200 people showed up "paid their own money to come to the convention"?. Where'd they hold it? The Elks Lodge...It wasn't too long ago the sales tax shills claimed they were 500,000 strong and growing, what happened?
If all those 200 that showed up were from Congress it wouldn't be enough people to pass the bill.
Do I like the heavy tax burden, we have today ? NO. Do I want to see it changed ? Yes, I do. I prefer a flat 10 % tax.
In short, Americans are getting taxed coming and going, say AFT officials, and most people aren't even aware how much of their income goes to government – local, state and federal.
Just to make sure that Freepers aren't "most people."
According to the Tax Foundation, in 2001 the tax burden on the average American was 23.6% of his or her income in federal taxes, plus 10.2% in state and local taxes - 33.8% total.
Unfortunately that is just the beginning, The burden of government in this nation is much more than the federal revenue collected each year.
Dr. James Payne of the University of California, Reason Magazine '94; found that in addition to direct taxes we also pay huge, hidden taxes including:
- Tax compliance costs: record keeping, reporting, filling out forms, and learning about tax regulations.
- Costs of tax enforcement: resources expended in responding to the tax authority. Each act of tax enforcement--each audit, each notice, each levy--entails a burden for the citizen subject to it.
- Tax disincentive costs: the loss of production because of the discouraging effect of taxes on investment and labor.
"When the overhead costs are added together, (24 percent compliance costs, 33 percent disincentive costs, and 8 percent other costs), they total 65 percent of tax revenue."
And even that figure doesn't include the cost of import duties, license fees and other government regulations. For a typical U.S. family, the real cost of taxes and regulations as a percent of gross income is at least:
Federal taxes 23.6%(taxfoundation)
State & local taxes 10.2%(taxfoundation)
Overhead costs 21.9%(James L. Payne)
Regulatory costs 13.0%(M.W. Hodges)
More than 68% of one's income is now consumed by government through tax collections, compliance costs & regulation.
The bottom line:
Rep. Bill Archer, Chairman, House Ways and Means Committee:
- "A recent survey was done, in Europe and Japan, of the major corporations and I was astounded at the results. They were asked, 'If the US abolished its income tax and went to a sales tax, would that have any impact on your decisions?' Eighty percent of the corporations said they would build their factories in the United States of America. Twenty percent said they would move their international headquarters to the United States of America."
If Congress wants patriotism, I suggest they start looking to change government policies that have drive Americans away to safer harbors instead of attempting to squeeze that turnip any more.
The next step from corporate expatriation is to move the entire manufacturing base to nations that can appreciate the value of commerce and jobs that it brings to the people.
That will be the likely result of all this Consumption Tax rhetoric. Congress will lure the voters with” Let’s pass the Consumption Tax now. We can then work to end the Income Tax.”
Terrible news. Michael Graetz is a Republican tax expert who is highly influential.