Posted on 09/12/2007 4:17:22 AM PDT by Man50D
TEXT OF COMMENTARY
Scott Jagow: The mother of all hearings wraps up today. That's how Congressman Charles Rangel described his four-day hearing on taxation. It covered the gamut from middle-class taxes to taxing private equity. But commentator Stephen Moore says Congress should really consider what he calls the "fair tax."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Stephen Moore: We could abolish the income tax and the payroll tax, too, and replace them with a 23 percent national sales tax. All taxes would be paid at the cash register when you buy a grape slurpee or a Honda Civic.
This "fair tax" would instantly banish 8 billion pages of paperwork, and the more than 12,000 IRS agents who snoop on all our financial transactions. Economists from Harvard and MIT have verified that this plan wouldn't swell the budget deficit and would increase American jobs.
The United States would instantly become a global magnet for new investment and businesses, and those Benedict Arnold companies that have fled America in search of lower taxes would be back on the next 747. Under the fair tax, we'd finally do what other nations do: we'd tax imports, but not our exports.
We would no longer tax Americans on what they earn and save, only on what they consume. So, for the average worker, every penny they earn, they would get to keep. Take-home pay would increase by more than 20 percent under the fair tax. Seniors would still get their Social Security checks, now paid for out of sales tax collections.
Oh, but wouldn't a national sales tax be regressive and hurt the poor? Nope -- under the fair tax, every American family of four would be able to purchase the first $20,000 of goods and services every year tax-free.
What better way to clean up the swamp of corruption and sweetheart deals in Washington than by terminating the IRS tax code? This is supposed to be a government of, by and for the people -- not the tax lobbyists and special interest groups in Washington. So let's promote growth with equity through the fair tax.
Jagow: Stephen Moore is a member of the editorial board at the Wall Street Journal. In Los Angeles, I'm Scott Jagow. Thanks for listening, hope you enjoy your day.
1. Abe Lincoln did more to undermine the Constitution of the United States in his first six months in office than any other single person who ever lived so you citing him as an authority on anything will never carry any weight with me.
"The workingmen of Europe feel sure that, as the American War of Independence initiated a new era of ascendancy for the middle class, so the American Antislavery War will do for the working classes. They consider it an earnest of the epoch to come that it fell to the lot of Abraham Lincoln, the single-minded son of the working class, to lead his country through the matchless struggle for the rescue of an enchained race and the reconstruction of a social world."
Karl Marx, Jan. 28, 1865
2. You and old Abe are just flat out WRONG on the subject of conservatives and conservatism.
"Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet deprecate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightening. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its waters. This struggle may be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral and physical; but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did, and it never will. Find out just what a people will submit to, and you have found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them; and these will continue until they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress."
Frederick Douglass August 4, 1857
"A people may want a free government, but if, from insolence, or carelessness, or cowardice, or want of public spirit, they are unequal to the exertions necessary for preserving it; if they will not fight for it when it is directly attacked; if they can be deluded by the artifices used to cheat them out of it; if by monetary discouragement or temporary panic, or a fit of enthusiasm for an individual they can be induced to lay their liberties at the feet of even a great man, or trust him with powers which enable him to subvert their institutions; in all of these cases they are more or less unfit for liberty; and though it may be for their good to have had it even for a short time, they are unlikely to long enjoy it."
John Stuart Mill Essay on Representative Government
And what is this love of karl marx you seem to have??
I'm not the one defending his beloved income tax! That would be YOU and your cohorts.
Wyoming, Florida and Texas (as well as several other states) have already been doing this for years. They abolished the state income tax in those states and they now use a sales tax instead. Their retail sales are just fine. Its easier for people to buy things when they have more money in their paycheck.
In addition to the state sales tax, Texas has a host of other, and some hidden taxes, like the state cement tax. It is also interesting to note that Texas gets a significant portion of its state revenues from the federal government which, of course, gets the money from income taxes.
