Posted on 02/08/2016 7:00:17 PM PST by kiryandil
**snip**
...Ted Cruz has endorsed policies that would fundamentally change who pays the federal government’s bills, and how.
Expect the establishment wing of the Republican Party to increasingly draw attention to this fact, especially when it comes to his tax policy. While on the one hand Cruz’s plan hews to Republican orthodoxy in its large tax cuts for the wealthy, he also embraces a European-style Value Added Tax, which is a lot like a sales tax, as replacement for all payroll taxes, and which would enable the elimination of all income tax outside a 10% flat tax for all earners...
**snip**
...The downside to this is that his plan is both very regressive - shifting the burden of paying for the federal government onto the middle and lower classes during a time when only wealthy Americans are seeing economic gains - and that it places particular pressure on older Americans living off of social security.
As my colleague Shawn Tully points out, the Cruz plan would increase the price of the things we buy everyday by a lot. Cruz would argue that this would be more than offset by his tax plan’s increase in take-home pay. But what about people who no longer earn wages, like retired folks living off social security? They worked their whole life paying income taxes, and if Cruz’s plan is enacted, will have the rules of the game change on them when they can afford it least. Their entitlement payments won’t go up, but the price of everything they buy will.
Since older Americans vote in greater numbers than any other demographic group, and senior citizens are now one of the Republican Party’s most reliable voting blocks, expect Republican hopefuls to increasingly attack Cruz on this point in New Hampshire this week and beyond.
(Excerpt) Read more at fortune.com ...
OMG!!!!
We dont have a tax COLLECTION problem, we have a SPENDING problem. As long as we focus on collection and not the issue of spending, we are only rearranging deck chair.
______________________________________________________________
This is absolutely correct. In addition to Cruz’s tax plan he is also looking to eliminate the following departments, from his website:
I. FIVE FOR FREEDOM
Abolish the IRS, the Department of Education, the Department of Energy, the Department of Commerce, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. A Cruz Administration will appoint heads of each of those agencies whose sole charge will be to wind them down and determine whether any programs need to be preserved.
Internal Revenue Services â end the political targeting, simplify the tax code, and abolish the IRS as we know it.
Department of Education â return education to those who know our students best: parents, teachers, local communities, and states. And block-grant education funding to the states.
Department of Energy â cut off the Washington Cartel, stop picking winners and losers, and unleash the energy renaissance.
Department of Commerce â close the âcongressional cookie jarâ and promote free-enterprise and free trade for every business.
Department of Housing and Urban Development â offer real solutions to lift people out of hardship, rather than trapping families in a cycle of poverty, and empower Americans by promoting the dignity of work and reforming programs such as Section 8 housing.
II. TWENTY-FIVE FEDERAL âABCsâ
Empower the people by reducing the alphabet soup of Agencies, Bureaus, Commissions, and other programs that prop up special interests, at the taxpayerâs expense. A Cruz Administration will identify all unnecessary programs â these 25 are merely a start:
Eliminate the following Agencies, Bureaus, Commissions, and programs:
Appalachian Regional Commission
Climate Ready Water Utilities Initiative
Climate Research Funding for the Office of Research and Development
Climate Resilience Evaluation Awareness Tool
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
Corporation for Public Broadcasting
Corporation for Travel Promotion
Global Methane Initiative
Green Infrastructure Program
Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program
Legal Services Corporation
National Endowment for the Arts
National Endowment for the Humanities
New Starts Transit Program
Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery Fund
Presidential Election Campaign Fund
Regulation of CO2 Emissions from Power Plants and all Sources
Regulation of Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Vehicles
Renewable Fuel Standard Federal Mandates
Saint Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation
Sugar Subsidies
Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery
UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
UN Population Fund
USDA Catfish Inspection Program
This is a good start.
His bad.
Cruz’s tax plan is the plan of a person who has never owned a small business. It will not lead to job creation. Its a loser. The guy is a lawyer/politician who has no clue about taxes or business. He’s a prosecutor.
Trump’s plan is much more business friendly.
The Angelic Tax Accountants sitting next yo the Heave/y gate a laughing.
Why are you so vehemently agin a VAT, Paladin?
America can either hike taxes, run deficits, or make government smaller. Most Americans want larger government. They want larger government for welfare. They want larger government for warfare. Taxes are the only honest way to pay for larger government.
This is “Breaking News”?? Not.
O’Reilly tonight said to look for national media to attack and destroy every single Republican candidate before it’s over. They want Hillary.
Why are they allowed full and unfettered access to our banking records? Tax transactions only and return privacy to personal finances.
It’s not a simple thing to administer (lots of gov’t tracking) and I already paid income tax on assets yet to be spent.
That’s why I back a tax plan that kills all of us equally. :)
Bullsht, and this is not “breaking news”.
I use cash as much as possible.
You raise a good point. In addition to the impact of VAT affecting retired seniors, I'm interested in learning what Cruz' plan is to fund the employer's-share of payroll taxes.
This is where I stopped reading. 'Tax the wealthy' is a BS term that liberals use. There is no tax on existing wealth. It is the creation of wealth that is taxed.
It is amazing how often Trump supporters pull out the DNC talking points to slam Cruz.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.