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Ted Cruz gets specific on 'abolishing the IRS'
Washington Examiner ^ | DAVID M. DRUCKER

Posted on 04/27/2015 12:43:46 PM PDT by SoConPubbie

LAS VEGAS — Sen. Ted Cruz has been gunning to abolish the Internal Revenue Service since coming to Washington two years ago.

To critics of the Texas Republican in Democratic and GOP circles, it sounds like bluster. The fiery rhetoric garners hearty applause from conservative audiences, particularly since revelations in 2013 that the IRS targeted Tea Party groups for extra scrutiny. But some federal agency is going to have to collect taxes, so Cruz's vow to shutter the IRS smacks of a politically motivated campaign promise rather than serious policy — at least to some.

In an interview with the Washington Examiner on Friday, the 2016 presidential candidate began to put some meat on the bones. Cruz, 44, explained how "abolishing the IRS" fits into his proposal, still being crafted by his team of economic advisors, for wholesale tax reform. This proposal, which Cruz plans to unveil later this year, is a key plank in his domestic agenda for economic growth that he would pursue as president.

"When it comes to jobs and growth and opportunity, the two most effective levers that the federal government has to facilitate small businesses creating new jobs, are tax reform and regulatory reform," Cruz said late last week, during a 20-minute discussion while on a brief swing through Las Vegas. "I am campaigning on a flat tax that would allow every American to fill out his or her taxes on a post card that allow us to abolish the IRS."

Cruz said he envisions shifting the tracking and collection of federal taxes to "some much smaller division" of the Treasury Department. The senator said that replacing the current, complex tax code with a simple flat tax would eliminate most of the work the IRS needs to do, making the agency obsolete and "irrelevant."

In its purest form, a "flat tax" treats all taxpayers equally. Income is taxed at the same rate regardless of earnings or wealth, while allowing for no tax deductions or exemptions. But Cruz said his flat tax proposal might allow some deductions, possibly for popular write-offs like for charitable donations and mortgage interest charged on a primary residence, paid annually by homeowners.

"We will roll it out with precise details in the coming weeks or months," he said. "There are trade-offs to be had and we're right now internally having those debates, in terms of whether you have a couple of deductions or exemptions or not, at what rate the flat rate is set, what level of standard deductions and so those trade-offs we're currently debating."

Cruz said the theme of his campaign rests on restoring Americans' optimism for the future, as defined by three elements: "No. 1, bringing back jobs and growth and opportunity; No. 2., defending our constitutional liberties and No. 3, restoring America's leadership in the world."

The Texan emphasized that regulatory reform was just as important as tax reform in satisfying his top goal of igniting the economy and fueling job growth. Unlike his plans for tax reform, which would presumably require congressional sign-off, Cruz said he could pursue a significant amount of regulatory reform through his executive authority, and that he would do so aggressively during his first 100 days as president.

Cruz said that Washington has implemented reams of regulatory rules that executive branch bureaucrats wrote on their own, outside of the legislative process and without the approval of Congress. Accordingly, the senator, who has at times criticized President Obama for overstepping his executive authority, said that he would use his executive authority to roll many of these regulations back.

"One major area of unilateral steps concerns regulatory reform, the second half of job growth," Cruz said, explaining his views on where it's appropriate for a president to govern by executive action.

"There are a great many things that can be implemented unilaterally in the executive," he said. "The president, under Article II of Constitution, is charged with executing the laws. Many of the most burdensome rules coming from Washington come from the executive branch from unaccountable, unelected bureaucrats and if I'm elected president, one of the very top priorities is going to be to rein back those regulations, those executive orders, those rules from Washington that are burdening small businesses and killing jobs."


