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REPUBLICANS PLAN PUSH FOR ELIMINATION OF IRS
The Drudge Report ^ | 8/1/04 | Drudge

Posted on 08/01/2004 6:08:53 PM PDT by NeoCaveman

A domestic centerpiece of the Bush/GOP agenda for a second Bush term is getting rid of the Internal Revenue Service, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned.

The Speaker of the House will push for replacing the nation's current tax system with a national sales tax or a value added tax, Hill sources tell DRUDGE.

"People ask me if I’m really calling for the elimination of the IRS, and I say I think that’s a great thing to do for future generations of Americans," Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert explains in his new book, to be released on Wednesday.

"Pushing reform legislation will be difficult. Change of any sort seldom comes easy. But these changes are critical to our economic vitality and our economic security abroad," Hastert declares in SPEAKER: LESSONS FROM FORTY YEARS IN COACHING AND POLITICS.

"“If you own property, stock, or, say, one hundred acres of farmland and tax time is approaching, you don’t want to make a mistake, so you’re almost obliged to go to a certified public accountant, tax preparer, or tax attorney to help you file a correct return. That costs a lot of money. Now multiply the amount you have to pay by the total number of people who are in the same boat. You can’t. No one can because precise numbers don’t exist. But we can stipulate that we’re talking about a huge amount. Now consider that a flat tax, national sales tax, or VAT would not only eliminate the need to do this, it could also eliminate the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) itself and make the process of paying taxes much easier."

"By adopting a VAT, sales tax, or some other alternative, we could begin to change productivity. If you can do that, you can change gross national product and start growing the economy. You could double the economy over the next fifteen years. All of a sudden, the problem of what future generations owe in Social Security and Medicare won’t be so daunting anymore. The answer is to grow the economy, and the key to doing that is making sure we have a tax system that attracts capital and builds incentives to keep it here instead of forcing it out to other nations."


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Front Page News; Government; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: fairtax; gop; gwb2004; irs; nrst; taxreform
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To: chiller
This is not an attempt to quit feeding the beast, it is merely an effort to eliminate the income tax as a means to fund the beast.

Unless he seriously, significantly, and meaningfully cuts spending, the beast will live on. It will only be funded by a flat tax or someother mechanism.

The flat tax, or VAT, or whatever, is another invisible - because it is so incremental - means of taxation. If you want to see people get outraged, eliminate the payroll deduction and have people write weekly checks for their tax payments.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again:

You cannot have a fiscally conservative tax policy and liberal social spending policies and balance the budget. Can't happen.

101 posted on 08/01/2004 6:58:28 PM PDT by YankeeDoodleBoy
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To: dubyaismypresident
If Bush can get rid of the IRS, it will be greater than Lincoln's emancipation of the slaves -- because right now we're all slaves. A simple sales tax, ideally collected by the states so that no new bureaucracy is required, would be the way to go. In Florida, some items are exempt from the sales tax, like food. That could be built in for the "fairness" angle. A whole lot of the Congress won't like it, because at present they're really in the business of selling loopholes, but it could be done. Dynamite issue.
102 posted on 08/01/2004 6:58:36 PM PDT by PatrickHenry (Since 28 Oct 1999, #26,303, over 193 threads posted, and somehow never suspended.)
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To: Happy2BMe
THANKS FOR THE PING!

103 posted on 08/01/2004 7:00:39 PM PDT by Smartass ( BUSH & CHENEY IN 2004 - Si vis pacem, para bellum - Por el dedo de Dios se escribió.)
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To: tinamina

So your husband has been preaching that the National Sales Tax is the only option for years, but now that it could become a reality, he's against it and is going to vote for Kerry?

Did I read that right?


104 posted on 08/01/2004 7:01:25 PM PDT by scott7278 (Kerry/Edwards: More Affordable Hair Care for America)
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To: dc-zoo
"That should get about 99% of the undecided and 50% of the democrats!"

LOL. True.
I'd love to hear someone in DC say it in front of a microphone. Preferably the President himself.

105 posted on 08/01/2004 7:01:37 PM PDT by VaBthang4 ("He Who Watches Over Israel Will Neither Slumber Nor Sleep")
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To: dubyaismypresident

You are so correct -- it also eliminates the hidding of income - the need for accounting records and accountants!!
They complain that it will bring forth a larger black market - but how can that be as bad as what we have now?
The Texas Republican party has a platform that does call for the elimination of the IRs !! Nice to see the folks in Washington are taking notice....This has been proposed for a long time by Congressman Norgood (?) but the dems will demogogue it to death and never let it come to fruition because it would alter their grand designs for economic social engineering!


