Tax Plan Aims for 25% Cap

WSJ - Politics ^ | 3/17/11 | JOHN D. MCKINNON

[xtinct]

The chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee wants to cut the top U.S. tax rate to 25% for individuals and corporations, and cut or eliminate many popular deductions.

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The tax-overhaul plan form House Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp, left, would be designed to be revenue neutral overall. .The odds of quick action appear slender. But the move, from Rep. Dave Camp (R., Mich.), is significant as a marker in what will likely be a multiyear debate over revamping the tax code. The plan also provides Republicans with a position to pitch in the 2012 election, a campaign that promises to focus heavily on the economy and jobs.

Mr. Camp told The Wall Street Journal an overhaul of the unwieldy tax code is an essential element in stimulating both economic growth and job formation.

"America needs a tax code that promotes, not prevents, job creation," he said. "Today's code is simply too complex, too costly and too burdensome for families and employers of all sizes to comply with.…We need to set ambitious goals and work toward those, because if we don't try that will be the biggest failure of all."

[DB]

The tax code is a complete disaster because it is the basis of power for politicians to do social engineering...

Politicians that couldn’t engineer they way out of a wet paper bag...

[pnh102]

25% is way too high. And like all income taxes, this doesn’t address the fact that far too many people pay nothing. While I’m not against a cut in the income tax, we really should be scrapping it, not mending it.

[DB]

Oops... Make that ... their way out of a wet paper bag...

[DH]

Well.....well.........what happened to the fair tax or the national sales tax????????????????????

Oh, I forgot, RINOs always lie to get into office, and the lemmings who vote them in always cry two years after election day....and then vote them in again two years later.

[Defend Liberty]

"America needs a tax code that promotes, not prevents, job creation," he said. "Today's code is simply too complex, too costly and too burdensome for families and employers of all sizes to comply with.…We need to set ambitious goals and work toward those, because if we don't try that will be the biggest failure of all."

All Rep. Camp is proposing is more tinkering of a federal income tax code that is beyond repair. It needs to be replaced.If Rep.Camp was serious about ridding the American people of a tax code that is too burdensome and too complex then he would support legislation that has been before each session of Congress since 1999.

It's called The Fair Tax Act(HR25/S13). The Fair Tax will replace all federal income taxes with a national sales tax and abolish the IRS. Doing so will increase the people's purchasing power, eliminate the corporate income tax thereby encouraging businesses to move their plant assets back to the U.S. creating more jobs. There will be no more forms to fill out. April 15th just another day. Visit www.fairtax.org for more information.

[Uncle Ike]

” would be designed to be revenue neutral overall. “

“Revenue neutral” is one of those meaningless buzz-phrases (see, “The Laffer Curve”) that’s a sure indicator that the politician uttering it is more interested in grandstanding than in solutions....

[RayChuang88]

A good start, but I want in the ultimate end this:

Our current income tax system is:

1) A huge impediment to economic growth domestically because it encourages American businesses to export jobs, factories and even corporate headquarters as a tax avoidance measure.
2) It discourages personal savings and capital investment, both very necessary for real economic growth.
3) Is in many ways actually rigged against upward economic mobility, since the rich can afford the best lobbyists to "tweak" the tax code in Washington, DC to their benefit and/or hire the best tax lawyers and accountants to hide their net worth by putting a large fraction of their net worth in offshore financial centers beyond US borders that are effectively untouchable by the IRS.

Small wonder why if FairTax passes some scholars have called it the biggest shift in power away from Washington, DC since the American Revolution.

[paulycy]

“Revenue neutral” is one of those meaningless buzz-phrases (see, “The Laffer Curve”) that’s a sure indicator that the politician uttering it is more interested in grandstanding than in solutions....

Exactly. "Revenue neutral" means "do anything you want as long as it doesn't change anything, especially the amount of money we can spend."

[Renegade]

Its come time to SCRAP the present government as we know it and start over with a government that follows “ For the People,By the People” and means it !

[pnh102]

And most importantly, the FairTax, as well as other retail sales tax proposals, will finally nail the half of all households which pay 0 in federal taxes!

[4rcane]

Does it force google to pay higher taxes instead of the 2% tax that they pay thru gimmicks?

[Yo-Yo]

Most people forget that when Ronald Reagan lowered taxes in the 1980s, he also eliminated many tax deductions.

The mantra of the era was “revenue neutral,” and the goal was to lower the tax rate, eliminate the maze of special interest deductions, and keep revenues to the treasury roughly the same.

It worked. I remember businesses complaining about not being able to write off the “three martini lunch” anymore, but with the simplified tax code it was much more straigthforward to plan for future growth.

Over the decades, the silly deductions have crept back into the tax code, and it is time for another pruning. Special interest deductions are nothing more than social engineering on the government’s part, telling people to either spend their own money the way the government wants them to spend it, or else the government will take the money away and spend it themselves.

Lower rates, and eliminate special interest deductions.

[thackney]

Can we make this retroactive to Jan 1 for a significant jump start on the economy?

[JDW11235]

I’ll take the FairTax over the current income tax, however there should be NO income taxes on individuals, and tariff’s on all imports. Shrink government to the size it’s constitutionally supposed to be, and fund it by constitutional means. The 16th amendment wasn’t supposed to apply to individuals and it’s appropriated, nor op-out-able, despite Reid saying it’s “voluntary.” We should be able to opt out of ALL Federal taxes (by not purchasing a good). That is truly the American way.

[JDW11235]

I wanted to add that I know the Fairtax is a consumption tax, not an “income” tax, however, it doesn’t take into account the drastic cut in government spending. I wanted to say that because I wasn’t clear why I don’t love the FairTax either, but prefer it to the racketeering going on now.

[BobL]

Too late for tax cuts...

[DTogo]

"But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security."

[icwhatudo]

"The chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee wants to cut the top U.S. tax rate to 25% for individuals and corporations, and cut or eliminate many popular deductions."

Translation-your taxes will be raised. Does anyone actually think this plan will mean we will pay the same or less taxes to the government?

They will not cut spending in any meaningful way and are using this "crisis" to "amend" "adjust" "recalibrate" yada yada yada yada taxes which means you will pay more.

[DoughtyOne]

If too many people pay nothing, how is it that the small segment that is wealthy still pays over 50% of the taxes?