Posted on 12/01/2004 7:49:06 PM PST by FairOpinion
Not only has Bush made reforming Social Security - once considered politically suicidal - the first priority of his second term, he is also contemplating wholesale reform of the tax code. Add to that more tax cuts, an extension of the No Child Left Behind education reform, lawsuit reform, and a comprehensive energy plan. He also says he intends to halve the budget deficit in five years.
"Bush has the most aggressive second-term agenda" in modern history, says Dan Mitchell of the Heritage Foundation.
As a prelude to a tax-reform proposal, Bush has announced that he will appoint a commission to study the matter, with its members named by the end of the year. Some analysts see this as a classic delay tactic, and a sign that tax reform won't happen during Bush's second term. Others see a commission as a useful tool that can insulate the president on a difficult issue.
One possibility is that Bush is setting an agenda that could well outlast his time in office - a theory that fits in with political adviser Karl Rove's long-term goal of Republican political domination for the next generation.
(Excerpt) Read more at csmonitor.com ...
Bush has the chance and the will to push real reforms, and a more Republican Congress to help him.
Tax Reform PING
These are thing that NEED to happen. No more rhetoric. Let's get it done! To hell with the critics. This President is not a nonsense, frilly boy! He's GOT a pair!
A Taxreform bump for you all.
If you would like to be added to this ping list let me know.
John Linder in the House & Saxby Chambliss Senate, offer a comprehensive bill to kill all income and payroll taxes outright, and provide a IRS free replacement in the form of a retail sales tax:
H.R.25, S.1493
A bill to promote freedom, fairness, and economic opportunity by repealing the income tax and other taxes, abolishing the Internal Revenue Service, and enacting a national retail sales tax to be administered primarily by the States.Refer for additional information: http://www.fairtax.org, http://www.salestax.org & http://www.geocities.com/cmcofer/ftax.html
I will believe it when I see it.
The IRS grew into a monster - a KGB/Nazi type monster with dehumanized agents that terrorize people -
time for them to go.
For small business and self-employed, this will be the ten ton gorilla off their backs - They'll have more time and money for the business and hiring more people. Myself, on a fixed income - whatever extra I can scrape up with my writing and art, I have to pay 15.7% just on social security (no deductions on that - and no credit for it. Unless what you pay in is more than you paid in when working full time, they just take it, and you never get a cent of increase in your social sec. check. Believe me, I could use that 15.7% in my pocket.)
The people who don't want this - because they don't want to loose the control over people (remember Hill/Bill getting cartons and cartons of peoples tax information lugged over the WH - totally illegal, but nothing was done. They use this information for blackmail. They wont like loosing that weapon. Their argument is that The "Rich" wont be paying as much thru a straight sales tax.
I love the way the dems harp on "The Rich" paying "their fair share" - there's so many loop holes, they (I'm meaning millionaires. I use to chuckle, well, maybe sneer, when Kerry would talk about the "millionaires who make over $200,000. Wonder if ever went to his math classes>) Anyway,, real millionaires don't pay near what they should - nor what they will if they have to pay sales tax on their toys...that's why they'll scream and holler.
If this doesn't get put in while we have "W", it'll never happen...
We're to believe the President hasn't already examined the pros and cons of reforming the tax code? He may well put in place a new committee. It will not be to study the matter. It will be to strategize how to sell it to the American people, as well as firm up the details.
Lame duck tags will not stick to this President so long as he continues to produce coattails in elections. He has a track record of two elections of growth in House & Senate. This makes him a continued threat to Dems and Reps in '06 and '08.
The inability of the House and Senate to arrive at passage of a bill is not a reflection of the President's inability to exert his mandate. This President has not lobbied for passage of this bill. Prescription drugs, taxes and the WOT are all instances when he has leaned hard and won. So far, he's shown as much attention in passage of this bill as he did the AWB. That may change if it's deemed a political liability or distraction, for the moment the only ones lobbying for passage are the unelected 9-11 Commission and press. If Failures must be assigned, it should be assigned to those figures for their ineffectiveness (as of yet) to push this bill through with manufactured hysteria.
