Posted on 07/26/2013 7:40:02 AM PDT by TexasCajun
Tax reform is apparently so treacherous for senators these days that they require the utmost protection from the public -- half a century's worth.
The leaders of the Senate Finance Committee last month asked senators to submit written proposals detailing tax breaks they'd like to see preserved once the tax code is reformed and explain why. The point was to help inform committee leaders in their efforts to craft a tax reform bill.
The request apparently wasn't embraced, and the committee has now promised skittish senators that their proposals will be kept secret for 50 years.
A memo sent out on July 19 promised to mark all submissions "COMMITTEE CONFIDENTIAL. NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION. DO NOT COPY.
These materials may not be released to the public from the National Archives or by the Finance Committee prior to December 31, 2064."
(Excerpt) Read more at money.cnn.com ...
It would never fly in the real world and it shouldn't fly on Capital Hill.
I didn't say that; I said that 'support' is not necessarily indicative of 'good'.
As a real-life example consider the C-style languages; they are incredibly popular, yet suffer from easily avoidable pitfalls:
if (a = 1)this will always assign 1 to a, and then select the if-statement (because 1 is non-zero). This is really insidious and can cause even very experienced C/C++ programmers to spend hours hunting for the bug.
The FairTax is not going to get 100% following but it has a large and growing following of people that are not delusional and can see the myriad benefits and advantages of the FairTax.
Ok.
The FairTax is not complex, the Rebate is not complex. The legislation is only 133 pages long. It is amazingly simple in its design and it is by far the most fair and most supported tax reform in the nation today.
I said that it was too complex for what needed to be done: look at my proposal: less than a single page! How's that for amazingly simple?
The Flat tax has about 6 sponsors to the FairTaxs 55. Those sponsors have staffs and constituents with professional training in law, taxation and business. They are capable of understanding how important the FairTax is.
And I, for one, am not convinced. I believe it to be unnecessarily complex.
Why is that? Can't an amendment modify other amendments? If not, then explain how the 21st modified (by repealing) the 18th.
In short, your amendment looks like an amateurs exercise in making a list of rants look like some sort of edict.
Why thank you; I am an amateur when it comes to law. In fact, I suspect that I could not become a [successful] lawyer precisely because I am a constitutionalist and tend to argue from the Constitution. (Such things are, apparently, a no-no in today's case-law driven jurisprudence.)
Ill tell you what, get just 2 members of Congress to sponsor your amendment, and I will reconsider my judgement that your amendment is rubbish.
Ok; I just might send `em off.
Oh, wait, I forgot they're no-longer impacted by physical-mail.
How about calling them?
There's not significant evidence that their staff would forward the idea on.
So, how would you recommend getting their ear in the matter?
Or are you trying to foist the impossible task on me? (I suspect you already know how insulated congressmen are, especially to those not in their districts.)
Who are these cowardly bastards?
One of the other things that pisses me off about the sobs is that they hide behind their constituency by not allowing you to write them if you are not in their state or district under the guise that they “don’t represent all of us”.
Heck, they don’t even represent their constituents. They represent themselves.
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