106 posted on 08/01/2004 7:02:01 PM PDT by Froggie
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To: Lunatic Fringe

Your point is well taken, but we outnumber the Bastards!

And, WE VOTE!


107 posted on 08/01/2004 7:02:32 PM PDT by Taxman (So that the beautiful pressure does not diminish!)
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To: Betaille

Drudge had this up during the Democratic primaries.
It was a headline that Bush was going to do a tax overhaul in this second term.
I remember that.


108 posted on 08/01/2004 7:02:57 PM PDT by mabelkitty
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To: dubyaismypresident

If Bush can get rid of Sadam, Osama, and the IRS he will have achieved the trifecta of destroying evil in the modern world


109 posted on 08/01/2004 7:02:57 PM PDT by tophat9000
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To: dubyaismypresident
The Speaker of the House will push for replacing the nation's current tax system with a national sales tax or a value added tax, Hill sources tell DRUDGE.

National sales tax good, VAT bad.

A VAT woulf allow the government to install stealth taxes that you will pay without a clue.

110 posted on 08/01/2004 7:04:22 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum (Drug prohibition laws help fund terrorism.)
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To: Sen Jack S. Fogbound

The real economic cost to the US economy FRom the income tax and the IRS is more like $1.00 for every dollar raised!

James L. Payne calculate the cost at $.65 per dollar raised in 1995, and the total cost of the income tax tyranny has gone up a great deal since then.


111 posted on 08/01/2004 7:05:30 PM PDT by Taxman (So that the beautiful pressure does not diminish!)
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To: nmh

A flat tax does not eliminate the IRS or need for accounting...you still have to keep records, pay accountants, file forms etc. all an unnecessary drain on the economy (unless you are an accountant) - a National Sales tax makes the best sense - it gets rid of the underground economy - stops the need to file forms, keep records and tell the government under penalty of imprisonment how much income you make. Let's hope they can pull it off.


112 posted on 08/01/2004 7:05:39 PM PDT by Froggie
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To: chiller

I never thought I'd see the day this was talked about by lawmakers. This is amazing!

I'm for a flat tax.


113 posted on 08/01/2004 7:05:57 PM PDT by Rate_Determining_Step (US Military - Draining the Swamp of Terrorism since 2001!)
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To: dubyaismypresident
Changing from an income tax to a spending tax midway through the game amounts to double taxation of savings. Once when you earned it in the first place, and now again when you go to spend it. We all recognize the double taxation of the death tax as inherently wrong - a massive new tax on your life savings when you do anything with them is every bit as odious.

Furthermore, no amount of juggling of the tax system is going to solve the coming Social Security and Medicare crises like Hastert says they will. The problem is that as with all pyramid schemes, the robbee:robber ratio eventually reaches a level of unfeasability. Switching Tax Plan A for Tax Plan B amounts to removing the needle from one arm and inserting it in the other.

114 posted on 08/01/2004 7:08:02 PM PDT by CGTRWK
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To: ancient_geezer; Principled; Your Nightmare; lewislynn; balrog666

Holy Crap! Dubya's on board with the FairTax!


115 posted on 08/01/2004 7:08:27 PM PDT by Remember_Salamis (Freedom is Not Free)
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To: nmh

Tough sell, but doable.

We outnumber the Bastards, and WE VOTE!


116 posted on 08/01/2004 7:08:38 PM PDT by Taxman (So that the beautiful pressure does not diminish!)
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To: denydenydeny
The NRST would also pay for Social Security, and people would get to keep their entire paychecks.

How would the Social Security department know how much money to send every month if we put social security into the NRST? Don't people that put more in get a larger Social Security check?
117 posted on 08/01/2004 7:09:06 PM PDT by dubyas_vision
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To: Chieftain

THASS RIGHT!


118 posted on 08/01/2004 7:09:52 PM PDT by Taxman (So that the beautiful pressure does not diminish!)
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To: spokeshave

VAT is also administratively complex, whereas existing accounting systems, already configured to handle state and local sales taxes could easily handle a national sales tax as well. Simple to collect, simple paperwork, simple everything.

This would be TOTALLY COOL! And, I'm a C.P.A.!! I've gotten just close enough to taxes several times during my career to know that the tax code is an abomination, an offense against man and God. ;)


119 posted on 08/01/2004 7:10:36 PM PDT by walden
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To: montag813

The NRST is gonna happen!

You heard it here first!


120 posted on 08/01/2004 7:10:46 PM PDT by Taxman (So that the beautiful pressure does not diminish!)
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