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Front Page News; Government; News/Current Events; US: Texas
KEYWORDS: 2016election; cruz; duplicate; election2016; searchworks; tedcruz; texas
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"If we must have an enemy at the head of Government, let it be one whom we can oppose, and for whom we are not responsible, who will not involve our party in the disgrace of his foolish and bad measures." - Alexander Hamilton
 
"We don't intend to turn the Republican Party over to the traitors in the battle just ended. We will have no more of those candidates who are pledged to the same goals as our opposition and who seek our support. Turning the Party over to the so-called moderates wouldn’t make any sense at all." -- President Ronald Reagan
 
"A thing moderately good is not so good as it ought to be. Moderation in temper is always a virtue; but moderation in principle is always a vice." - Thomas Paine 1792
 
"It does not take a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men." - Samuel Adams
 
"If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or your arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen." - Samuel Adams
 

1 posted on 04/27/2015 12:43:46 PM PDT by SoConPubbie
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To: SoConPubbie; Kale; Jarhead9297; COUNTrecount; notaliberal; DoughtyOne; MountainDad; aposiopetic; ...
    Ted Cruz Ping!

    If you want on/off this ping list, please let me know.
    Please beware, this is a high-volume ping list!

    CRUZ or LOSE!

2 posted on 04/27/2015 12:44:17 PM PDT by SoConPubbie (Mitt and Obama: They're the same poison, just a different potency)
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To: SoConPubbie

Rothschild had his mafia thugs kill the last president that tried that.


3 posted on 04/27/2015 12:46:27 PM PDT by drypowder
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To: SoConPubbie

Close the ‘loophole’ that allows the regulatory agencies to bypass congress!


4 posted on 04/27/2015 12:47:45 PM PDT by Jim Robinson (Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God!!)
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To: SoConPubbie

This election is literally Ted Cruz against the world.

The most corrupt evil centers of power on earth have their hands in America’s pockets now.

Cruz!


5 posted on 04/27/2015 12:48:45 PM PDT by Eddie01 (Liberals lie about everything all the time.)
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To: Jim Robinson
Close the ‘loophole’ that allows the regulatory agencies to bypass congress!

Amen to that Jim!
6 posted on 04/27/2015 12:49:37 PM PDT by SoConPubbie (Mitt and Obama: They're the same poison, just a different potency)
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To: SoConPubbie

I can shoot all kinds of holes in the Flat Tax arguments.

But this is Ted Cruz, and I’ll take him along with his flat tax over anything else.

But ....

He will catch a whiff of HR 25 for sure.

In fact, has has already said he supports HR 25.


7 posted on 04/27/2015 12:51:17 PM PDT by Hostage (ARTICLE V)
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To: SoConPubbie
But some federal agency is going to have to collect taxes

True. Customs collects duties. But other then that, all we need is a couple of guys in an office who send 50 bills out: Let the States collect their dues for keeping the FedGov operating, and send them in annually.

Other then that, no need for a giant bureaucracy.

That's what the Founders planned. They had it right.

8 posted on 04/27/2015 12:55:44 PM PDT by Regulator
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To: SoConPubbie

I would prefer a national retail sales tax
(not necessarily the “fairtax” and it’s complicated “prebates”).

But a flat tax would just be an adjustment to the existing tax code,
and could be implemented by an act of congress, whereas
a national retail sales tax would require a constitutional amendment.


9 posted on 04/27/2015 12:58:47 PM PDT by Repeal The 17th ("We The People" have met the enemy; and he is "We The People".)
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To: drypowder

“Rothschild had his mafia thugs kill the last president that tried that.”

Hmmm.... I don’t know why but something about a goose popped into my head when you stated the above.


10 posted on 04/27/2015 1:01:29 PM PDT by A Voice (Few men desire liberty; most men wish only for a just master. -- Sallust)
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To: Regulator

That would be great. As sovereign entities, the states could then decide on a year-by-year basis how much they should send in and how much they would withhold. Some states will simply decide they can use the money better back at home.


