Oh shut up! Obama has already rendered that argument moot.
The Nativists around here sound just like this guy...
Posted on 06/20/2013 9:35:57 AM PDT by celmak
Hours before the House Appropriations Committee held a hearing on political targeting at the Internal Revenue Service, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) had a simple solution to the agency’s problems — get rid of it altogether.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
How did we collect revenue before the IRS existed? I really don’t know. But I know we did it somehow.
Make a check for that amount payable to "US Treasury" and mail to...
That would be a 23% flat tax which seems reasonable.
Er....that's not a 23% flat tax. That's 123% of what you earn.
May I suggest a re-write...???
National Sales Tax. Retail outlets already collect taxes in most states.
Never happen of course, because it is hard to make it graduated. Even if it did become law, it would be only a short time before there would be a new tax law in addition to the sales tax.
The only real solution is to elect honest politicians, but since a great many of them are lawyers, I doubt that could ever happen.
RE: How did we collect revenue before the IRS existed? I really don’t know.
SOURCE:
http://www.thenewamerican.com/culture/history/item/14268-before-the-income-tax
Prior to ratification of the 16th (income tax) Amendment in February 1913, the federal government managed its few constitutional responsibilities without an income tax, except during the Civil War period.
During peacetime, it did so largely — or even entirely — on import taxes called “tariffs.” Congress could afford to run the federal government on tariffs alone because federal responsibilities did not include welfare programs, agricultural subsidies, or social insurance programs like Social Security or Medicare.
After the Civil War, tariff revenues sometimes suffered under a protectionist policy ushered in by the Republican Party that supplemented federal income via excises on alcohol, tobacco, and inheritances.
But before the war, the need for tariff revenue to finance the federal government generally kept the tariff at reasonable levels. During wartime throughout early American history, the Founding Fathers were able to raise additional revenue employing a different method of direct taxation authorized by the U.S. Constitution prior to the 16th Amendment.
These alternative taxing methods gave the young American nation embarrassing peacetime budget surpluses that several times came close to paying off the national debt.
But then, we had no such thing as Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Department of Education, Energy, Commerce, EPA, etc.
As soon as you start a government program... it never dies.
I’d take Sen. Cruz more seriously if he’d start mentioning Justice John Marshall’s official clarification that Congress is prohibited from laying taxes in the name of state power issues, essentially any issue which Congress cannot justify under its constitutional Section 8, Article I limited powers.
Otherwise, why should crooks rob banks for a living when they can get themselves elected as federal lawmakers and rob people’s money by means of constitutionally indefensible federal taxes?
“You didn’t push the “math check” button...”
Math Czech is knot yore friend!
Yes, totally agree. And policing policy will always be needed even if a consumption tax is installed. Firms collecting sales tax will have to be occasionally audited to keep honest. But the real crime is the Income Tax.
We have two kids in school, not taking any loans out but spending 3500/month on tuition payments; over half our income. We usually get 5000 extra back on our taxes (from the 40k we are spending) with the ed deductions and it is used once again for education expenses much like mortgage interest deductions are used by homeowners. I just don't think a simple flat tax would satisfy America and we are being naive to even realistically think a flat tax is in the cards.
I'd luv to see the IRS gone too; maybe if the rate was much lower it would be more acceptable. Bottomline, we spend too much.
Even if you go with a national sales tax, there's no reason it can't be administered the same way. States comptrollers already collect sales tax from businesses. The sales tax report is literally the size of a post card - Gross sales less exempt sales = taxable sales X the state rate. Sign it and take a tiny discount for early filing (Texas).
Thanks for the ping!
Yep. Nearly half the U.S. population pays nothing in taxes. Over half are dependent upon some form of government largess. Hence, Obamacare, Obamaphones, school breakfast and lunch programs...”midnite basketball.” Abolish the IRS? What are the odds?
:o)
Drop withholdings, exemptions, "write-offs", credits and you could drop 90% to 95%.
That would be the Treasury Department, which did just fine on its own before 1913.
This is a golden opportunity folks that comes but once in a century, and we need to take it. Quit quibbling about exactly how an alternative would work. The IRS as it exists, needs to be destroyed, scattered to the four winds, and the ground salted. They are our own domestic gestapo run by the Fed banker nazis. If ever there was an issue to rally around and set our minor differences aside, this is it.
Oh shut up! Obama has already rendered that argument moot.
The Nativists around here sound just like this guy...
No deductions. Period. Else it’s not a flat tax.
Of course if a flat tax were passed, 1000s of tax attorneys, tax preparers, lobbysists, CPAs, etc. would be out of a job. No more TurboTax.
K Street would be decimated. To which I say, What’s wrong with that?
Well, I suppose the rules do apply to non DemoncRATS don’t they. Shame though...
Do it at the state level. States get to invest the money collected only in interest bearing accounts, they take their cut in interest payments which will pay for the program and the fed gets the rest.
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