There is absolutely zero, zip, nada chance of either a flat tax or sales tax replacing federal income tax. The RINO party just trots out this old bromide every so often to fire up the base, like they used to do with term limits.
The RINOs are every bit as interested as the democrats in maintaining the essential element of the vote buying democracy we live in...the progressive income tax.
We've had 3 large income tax cuts in our history. early 20's, early 60's and early 80's. all 3 benefited both the economy and the federal coffers.
Since 1985 we've sustained several tax hikes. We've also sustained large new restrictions on industries that were manifestly of no advantage to the environment, but only destroyed jobs. We've seen private industry flee our country in part because of things like the 500 million dollar court-ordered cleanup that GE is doing in connecticut that isn't really going to clean anything up because it's clean already. There are countless other complaints by business that american law and policy discourate domestic business.
Remember how clinton made the deal with the indonesian and took the utah mine out of commission. If that mine were open now, there'd be less than 1000 or so acres devoted to the mine. It would've provided huge tax revenue to utah and to US, it would've provided effectively tens of thousands of high paying jobs between miners and suppliers. Bush could free this land. That would help us economically. we could export coal instead of import it.
Bush could also free the forests in the west, that would create jobs and be good for the environment.
The trade deals made under bush 1 and clinton have resulted in a huge loss in manufacturing. If we want low domestic taxes, we should consider modest tariffs on products from china.
some american economists have been saying that if you measure wealth by how much an average wage can buy in a basket of goods, then it seems that americans have been consistently losing wealth since 1965. When the supply side of the economic equation is taxed and regulated and restricted heavily and we wonder why real wealth declines. since the mid-60's we haven't gotten that unemployment rate down under 4.0%. But prior to mid-60's it happened so regularly for over a hundred years, except the 1930's, to get unemploymnet to 3%, 2% or even 1% at least three years out of every 10 years. Our new wealth strategy of taxing heavily, regulating too strongly, restricting unreasonably and spending like crazy inside of government are causing poverty slowly, not wealth.
It is milton friedman's 90's birthday in a few days. supply side economics means, let's put less burdens on production whether it be tax, unreasonable regulations or excessive government spending, so that we produce more in the productive private sector and thus be wealthier. our history and the histories of other nations indicate that this philosophy creates wealth. High taxes and government monopolies engender poverty.
Right, but this failure isn't even dependent on the motives of party politics as much as it is on simple math and logic.
The issue will never hit the floor unless you had a President running on it, and a candidate never will because it fractures the constituency. Like wall street, the less unknowns the better.
There is NO such thing as The RINO party. However there are some RINOs in the Republican party, just as there are some DINOs in the DemocRAT party