Posted on 08/01/2004 6:08:53 PM PDT by NeoCaveman
A domestic centerpiece of the Bush/GOP agenda for a second Bush term is getting rid of the Internal Revenue Service, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned.
The Speaker of the House will push for replacing the nation's current tax system with a national sales tax or a value added tax, Hill sources tell DRUDGE.
"People ask me if I’m really calling for the elimination of the IRS, and I say I think that’s a great thing to do for future generations of Americans," Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert explains in his new book, to be released on Wednesday.
"Pushing reform legislation will be difficult. Change of any sort seldom comes easy. But these changes are critical to our economic vitality and our economic security abroad," Hastert declares in SPEAKER: LESSONS FROM FORTY YEARS IN COACHING AND POLITICS.
"“If you own property, stock, or, say, one hundred acres of farmland and tax time is approaching, you don’t want to make a mistake, so you’re almost obliged to go to a certified public accountant, tax preparer, or tax attorney to help you file a correct return. That costs a lot of money. Now multiply the amount you have to pay by the total number of people who are in the same boat. You can’t. No one can because precise numbers don’t exist. But we can stipulate that we’re talking about a huge amount. Now consider that a flat tax, national sales tax, or VAT would not only eliminate the need to do this, it could also eliminate the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) itself and make the process of paying taxes much easier."
"By adopting a VAT, sales tax, or some other alternative, we could begin to change productivity. If you can do that, you can change gross national product and start growing the economy. You could double the economy over the next fifteen years. All of a sudden, the problem of what future generations owe in Social Security and Medicare won’t be so daunting anymore. The answer is to grow the economy, and the key to doing that is making sure we have a tax system that attracts capital and builds incentives to keep it here instead of forcing it out to other nations."
Unless he seriously, significantly, and meaningfully cuts spending, the beast will live on. It will only be funded by a flat tax or someother mechanism.
The flat tax, or VAT, or whatever, is another invisible - because it is so incremental - means of taxation. If you want to see people get outraged, eliminate the payroll deduction and have people write weekly checks for their tax payments.
I've said it before, and I'll say it again:
You cannot have a fiscally conservative tax policy and liberal social spending policies and balance the budget. Can't happen.
So your husband has been preaching that the National Sales Tax is the only option for years, but now that it could become a reality, he's against it and is going to vote for Kerry?
Did I read that right?
LOL. True.
I'd love to hear someone in DC say it in front of a microphone. Preferably the President himself.
You are so correct -- it also eliminates the hidding of income - the need for accounting records and accountants!!
They complain that it will bring forth a larger black market - but how can that be as bad as what we have now?
The Texas Republican party has a platform that does call for the elimination of the IRs !! Nice to see the folks in Washington are taking notice....This has been proposed for a long time by Congressman Norgood (?) but the dems will demogogue it to death and never let it come to fruition because it would alter their grand designs for economic social engineering!
Your point is well taken, but we outnumber the Bastards!
And, WE VOTE!
Drudge had this up during the Democratic primaries.
It was a headline that Bush was going to do a tax overhaul in this second term.
I remember that.
If Bush can get rid of Sadam, Osama, and the IRS he will have achieved the trifecta of destroying evil in the modern world
National sales tax good, VAT bad.
A VAT woulf allow the government to install stealth taxes that you will pay without a clue.
The real economic cost to the US economy FRom the income tax and the IRS is more like $1.00 for every dollar raised!
James L. Payne calculate the cost at $.65 per dollar raised in 1995, and the total cost of the income tax tyranny has gone up a great deal since then.
A flat tax does not eliminate the IRS or need for accounting...you still have to keep records, pay accountants, file forms etc. all an unnecessary drain on the economy (unless you are an accountant) - a National Sales tax makes the best sense - it gets rid of the underground economy - stops the need to file forms, keep records and tell the government under penalty of imprisonment how much income you make. Let's hope they can pull it off.
I never thought I'd see the day this was talked about by lawmakers. This is amazing!
I'm for a flat tax.
Furthermore, no amount of juggling of the tax system is going to solve the coming Social Security and Medicare crises like Hastert says they will. The problem is that as with all pyramid schemes, the robbee:robber ratio eventually reaches a level of unfeasability. Switching Tax Plan A for Tax Plan B amounts to removing the needle from one arm and inserting it in the other.
Holy Crap! Dubya's on board with the FairTax!
Tough sell, but doable.
We outnumber the Bastards, and WE VOTE!
THASS RIGHT!
VAT is also administratively complex, whereas existing accounting systems, already configured to handle state and local sales taxes could easily handle a national sales tax as well. Simple to collect, simple paperwork, simple everything.
This would be TOTALLY COOL! And, I'm a C.P.A.!! I've gotten just close enough to taxes several times during my career to know that the tax code is an abomination, an offense against man and God. ;)
The NRST is gonna happen!
You heard it here first!
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