I have no problem with the debate. Obviously the Liberals do since they are pressing hard for it to cease.
TFTP
I trust you take good care of yourself... :)
Well, at the least my puppydog gets well take care of.
I believe the term for it is something like, spoiled rotten.
She just got a makeover and new winter overcoat in scottish plaid, and she is an insufferable showoff right now.
Figures she's got to go out every 10 minutes and show all the neighbors her new duds. LOL
Heheheheheeee...terrier? JRussell, Scottish, etc.?
Salt & Pepper mini Schnauzer.
My baby, Even has my bushy brows and grey beard, a perfect family resemblance. LOL
lol
Really appreciate you...
All of the above listed items on Bush agenda are highly
desirable, and overdue. I hope he can get the ball rolling
and soon.
Fundamental Tax Reform via the FairTax = SS Reform. Here's How:
1. The FairTax converts all payroll taxes (along with all other taxes) into a National Retail Sales Tax.
2. Contribute SS portion of NRST equally in every American's private retirement account
3. Provide partial matching funds for individuals up to a certain limit; a 10% matching contribution from the Gov't up to the amount already deposited equally in all accounts (ex: if the Gov't deposited $10,000 in every American's account, the Gov't should match contributions up to an additional $10,000)
4. Because of the matching funds, higher-income individuals would put in more money than lower income individuals
5. The resulting retirement accounts would directly reflect income levels of the contributors WITHOUT HAVING TO REPORT INDIVIDUAL INCOMES TO THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT!
A Commission of conservative free market economists, NOW!!!
Abacadabra,thus we learn The more you create,the less you earn.
The less you earn,the more you're given,the less you lead,the more you're driven,The more destroyed,the more they feed,The more you pay,the more they need,The more you earn,the less you keep,And now I lay me down to sleep.I pray
the Lord my soul to take,If the tax-collector hasn't got it before I wake.
-Ogden Nash
In the United States we have observed that there are
two Internal Revenue Codes -- one for Wall Street and one for Main Street. Wall Street can afford and often
needs the services of sophisticated tax lawyers. Main Street often can't and doesn't.-- Sheldon I. Banoff
The avoidance of taxes is the only intellectual pursuit that still carries any reward.
-- John Maynard Keynes
[I]n the area of taxation, it is often difficult to determine where business ends and the law begins . . . . -- Ellen Bree Burns
Our entire tax system is threatened by the existence of tax avoidance techniques that are only available to the wealthy in our society. -- Barbara Kennelly
AUTOMATED PAYMENT TRANSACTION (APT) TAX
Taxation technology for the 21st century
Dr. Edgar L. Feige, Professor Emeritus of Economics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the originator of the APT Tax concept, has just produced new estimates suggesting that a broad-based transaction tax as low as six tenths of one percent could replace the entire Federal and State 2005 budget revenue requirements of the United States of America.
The APT concept is elegant in its simplicity - potentially replacing the entire federal and state tax system - including income, corporate profits, excise and estate taxes - in favor of a tiny tax on all transactions. The tax would be automatically deducted from special taxpayer accounts, linked by software to all accounts at financial institutions capable of making final payments to the government seamlessly in real-time. The APT tax therefore eliminates the need for individuals and firms to file income and information tax returns. This is estimated to save citizens and the government roughly $200 billion per year in administration, enforcement, evasion and compliance costs, roughly seven times the amount currently being spent on homeland security.