11 posted on 04/27/2015 1:01:38 PM PDT by GodAndCountryFirst
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To: SoConPubbie

I do believe he would do that, and I don’t say that about any politician. The democrats will present this as stealing from the poor and giving to the rich. Hopefully Cruz team will come up with a simple one liner to get low info voters on board.


12 posted on 04/27/2015 1:02:22 PM PDT by Rusty0604
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To: Hostage

What is HR 25?


13 posted on 04/27/2015 1:03:25 PM PDT by Rusty0604
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To: Repeal The 17th

The NRST is the way to go, morally, because it taxes consumption and not production.

The prebates aren’t that hard to understand, it’s just exempting the first X amount spent as assuming that this spending is what a poverty level person would by just to exist.

And the great thing about that is that the ‘rats can’t use the prebate system to exempt their constituents from taxes.


14 posted on 04/27/2015 1:04:14 PM PDT by MrB (The difference between a Humanist and a Satanist - the latter admits whom he's working for)
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To: Jim Robinson

You think lobbying is bad now? You think the prostitutes in congress are bad now? Wait til the EPA, DHS and DoE have to come to congress for funds. They’ll make the other lobbyists look like pikers.


15 posted on 04/27/2015 1:06:04 PM PDT by Personal Responsibility (Changing the name of a thing doesn't change the thing. A liberal by any other name...)
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To: Repeal The 17th

The problem with shifting from taxing income to taxing consumption is that it isn’t fair to people who have already been taxed on income.


16 posted on 04/27/2015 1:06:41 PM PDT by Darth Reardon (Is it any wonder I'm not the president?)
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To: SoConPubbie
I think in the end, Cruz sees the income tax code as an undecipherable circa 75,000 page mess that is rife with political corruption and costs Americans a shocking US$1 TRILLION per year in compliance and economic opportunity costs--small wonder why the recovery from the 2008 stock market crash is mostly limited to the technology and financial sectors (and only to a somewhat lesser extent the biotech sector).

We need a complete rethink of national taxation to create a true, broad-based economic growth for the future. That will require first going to the flat tax plan Steve Forbes proposed in 1996, then put into place the structure to finally phase out the income tax within 3-4 years afterward (including repealing the 16th Amendment) and replacing it with something like FairTax (Cruz has expressed interest in FairTax recently).

Imagine US$900+ billion per year freed up for economic activities and not more taxes on the process of earning money. The result would be an economic boom on a scale that would far surpass the economic boom of the 1980's.

17 posted on 04/27/2015 1:19:13 PM PDT by RayChuang88 (FairTax: America's economic cure)
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To: Rusty0604

One could go back to the original 1913 version where only the top quadrant of income earners even had to file a payment. Roughly half aren’t paying anything now.


18 posted on 04/27/2015 1:19:22 PM PDT by Vigilanteman (Obama: Fake black man. Fake Messiah. Fake American. How many fakes can you fit in one Zer0?)
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To: SoConPubbie

“In its purest form, a “flat tax” treats all taxpayers equally. Income is taxed at the same rate regardless of earnings or wealth, while allowing for no tax deductions or exemptions. But Cruz said his flat tax proposal might allow some deductions, possibly for popular write-offs like for charitable donations and mortgage interest charged on a primary residence, paid annually by homeowners.”

When you allow even one carve out, here come the special interest lobbyists. Better to bite the bullet and say no exceptions. That let’s you get the standard tax rate to the lowest possible level for everyone, while playing no favorites.


19 posted on 04/27/2015 1:23:51 PM PDT by SharpRightTurn (White, black, and red all over--America's affirmative action, metrosexual president.)
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To: Rusty0604

I’ll give you an example. HR 25 is to the US Income Tax Code what Year 2016 100 Gigabyte Ultra Burst Wimax is to 1988 100 baud dialup.

https://www.congress.gov/114/bills/hr25/BILLS-114hr25ih.pdf


20 posted on 04/27/2015 1:38:47 PM PDT by Hostage (ARTICLE V)
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