Free Republic

In the pre-World War I era, the fiscal burden of government was very modest in North America and Western Europe. Total government spending consumed only about 10 percent of economic output, most nations were free from the plague of the income tax, and the value-added tax hadn’t even been invented. Today, by contrast, every major nation has an onerous income tax and the VAT is ubiquitous. These punitive tax systems exist largely because – on average - the burden of government spending now consumes more than 40 percent of GDP. To be blunt, fiscal policy has moved dramatically in the...

An honest inquiry. I'm a big supporter of tax reform in general, and the FairTax in particular sounds like a very good proposal to me. Query as to whether investment purchases (stocks / bonds / ETFs / etc.) are included in the FairTax plan, and if so, at what rate (same as consumer purchases or different)? Opinions welcome as to whether this is or is not a good idea (increased tax base plus encouraging investing as a long-term purchase, vs. possible detriment to the financial market)? Thanks in advance, the lump.

WASHINGTON (BP) -- Charities could face dwindling donations if Congress adopts a new tax reform proposal introduced by Rep. Dave Camp, R-Mich., chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. Camp's long-awaited plan to overhaul the tax code, introduced last month, has received some positive reviews, but charitable organizations say it could cost them billions in donations. "I know Chairman Camp wants charitable giving to go up, [but] his discussion draft does not [promote] that," said David Wills, president of the National Christian Foundation (NCF). "It hurts charitable giving significantly." NCF is part of the Faith and Giving Coalition, which...

Advocates of comprehensive tax reform in the United States should expect to start over in the next Congress due to the dim prospects that anything major will happen before the current legislative year ends in December, a key U.S. senator said. A lack of consensus on tax reform issues and relatively little time to advance any legislation -- without the long-shot possibility of becoming an amendment to a broad budget bill -- leave little hope to make any progress on the short term, said Sen. Benjamin Cardin, D-Md.). Whether you agree with Sen. Cardin’s politics or not, he is...

I generally get very suspicious when rich people start pontificating on tax policy. People like Warren Buffett, for instance, sometimes advocate higher taxes because they’re trying to curry favor with the political elite. Or maybe they feel compelled to say silly things to demonstrate that they feel guilty about their wealth. Regardless, I don’t like their policy proposal (as you can see from TV debates here and here). That being said, I also realize that stereotypes can be very unfair, so it’s important to judge each argument on the merits and not to reject an idea simply because it comes...

My daydream is to lock all members of Congress and the president in a classroom with a big whiteboard and not let them out until they can pass a basic test in public finance. The first thing I'd teach them about is tax incidence — who really bears the burden of a tax. Our politicians seem to think the burden of taxes falls on those who they require to pay, as in remit or transmit or hand over or submit or mail in, the tax. This is entirely off base. Who bears the burden of (is hurt by) a tax...

Fifty years ago last week, on Feb. 26, 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed into law the sweeping tax cuts that had been championed by his predecessor, John F. Kennedy. The law brought the top marginal income-tax rate down to 70% from 91% and the bottom marginal rate down to 14% from 20%. The 22 rates in between also were cut. The tax legislation of 1964 was one of three major across-the-board income-tax cuts in the 20th century. The others took place in the 1920s, during the Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge administrations, and in 1981 and 1986 during...

With the 2014 election just around the corner “conservatives” have the opportunity to win the hearts and minds of the American people by offering real tax reform. Have most Americans not witnessed the progressive’s disastrous and slavish experiment associated with the 16th Amendment and taxes levied on incomes without apportionment? Have we not recently seen how this very tax has been used during election time to punish and harass those who dare to speak out and against our despotic federal government? Have we not also witnessed for generations how this despicable tax is used by our federal government to...

Yesterday Senator Mike Lee, the Utah conservative, announced an ambitious plan to reform taxes — much the most attractive one we have heard from any Republican for a long time. The plan would cut tax rates, simplify the tax code, and rid it of several features that distort our economy and society. The tax increases that have taken place under President Obama would be undone. The mortgage-interest deduction would be scaled back. And the deduction for state and local taxes would be eliminated: Low-tax states would no longer subsidize high-tax ones, and the federal government would no longer soften voters’...