The APT tax seeks to maximize the goals of both the government and the people - collecting necessary revenue with the lowest possible tax rate. The difference between the APT tax and our current income tax, as well as the proposed consumption taxes, is simplicity, progressivity, and breadth-the APT tax allows for significantly lower rates spread more equally throughout the world of economic activity. The APT is a transaction tax, and as such, taxes every single transaction that occurs in the economy including fund transfers between accounts and transactions involving the exchange of bonds, securities and foreign exchange. Because the wealthy conduct a disproportionate share of these financial transactions, the tax is highly progressive despite its flat rate. Progressivity is achieved through the skewness of tax base itself rather than through the progressive income tax rate structure of the current system. The very small tax is "sliced" off each side of every transaction as it moves electronically through banks and all other qualifying financial institutions. The tax collection is orderly and transparent, the rules are simple and universal and apolitical. The APT system eliminates the entire present tax code. No more exemptions, no more deductions, no more special interest loopholes and no more tax returns.
Feige's 2005 projections of total debits of $881 Tril., and total transactions of $832 Tril. (based on the most recent 2002 Bank for International Settlements data) update the figures he used in his original paper, published in Economic Policy in 2000. Taking the average of these two estimates ($856 Tril.), he conservatively assumes that the replacement of the current tax system with a revenue neutral APT tax will reduce total transactions by 50%. The projected potential APT tax base for 2005 would then be $428 Tril., permitting a revenue neutral flat tax of .57 percent on all transactions or .28 percent on each (buyer and seller) transactor to replace projected 2005 Federal and State tax revenues.
The tax rates required for a "revenue neutral" tax are divided into three phases which are the result of a suggested implementation plan that would gradually replace virtually all Federal and State taxes. The projected tax rates are calculated conservatively, assuming that only 50% of the potential 2005 APT tax base is available, since the volume of total transactions is expected to fall with the introduction of the APT tax. To the extent that transactions decline less than is assumed in the current calculations, an even lower tax rate would be able to raise the requisite revenues. As individuals and businesses use their new found economic freedom, transactions naturally grow over time, suggesting that future tax rates could be even lower.
Utilizing 50% of the projected APT tax base for 2005 of $856 Tril., that is, $428 Tril, the estimated tax rates required to raise the revenues projected for 2005 budgets are as follows:
Phase I (Eliminate all Federal taxes other than SS and Medicare)
Required revenue neutral target=$1.242 Tril:
Required tax rate = 0.29% per transaction or 0.15% per transactor.
Phase II (Eliminate all Federal taxes including Social Security and Medicare "payroll" taxes)
Required revenue neutral target = $2.036 Tril.
Required tax rate = 0.48 % per transaction or 0.24% per transactor.
Phase III (Eliminate all Federal taxes including Social Security and Medicare "payroll" taxes and all State personal income; corporate profits and sales taxes)
Required revenue neutral target = $2.436 Tril.
Required tax rate = 0.57% per transaction or 0.28% per transactor.
The estimates above are based on 2005 revenue and transaction projections. Implementing the three phases will require several years and careful government management, especially the third phase. However, Dr. Feige has built in a safeguard for the APT Tax by calculating the required tax rate based on only half of the transactions that are actually observed.
Examples: Assuming full implementation of Phase three:
1. $100 restaurant bill would have a tax to the customer estimated to be 28 cents and the restaurant would pay 28 cents.
2. $50,000 family income deposited and spent or moved to savings results in $100,000 of transactions paying a total tax of $280 distributed over all the individual transactions as they occurred through the year. These amounts would be doubled if businesses fully shifted their tax burden to the consumer, but nowhere near the $15,000 to $20,000 the family would pay under the current federal and state systems.
It is now important to begin the process of planning the economic, legal, technical and administrative requirements necessary for a smooth and transparent transition from the current tax system to an APT system. The proposed, new collection system will be tested by computer simulation to capture all potential errors and omissions (new job for the IRS). Then, it will take several years to rollout, especially Phase III involving central collection and distribution to the States. A national commitment to this revolutionary, fair, automatic and lowest cost tax system is needed NOW!
For more details, please visit www.apttax.com
William J Hermann, Jr. MD, Director APT Tax Project Contact: administrator@apttax.com , 713-932-3773
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.