At one point, Florida attempted to broaden its sales tax base by taxing services as the FairTax would do. That plan was met with so much hostility, and even a Constitutional challenge, that the plan was dropped like the hot potato it was.
So what are you saying, Bigun, you’re for slavery because Lincoln and Marx were against it?
Neither Marx nor Lincoln gave a damn about slavery except as a means to their ends.
“In addition to the state sales tax, Texas has a host of other, and some hidden taxes, like the state cement tax. It is also interesting to note that Texas gets a significant portion of its state revenues from the federal government which, of course, gets the money from income taxes.
At one point, Florida attempted to broaden its sales tax base by taxing services as the FairTax would do. That plan was met with so much hostility, and even a Constitutional challenge, that the plan was dropped like the hot potato it was.”
None of which is an argument against the FT. Texas replaced its income tax with a sales tax and no one is complaining. It makes no difference if they have other ‘hidden’ taxes. Nor does it matter if they get money from the Fed... all states get money from the Fed.
As for Florida taxing services (and the outcry against it)... service unions had more to do with it than anything else. And its only worth arguing about if payroll taxes already embedded in the costs of service aren’t first removed, which, in the case of Florida, they weren’t. The FT would replace the embedded payroll taxes on every service you pay for now with roughly zero net effect.
Tel, what tax reform do you support?
Oh, okay, so you can be against slavery because Lincoln and Marx only pretended to be against slavery, but you're sincere.
Well, no. I think you're confused about that. The payroll taxes are replaced in the FairTax rate while the employee "gets 100% of his check". So labor costs are still what they were before (minus the employer's share - perhaps) but now you have what were payroll taxes neatly hidden in the FairTax.
divert-deflect-avoid-obfuscate
a fairtaxer in spades.
lol check out Neal! I don’t even want to know what he’s probably thinking...
Well, there's Texas, Florida, and several others that have been funding themselves for years like this. It's already being proven every day.
Exactly. Every producer on that list, from the owner of the mine to the nail packaging comany, pays income taxes, employee withholding, etc. etc. etc. ad nauseum, plus the cost of tax preparation and compliance, by inflating th ecost of their product to the next one in line- which eventually is wrapped up and included in the retail price.
A retail sales tax extracts all that and slaps it right on the bottom of the receipt- a big fat ugly number. Brilliant! Now every purchaser in America knows exactly what government costs. This is the fastest route to a demand for spending cuts, and a commensurate rate cut.
a fairtaxer in spades.
LOL!
That is REALLY funny especially coming from you since that is ALL you are capable of doing and do so continuously as anyone who cares to look will readily see.
Texas sales taxes make up 25.2% or $18,275,209,754 of total revenue while the share of revenue received from the federal government (income taxes) is 34.1% or $24,726,453,940 of the total. Taken together, federal money and sales taxes make up 59.3% of total state revenue, so where does the other 40.7% come from?
Florida also has a host of taxes in addition to the state sales tax. Those taxes include a communications tax, a document tax, stamp tax, corporate income tax, fuel related taxes and fees, and even an estate tax, and more.
BTW, Florida's sales tax collections were more than 4% under estimates for May 2007 (and less than the previous year) - the 6th straight month sales taxes failed to meet expectations even though estimates were revised downward in November 2006. What's up with that?
No state is totally self supporting since all receive federal money, and no state even comes close to funding itself on sales taxes alone.
“Anyone” being your 4 or 5 paid shills for AFFT?
Anyone means exactly that. Anyone who wishes to look.
If there are any "paid shills for AFFT" posting on FR I am unaware of it. Most everyone I know, and that is quite a number, is an unpaid volunteer just as I am.
First and foremost, I support balanced budgets and debt repayment. It is a shame that over 18% of our budget is interest on the debt. If we got those things under control then we could cut taxes and it would actually mean something.
To do that we have to actually look at what we're spending, where we're spending it, where spending can and should be cut, what the most efficient use of our tax money is, be ready to kick sacred Democrat and Republican cows, and stand firm when the cows kick back.
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.