1. It doesn’t matter whether his economic policy makes sense. Trump is our guy.
2. If you want a coherent, pro-growth tax plan, look to Ted Cruz (or even Rand Paul).
Cruz proposes to eliminate (1) the federal personal income tax, including tips and capital gains, (2) the corporate income tax, and (3) social security taxes, both employer and employee, and replace them all with ... a value-added tax.
Furthermore, this VAT would act as a border tax for countries that tax our goods via their VAT.
So, the Cruz plan delivers on Trump’s promises. I wonder if Trump, with his genius for communicating to middle class voters, has the Cruz plan in mind.
I myself wonder whether a VAT at a “reasonable rate” could actually do the job, and think a personal tax that kicks in at a multiple amount of national median income might be needed to generate the revenue needed to balance the budget (even after making huge cuts in spending).
As far as most people would be concerned, they’d be free of tax, including free of tax on tips and on social security benefits. Free of the paperwork as well as the tax itself. They’d get 100 percent of their earnings, including tips and social security. This would maximize their incentive to work and save for retirement (or any other purpose).
For those at the top, their personal income tax rate would still be cut, just not to zero.
For everybody, we’d have to pay VAT. For many people in the middle, they’d essentially break even. But even people who break even will benefit from the reduction of paperwork and strong economic growth.
And, for people at the bottom, there’d be huge incentive to move from dependency on government programs to independence. While each of us is rightfully concerned about how we’re being effected by economic policies, including the burden of taxes, the availability of good jobs, the rate of inflation and interest rates, I think that, deep down, we know that providing opportunities to our fellow Americans at the bottom has to be a part of making America great again.
Sorry it does make sense.
The FairTax model works.
“and replace them all with ... a value-added tax.”
NO! A VAT will start small and then, just like the income tax, get larger and larger and larger.
Go back to tariffs like the Founders intended.
L
The perverse inverted pyramid of taxation (fed, state, and local) needs to be toppled.
All essential services are provided at the local and state level, and the percentages of taxes paid for each level of service should reflect the degree of importance of the service to our daily lives, local tax highest, state tax amount lower than that, and fed taxes lowest of all.
If we are going to allow all citizens to vote then ALL citizens need to pay fed income taxes, regardless of income.
Make it a flat tax and let the lower 50% decide how much they are willing to pay to fund the federal govt. This constitutes equal treatment under the law.
I say set the fed tax level at 3%. I am very confident the lower 50% will not vote to make it any higher because to do so is to will hurt themselves more than the successful members of society that they are so willing to punish and steal from.
It also means that the size of fed govt will quickly collapse to its rightful size, which is minimal.