This just gets funnier and funnier.
John Galt and I were just talking about this possibility last night over some Cuban cigars.
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Posted on 05/27/2009 5:38:44 AM PDT by GreaterSwiss
With budget deficits soaring and President Obama pushing a trillion-dollar-plus expansion of health coverage, some Washington policymakers are taking a fresh look at a money-making idea long considered politically taboo: a national sales tax.
Common around the world, including in Europe, such a tax -- called a value-added tax, or VAT -- has not been seriously considered in the United States. But advocates say few other options can generate the kind of money the nation will need to avert fiscal calamity.
At a White House conference earlier this year on the government's budget problems, a roomful of tax experts pleaded with Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner to consider a VAT. A recent flurry of books and papers on the subject is attracting genuine, if furtive, interest in Congress. And last month, after wrestling with the White House over the massive deficits projected under Obama's policies, the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee declared that a VAT should be part of the debate.
"There is a growing awareness of the need for fundamental tax reform," Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) said in an interview. "I think a VAT and a high-end income tax have got to be on the table."
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
a VAt is not a sales tax, its a hidden tax imposed at every stage of production
This was part of the Republican alternative to the Obama Budget. It seemd that the media has done its job in not allowing alternatives to the One’s plans. This would allow people who want to continue wiith the present system to do so, they can fill out a 1040 form and all its scedules and multi-parts to take advantage of the meriad deductions available. Those who wanted to could voluntarily go wih the two tiered tax paying 10% on all income up to 100K and 25% on all income after 100k with the only deductions being $12,500 per member of the household example # 2 family of four teache3r making 55K Stock broker making 120K gross $175k deductions $50k taxable income $125k...10% on 1st 100K = 10K + 25% on 25K = $6,250 = total tax of $16,250. this can be filled out on 1 sheet of paper and the worries of tax preparation is no more.
On paper I would even support a VAT/Flat Tax combo of say 15% on Goods and Services and 15% on income over $250,000 a year.
But that could never work. That “flat tax” would quickly morph into numerous brackets in the name of “progressivity”. And with nearly everyone exempt from the income tax, there would be no constituency large enough to fight off ever rising income tax hikes.
Oh, well then, that's all we really need to know. In the words of algore, 'The debate's over.'
Highly visible, [a VAT] would increase the cost of just about everything, from a carton of eggs to a visit with a lawyer. It is also hugely regressive, falling heavily on the poor. But VAT advocates Marxists say those negatives could be offset by using the proceeds to pay for health care for every American -- a tangible benefit that would be highly valuable to low-income families.
They'll need the health care they speak of because of starvation unable to buy food as a consequence of an implemented VAT.
gdamn insanity.
Yes, let’s be Europe
“The Italian economy is also affected by a large underground economy—worth some 27% of Italy’s GDP. This production is not subject, of course, to taxation and thus remains a source of lost revenue to the local and central government.”
http://globaledge.msu.edu/countryInsights/economy.asp?countryID=59®ionID=2
“A different source of data on underground economy in Italy is the Ministry of Finance, which has recently estimated a yearly time series of the non-reported Value Added Tax base (Marigliani and Pisani, 2006). This issue is crucial, since evading VAT means underreporting production, labor activities and revenues. Hence, this time series estimate for the period 1980-2003 can be used as a proxy for the size of underground production. With regard to underground employment, ISTAT provides a yearly time series covering the period 1980-2004 for the country as whole. The ISTAT method of estimating the size of underground employment (labor input method) is well described in OECD (2002). It is worth stressing a statistical feature of the data analyzed. The available time series estimate of the irregular labor input deals with full time equivalent workers: the data include both the numberof underground working positions and irregular worked hours.”
Why is it news what his BROTHER thinks
Go ahead, MAKE MY DAY !
Pass that Tax, and kiss your Congressional jobs Goodye next election. Cut government Agencies......start with the EPA....Fire the big spenders and repeal the spending.
Trial balloon. The DNC's mouthpiece at the comPost wouldn't have published this piece unless their lord and savior 0bama's minions told them to.
I know a way.
People are already beginning to do it for themselves. It's called T.E.A. July 4th.
National sales tax or income tax. I REFUSE to pay both! REFUSE!
Boy we had those Democrats wrong. I thought they were Tax and spend.
Instead, they are SPEND, SPEND, SPEND and TAX party.
Egads, I hadn't heard that. I'm self-employed, so I pay all my "payroll taxes." Maybe we should just give 100% of our income for the government and wait for them to give us sandwiches on the breadline.
This just gets funnier and funnier.
John Galt and I were just talking about this possibility last night over some Cuban cigars.
You are joking, aren't you???
You get what you vote for. The Sheepeople who were seduced by the promise that the government would provide for their every need are now being forced to confront the cold hard reality, that there is not enough “rich people’s money” to go around.
Sure, the producers are about to be taxed twice, but at least, the moochers will finally get taxed once.
They belong to the machine, to the institution. They will continue to operate as designed until replaced with a different machine. Understanding doesn't have much to do with it. You can't drive down an unpaved mountain road with a Ferrari and you can't race a Jeep at La Mans.
Your class envy is showing.
The ‘next step’ is going on under your nose.
They are seeking to pass the ‘Uniform Child Abduction Prevention Act’ in all 50 states.
Mississippi fell yesterday.
How is this related?
This law allows them to sit back and have us put the chains on ourselves.
Much of the population is divorced.
Under this law, one parent can accuse the other parent of being a ‘risk’ to commit a felony (child abduction).
Without that other parent having commited any illegal act, the courts can then impose penalties.
Before that person can ‘travel’ to a new state, they will be required to register their ‘order’ in that new state.
With todays voracious divorce lawyers, it will not take long before all of the nation is entangled in restrictive orders preventing and inhibiting their travel.
Under that law, YOU are a risk of abducting your child if you meet any ONE of the following conditions:
1) you obtain your child’s medical records.
2) you obtain your child’s birth certificate.
3) you obtain your child’s school records.
4) you sell a house.
5) you quit a job.
6) you terminate a lease (house, car, other).
7) you close a bank account.
8) you book plan tickets to another state for yourself.
9) you make hotel reservations in another state for yourself.
10) you have a sister who lives in another state.
11) you have an aunt or uncle who lives in another state.
12) you have ‘strong cultural ties’ to another state.
12) you have ‘strong emotional ties’ to another state.
13) you have ‘strong financial ties’ to another state.
14) you don’t have ‘strong cultural ties’ to your state.
15) you don’t have ‘strong emotional ties’ to your state.
16) you don’t have ‘strong financial ties’ to your state.
So the big question I have, is why can’t I get anybody else to talk about this issue?
Why can’t I get anyone else to publish this issue?
Why the silence?
With just a little effort, this bill does not pass.
Got it modified in Louisiana.
Got it stopped in Texas a few years back.
Probably also in Michigan.
Got the New Jersey commission to not recommend it.
And yet here it is, two years later, and Mississippi just ‘unanimously’ passed this piece of trash of a law without looking at it.
And New Hampshire is also close to falling.
Just ONE (redacted) major conservative group raising a stink about this law would have stopped it dead in its tracks.
But no, the only stupid person speaking up is me.
What is up with that?
Where are all the other (redacted) conservatives?
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