The real question should be, "Are liberals really that dumb?"
The available evidence currently points to YES!, according to statements of Rep. Frost(D-Texas) and other House Democratic Caucus members such as Gephardt,
refer: DATE CERTAIN TAX CODE REPLACEMENT ACT, House Congressional Record April 13, 2000 pages H2259-H2282; speaking of a memo regarding the Joint Tax Committee's assessment of the total Federal tax rate as a percentage of family consumption expenditures based on Clinton administration expectations for government growth in program funding)
Apparently the House Democratic Caucus hopes to be able raise total federal taxes across 10 years to 59.5% of family consumption expenditures. That indicates a whopping 37.3% of gross family income, more than 1.5 times the effective total federal tax rate born by the nation's familys in 1999 as estimated by CBO.
And the Bush administration is exceeding even that with new programs, new bureacracies, increasing foreign aide and deficit spending....so what's your point?
Mr. FROST. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 30 seconds.Mr. Speaker, the previous speaker was asking about simplicity and how do we understand all of this. Let me read a memo from the Joint Committee on Taxation . This ought to be simple enough for the gentleman to understand.
The memorandum is in response to their request for an estimate of the budget neutral tax rate for H.R. 2525. That is the bill of the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. LINDER), a bill to replace the current U.S. corporate and individual income, estate and gift and Federal income contributions act, payroll taxes, with a flat tax on retail sales of all goods and services.
Then on the second page it has a little chart here, neutral over 5 years, 59.5 percent. That is what they want to do, neutral over 5 years, national sales tax 59.5 percent. I believe the American people can understand that.