Gore says tax pollution, not payrolls

Reuters ^ | 9/18/06 | Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss

[decal]

"On July 8, 1947, witnesses claim an alien spacecraft crashed outside Roswell, New Mexico.

March 31, 1948, nine months after that day, Al Gore was born."

Gotta admit, that answers a bunch of questions...

[DennisR]

I think we should tax the hot air that comes from Al Gore. That would solve a lot of problems and pay off the national debt by Friday.

[Teacher317]

So non-industrial and/or service corporations will pay no taxes? Interesting.

[Teacher317]

Wasn't it Gore whose first consequential vote as Veep (tie-breaking in the Senate) was to tax social security income?

[nopardons]

Yes.

[zbigreddogz]

Wow...the guy really needs to take a basic microeconomics course.

It'll tell him that there isn't really any difference between the two in the long run.

But don't let facts get in the way of the theory.

[zbigreddogz]

Unlikely.

What it WOULD do, however, is simply force management to either A. Fire workers, B. Cut sallaries, C. If B is impossible because of contracts, simply suspend the next pay raise/bonus. or D. Hire less workers.

Bottom line: Those 'payrolls' he wants to protect so badly still take the hit.

I'm not saying there isn't a time and place to tax pollutants, but pretending there is a difference between taxing the company and taxing the 'average' folks who work at the plant is just flat-out fantasy.

[Bob J]

"Under the Kyoto global warming treaty, 35 industrialized nations -- but not the United States -- have agreed to cut carbon dioxide emissions to below 1990 levels."

And none of them are even close to being on target for that goal, many have actually increased their output.

I wonder why he did';t mentin the other nations that have refused to sign Kyoto?

[sonic109]

yea, then in an effort to get more and more tax dollars the politicians will redefine pollution on a daily basis. They will tax everything from bad breath to loud music. Totally stupid idea. I do agree buying Mid east oil is suicidal . The enviormentialiststop us from drilling our own oil which could hold us over untill alternate fuels are perfected.

[sonic109]

Yea, then half the businesses in the US will mor eout of the country . The govt. will then start calling EVERYTHING pollution in an effort to get more money . It's an insane idea.

[sonic109]

$10 a gallon gas wouldn't be far off if this plan was in effect.

[ovrtaxt]

Preach on brotha !!!

[DH]

If Gore is proposing eliminating the income tax in favor of additional gas and/or oil taxes, then I'd say that is a tradeoff worth considering. The additional savings at the household level would more than compensate for the additional taxation at the pump, there would be strong incentives to become less oil dependent, and the administration of such a tax would be far less intrusive to individual liberties.

What world have you been living in?  Certainly, not the one that I have lived in for the past 60 years.  You know...the one where taxes never go down and if they seemed to...they simply morphed into some other named vehicle that is still a tax.

Now, with that in mind, who do you think would pay for the "Gore Tax?"  I bet you think that it would be those nasty old companies, don't you.  Well, guess what?  You're wrong...it's you and me, along with all others who consume the goods and services of America's industry.

Any time the tainted finger of government touches any industry or business, all market forces are destroyed and the business simply changes management from the private sector to the government sector.

Like paying more taxes and higher prices for everything you will purchase?  Keep thinking that way.

To keep free, WE MUST ELIMINATE ALL BUT THE MOST BASIC TAXES needed to perform the basic functions of our original constitution. 

[massadvj]

I am 53 years old. When I asked my father about politics when I was a teenager, he told me that the one constant in his lifetime was that government was bigger at the end of each presidency than it had been before. And that it had been the case through Republican and Democrat administrations. I can now say the same to my children.

If you think politicians will ever willingly relinquish revenue and power, you are more than misguided. You are delirious. You are chasing a quixotic pipe dream with no more chance of coming into being than waiting for monkeys to fly out your butt.

The political reality today is you may join one of three groups:

1. Losers, perverts and the opportunists who prey on perverts and losers;
2. Greedy hypocrites who claim to be for smaller government but actually use government as a vehicle to advance big business;
3. The ideologically pure but irrelevant.

You, sir, speak the language of the irrelevant. You may as well be masturbating in your bathroom for all the good your constitutionalist purity will do you.

[Young Scholar]

They're taxing labor right now--a tax which would be cut under this plan. At least in theory, it's possible for this tax to be less economically destructive than some current taxes.

[television is just wrong]

LOL, this coming from the biggest bag of hot air to exist on the planet??? algore....

what a joke he is.

Big bag of wind he should have to pay the largest tax ever...

[television is just wrong]

lol, I want to tell him that how can I reach this man?

[stockstrader]

Yep, this would be WONDERFUL for the steel, auto, airline, mining and chemical industries.

Just the 'national economic policy' they could use to make them more competitive worldwide.

[ottothedog]

Any big producer of CO2 be killed, not just oil companies. Most of that work would go overseas. Also, if you are looking for a terrorism tax, why tax domestic coal and gas?

[CSM]

"If we make the income tax unconstitutional, it will have to come from a vat tax of some kind,.."

The VAT tax system does nothing but keep the cost of our government hidden from the citizen's view. I prefer NRST or HR25, you can check them out at FairTax.org (I think.)