn't ask for, doesn't mean they have an obligation to pay for it. Businesses give away free stuff to entice consumers of their product. Parents provide for their children.

I simply must put the individual on a higher footing than the collective or the government. This is a critical point, one that if not allowed concedes that ultimately we do not have any fundamental rights whatsoever, that we exist at the pleasure of the collective, and service to that collective in whatever form it takes is mandatory - i.e. slavery.

A small exemption from that obligation is a statement and practice of the supreme nature of the individual right. Those who choose to participate more fully in society and commerce then show their consent to be governed and then own the responsibility to pay for it. This also is why I do not support any government safety nets. Someone who chooses to live at a subsistence level should not enjoy the support of a system that they do not support.

192 posted on 02/24/2012 5:48:16 AM PST by JTHomes (Free markets now!)
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To: Kellis91789; NoPinkos; Carry_Okie
She honestly believes she’s doing everybody else a favor by providing children to society

That's the most ironic thing I've read - on this thread anyway. Kellis, you seem to want everyone to pay for the government as the enforcer and protector of society, which is a fair and arguable point; but then you choose not to see any correlation to society investing in the very resources that perpetuate itself. While I still argue that society does not come first, that the individual is supreme, I infer from your logic that military spending is good and police, jails and courts are good to keep us all in line and paying our taxes, but paying for education and allowances for breeders to feed the machine is somehow a burden not to be shouldered by society.

193 posted on 02/24/2012 6:34:01 AM PST by JTHomes (Free markets now!)
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To: JTHomes

“Kellis, you seem to want everyone to pay for the government as the enforcer and protector of society, which is a fair and arguable point; but then you choose not to see any correlation to society investing in the very resources that perpetuate itself. While I still argue that society does not come first, that the individual is supreme, I infer from your logic that military spending is good and police, jails and courts are good to keep us all in line and paying our taxes, but paying for education and allowances for breeders to feed the machine is somehow a burden not to be shouldered by society. “

You do seem to misunderstand my position. I said the individual owes taxes to an entity that protects them personally, not society as a whole. “Keeping us in line” is not the goal but the side-effect. The goal is to protect the individual from the predations of an anarchist society. Paying breeders to produce more have-nots to threaten the individual’s property is not in the interest of the individual.

I reject the idea that an individual must rely on someone else’s children in their old age and they are therefor obligated to share the cost of raising those children. If the individual takes care of themselves their whole life and is not continually drained by welfare taxes, there is no reason their own savings cannot support them in their old age and they will not burden their own or other people’s children. Carrie_Okie’s position assumes that individuals must necessarily be a burden on future generations because they will not have prepared responsibly for their own future. She sees those children as the investment, which is tantamount to making them slaves forced to work to support strangers.


194 posted on 02/24/2012 7:26:23 PM PST by Kellis91789 (The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools.)
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To: JTHomes

“But one thing that keeps me on the fence, if we’re talking false premises, I’d offer that just because you are born in a country, that is not an affirmative consent to be governed by whatever power claims control over a geography.”

It isn’t simply geography. It is the legal framework to protect contracts and property, access to modern conveniences, etc.

Thousands of people every year disappear to Caribbean and Central American countries as ex-pats. They stop paying taxes and it isn’t worth the effort for the IRS to track them down. They live cheaply, lack modern conveniences, and take their chances with other legal systems and property rights. By choosing to stay, consent to be billed for basic services is obtained. This is not true of the really wealthy, as the IRS will indeed hunt them down. Those people who are a net cost are free to leave, as indicated by IRS inaction.


195 posted on 02/24/2012 7:40:41 PM PST by Kellis91789 (The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools.)
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To: Kellis91789
Ah, that distinction clarifies your position for me. I agree that taxes that go to support anything but protection of property and person amounts to plunder (other infrastructure that benefits all could be argued I suppose). I wouldn't advocate ever direct payments/credits for dependents. I also believe however that a society must perpetuate itself, not just for survival at the societal level, but to allow for division of labor and increased productivity that benefits all individuals. It is the next generation that will provide that protection to the individual. All I'm really advocating is a basic exemption from tax that applies to each individual. I see how that could be interpreted as a subsidy for a family with children, but I just look at it as fair treatment to each individual. And lack of such an exemption I would interpret as a discouragement to creating the next generation, or supporting the prior one for that matter.

This has been an interesting discussion, one kept at a civil level, which often is lacking on threads that get down to elemental positions as this has. While we get down to differences in the end, I doubt tax and social policy will ever bend enough in our direction as to make those differences come into play. If it ever does, I look forward to the prosperity and restored liberty we'll enjoy in spite of those differences.

196 posted on 02/27/2012 8:09:15 AM PST by JTHomes (Free markets now!)
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