Posted on 09/16/2010 6:39:29 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Eric Cantor, Paul Ryan, and Kevin McCarthy, dropped by NR’s offices yesterday for a spirited, very enjoyable discussion. They were here to promote their new book, Young Guns: A New Generation of Conservative Leaders. We’ll have more from the conversation in a while, but wanted to highlight what McCarthy said about the “America Speaking Out” effort, which he leads and is creating the Contract-like document Republicans will unveil in a couple of weeks. It’s clearly going to be an incrementalist document focusing on opposition to basic Obama administration initiatives, on measures aimed at small business, on rolling back discretionary spending, on process reforms, and on competitiveness. Relatively small beer? Absolutely, but so was the first Contract. Part of the idea is to give Republicans a starter’s kit for governing if they take the majority. Here is McCarthy (with some excisions and minor edits for ease of reading):
Think about it as a governing document: “Right now, what could you do?” So it’s almost like first priorities. Well, first priorities, if you look at the business climate, you’ve got to take away the uncertainty of it. So what’s the uncertainty? Cap-and-trade, health care, what’s happening with taxes going up in January. So you want to deal with that.
Then you want to look at, “How do you get the economy moving again?” The best thing to do is focus on small business, where 70% of all jobs are created, what can we do to enhance it? Then, what are some other issues in the business climate from the 1099 and other forms?
Then the other top priority would probably be spending. What about just taking it back to 2008? Domestic discretionary spending has come up 84%. What about dealing with Fannie and Freddie?
Then you also have to change the culture of Washington. This is the first time since the budget act of ’74 was passed that the majority doesn’t have a budget. You know what happened in the budget act of 1974? It wiped away the sunshine committee. Every committee in Washington today is appropriating, spending money. Nothing is focusing on accountability and looking at things to be sunset. What about bringing that back?
Then, I would think of an overall theme, this country understands competition. It’s one of the founding things that makes us better. States understand competition where they compete with each other to get the jobs. But we don’t, as a nation, think of how we compete with other countries. So what about an overall theme to start looking at, “What makes us uncompetitive?”
Dear Eric, Paul and Kevin,
Get rid of the IRS.
Fair Tax or Flat tax, at this point anything is better.
Forget the “What can we do to get the economy moving..” sh*t. Get rid of the IRS and watch the economy bounce back just on the mention of it.
My friend,
Evolution, not revolution. You are not going to win on a platform that says — “I will get rid of the IRS”. At least not now.
An alternative way of filing your taxes — THE FLAT WAY in parallel with the TRADITIONAL WAY would be the better way to go.
You could say — I propose the PRO-CHOICE TAXFILING METHOD ( We conservatives are pro-choice on almost everything except when it comes to killing babies ).
A tax payer will be given one of two choices:
* File the Traditional Way ( with all its accounting headaches )
* File the FLAT WAY ( no deductions for doing this and that ). Just a flat, single page form and the guarantee that if you do so, the IRS will NOT audit you.
Let that law be in existence for 10 years and we’ll see which one becomes more popular. I am willing to bet that the traditional method will (to use Newt Gingrich’s words) whither in the vine.
This has the added advantage of being a PRACTICAL REFERENDUM on what people really want.
EVOLUTION, NOT REVOLUTION.
They need to release a real contract not a rhetorical one that they seem to go with in this book..
Do they have a suggestion box? I can think of a few I’d like to make.
In 1937, U.S. Senator Josiah Bailey of North Carolina was concerned that President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and his New Deal programs were leading America and North Carolina down the road to collectivism. Although he did not oppose every attempt at government intervention, Senator Bailey believed that limitations should be placed on government growth...
The planning and writing of the manifesto were done without the knowledge of FDR. Eventually the secretive work of the bi-partisan alliance was leaked, and fearing political repercussions, many Senators denied any involvement with the creation of the Conservative Manifesto. Bailey, however, accepted responsibility.
According to Moore, the Conservative Manifesto’s ten points were as follows:
1. Immediate revision of taxes on capital gains and undistributed profits in order to free investment funds.
2. Reduced expenditures to achieve a balanced budget, and thus, to still fears deterring business expansion.
3. An end to coercion and violence in relations between capital and labor.
4. Opposition to “unnecessary” government competition with private enterprise.
5. Recognition that private investment and enterprise require a reasonable profit.
6. Safeguarding the collateral upon which credit rests.
7. Reduction of taxes, or if this proved impossible at the moment, firm assurance of no further increases.
8. Maintenance of state rights, home rule, and local self-government, except where proved definitely inadequate.
9. Economical and non-political relief to unemployed with maximum local responsibility. 10. Reliance upon the American form of government and the American system of enterprise.
“Evolution, not revolution. You are not going to win on a platform that says — “I will get rid of the IRS”. At least not now.
An alternative way of filing your taxes — THE FLAT WAY in parallel with the TRADITIONAL WAY would be the better way to go.”
We’ve been trying it your way since 1913, and it’s gotten us where??????
re: We’ve been trying it your way since 1913, and it’s gotten us where??????
Educate me here — since when has a PARALLEL Flat Tax way of filing alongside the TRADITIONAL way been proposed in Congress?
The point is, regardless of what we’ve TRIED, the tax laws just get worse. We can TRY it your way, but it either won’t pass, or will pass and 1 congress later the flat goes up, and up and up...well, you get the idea.
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