Free Republic

Ask Matt Labash, who says the GOP should have called its tax reform measure the "Robbing Peter to Pay Apple Act." Dear Matt, Republicans have called their tax bill “The Tax Cut and Jobs Act.” President Trump wanted to call it “The Cut, Cut, Cut Act” (And here we thought his specialty was branding.) What would you have named it? H.R. Block I’d be fine with calling it “The Republicans Pissing Down Your Leg While Telling You That You’re Bathing In A Warm Mineral Spring Act.” Or maybe “The Robbing Peter to Pay Apple Act.” (In this scenario, you,...

The looming political showdown over raising the federal debt ceiling has generated a seemingly endless stream of punditry over winners and losers, key players versus back-benchers, and on-again, off-again "grand compromises." But beneath those ever-shifting currents lie bedrock fiscal issues: how to slow the pace of federal expenditures, reestablish long-term budgetary discipline, and reform our uncompetitive tax system without heaping heavier burdens on businesses or individuals. In their quest for a staggering $2.4 trillion debt increase, President Obama and his allies on Capitol Hill have weighed in with many responses to those issues - some good, more than a few...

President Bush gave former Sens. Connie Mack of Florida and John Breaux of Louisiana the unenviable task of trying to say something new and interesting about tax reform. When it comes to designing a simple tax system that does the least damage to the economy, it would be difficult to find a better role model than Hong Kong. As The Economist wrote a few years ago, "The territory's tradition of simple and low taxes ... is widely seen as a main reason for its stunning rise to prosperity." Many advantages of the Hong Kong tax system have been widely emulated...