Posted on 10/15/2010 6:17:09 PM PDT by Bigtigermike
Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels opened the door Thursday to supporting both a value added tax and a tariff on imported oil, bold proposals that could cause trouble for him with conservatives as he flirts with a long-shot bid for the presidency.
The Republican, staying mum about his 2012 plans, was the guest of honor at a dinner sponsored by the conservative Hudson Institute. He received an award named for Herman Kahn, the legendary nuclear theorist who founded the respected institute 49 years ago and helped inspire the character Dr. Strangelove in the movie by the same name.
Daniels recited from Kahns book: It would be most useful to redesign the tax system to discourage consumption and encourage savings and investment. One obvious possibility is a value added tax and flat income tax, with the only exception being a lower standard deduction.
Daniels also suggested support for increasing gasoline taxes. Kahn wrote, in a passage Daniels read from Thursday, One fully justifiable tax would be on imported oil. Any large importation of oil by the U.S. raises security problems. There are, in effect, external costs associated with importing oil that a tariff would internalize.
Now, maybe that transgresses some philosophical viewpoint of yours, Daniels told the well-heeled crowd of 250. But to me, thats an interesting point today, just as valid as the day he wrote it.
Now, none of us is Hermans equal. But we are all his heirs, if we choose to be, he added.
These comments come on the heels of a September profile in Newsweek, in which Daniels said tax increases might be necessary to tackle the federal deficit. At some stage, there could well be a tax increase, Daniels told the magazine. They say we cant have grown-up conversations. I think we can.
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...
My man Mitch has a well documented history of raising taxes to pay for expanding government, I wish that whomever keeps pushing this guy as presidential material would stop it.
I would accept a VAT if the income tax was eliminated. Of course if he was the steward of a VAT in addition to the income tax and state taxation he should be tarred and feathered in the commons. We have no time left for taxation.
Mitch, just go sit in the corner and shut up.
Paul Ryan is a Washingtonian....nice enough fellow, good on the numbers but a career politician. He’ll stick with anyone but Palin. That’s just the way it is with those people.
This is why the left likes these goof balls like Mitch Daniels, Bobby Jindal and Tim Pawlenty. They’re not opposed to big government. They just approach it from a different direction.
Mitch Daniels just shit in his own hat. He is done.
Bring in the next RINO for his filleting.
Any form of taxation is unconstitutional.
I suggested this to my Congressional delegation as a revenue neutral alternative to an increase in the Federal Gasoline tax--in 1986.
Had we done so then, when the oil industry was practically at a standstill, we'd have created domestic jobs, increased our domestic production and infrastructure and sent billions less to our enemies overseas.
I further proposed a phase out of the tariff as the price went up.
Unfortunately, the biggest problem with doing so today is that it would not spur more exploration and production nearly as much as the government re-opening the lease areas it has closed and putting the EPA on a short leash so it isn't preoccupied with shutting this country down with additional moving-target 'standards'.
Actually, the tariff is Constitutional. It is the “income” tax which only got in with the stuffing of the 16th Amendment up America’s keester.
This is true. Expect a "clarification" of his statement any time now.
I once tried to come up with an idea for a government in a sci-fi story that was funded only by making and collecting loans. Lifetime debt payments for its citizens was their only revenue.
lol
Tell the jackass to be honest and re register in the Communist Party!
“If he really supports a VAT, then he’s toast with conservatives.”
I agree. I will never even consider supporting someone who wants a VAT. The VAT is the worst post tax scheme. It is a vast money maker with little visibility and accountability. The rats would go wild with a VAT.
Lower taxes and fire 2/3 of all government workers and lower the pay of the remaining ones!
I lived for a time in England, and had to endure the robbery of their VAT. This was late 80's, early 90's. At the time, I calculated that it was costing me about 1/3 more to live in England, than it cost me to live in SoCal! The VAT was a huge part of that.
Any US politician that supports that kind of tax here, is going to be run out of town on a rail.
Point taken, but instituting the VAT tax will just be an excuse for the government to spend trillions and trillions more. The solution to the long term problem we’re faced with today is not creating another tax that punishes the people and encourages the government to spend more.
Thank goodness Daniels stepped in it. It was getting tiring to have to keep attacking him for selling off his highway to a (foreign-owned) company infamous for charging the crap out of people, once they get an air-head governor to sign a lease with a non-compete clause.
“What else would you expect from a Liberal Globalist who sold the Indiana Tollway to a foreign company.”
I’M NOT ALONE ANYMORE. I guess I’m the second person on this site that has a problem with selling off highways just to get heroin-shot of money and then claiming he “balanced the budget”...while the drivers ROT IN HELL for rest of our lifetimes.
Thus ends -- or should end -- the Great Mitch Daniels Boomlet.
Politically, he is now (or should be) dead meat.
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