Statement of Frank L. Davis, Jr., Co-Founder, Executive Vice President and National Director of Legislative Affairs, National Retail Sales Tax Alliance Testimony Before the House Committee on Ways and Means Hearing on Fundamental Tax Reform Mr. Chairman, Mr. Rangel and Members of the Committee; my fellow Americans. It is a privilege to be asked to testify this afternoon. My name is Frank Davis. I am a retired Naval Reserve Aviator, having spent 28 1/2 years in active and reserve service to my country. I consider myself still serving, albeit in a somewhat different capacity, but with the same goal in...

Tax reform is apparently so treacherous for senators these days that they require the utmost protection from the public -- half a century's worth. The leaders of the Senate Finance Committee last month asked senators to submit written proposals detailing tax breaks they'd like to see preserved once the tax code is reformed and explain why. The point was to help inform committee leaders in their efforts to craft a tax reform bill. The request apparently wasn't embraced, and the committee has now promised skittish senators that their proposals will be kept secret for 50 years. A memo sent out...

Over the last two years, a groundswell of movement has happened behind the scenes on Capitol Hill. Rep. Dave Camp (R-Mich.) has been working to convince his colleagues of the need for tax reform. Recently, Max Baucus has begun to spearhead that same initiative on the Senate side. And indeed, with Orrin Hatch signed on, it has looked like this is something that could happen.It’s important to note that we’re only talking about tax reform, not cuts. That’s what has kept this tenuous bipartisan movement together. The approach is largely revenue-neutral and would likely end up distributionally similar to what...

Jay Leno told his studio audience the other night that President Obama should forget his plans to close the detention camp at Guantanamo Bay and instead close the IRS. The applause was instantaneous and the laughs were loud and genuine. Most ordinary Americans would have whooped and hollered in favor of Leno's idea long before they learned the IRS has been caught targeting conservative political groups and wasting millions on moronic employee-training conferences. But the IRS is no joking matter. The average working American -- poor or rich or in-between -- hates and fears the IRS for good reason. Able...

Last week, I argued that the political corruption at the IRS revealed last month should give momentum to throwing out campaign-finance “reform” regulation, and produce massive simplification through the end of direct donations and the imposition of immediate transparency. That would effectively strip the IRS of any role in policing political activities, a role which it should never have had in the first place. To reduce the ability of the IRS to conduct mischief through other means, Congress needs to simplify the tax code as well, Rep. Peter Roskam argues in Roll Call, and the scandal may have finally provided...

I got to thinking about all this tax talk on another thread and I wondered ... what do we need taxes FOR in the first place ...

If Republican leaders were to fully embrace a conservative reform agenda, it would address pressing national needs. It would position the GOP as forward looking, contemporary, and have appeal to swing voters. It would demonstrate a commitment to a brand of conservatism that is practical rather than narrowly ideological. And it contrasts well with today’s reactionary liberalism, by which I mean liberalism that opposes virtually every effort to reform institutions and programs that are sclerotic, outdated, and ineffective. .... There are five obvious areas for Republicans to focus on, beginning with entitlement reform ... A second area Republicans should focus...

Political and policy fiasco alert: The GOP Chairman of the House Ways & Means Committee is gearing up to waste the House Republican Majority's energy, time and political goodwill on a doomed-to-fail scheme that conservative realists know cannot emerge from Congress. The price of pursuing this strategy will be the loss of many good and necessary initiatives that could get done, initiatives that could unify and energize the voting public behind an expanded GOP House majority in 2014 and gains in the Senate as well. The consequence of this strategic blunder could be the loss of the House majority. Everybody...

Reading the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Bloomberg, and pretty much every other news outlet, one would think that Governor Bobby Jindal has given up on his efforts to eliminate the Louisiana income tax. But in fact, pretty much every reporter who has written on this has the story wrong. In his State of the State address on the first day of the 2013 session of the Louisiana legislature this week, Jindal announced that he was “parking” the tax-reform proposal that he unveiled last month, in response to opposition from the public and members of the legislature. While his...

Earlier this year, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal promised to undertake the major task of simplifying the state's tax code in the interests of promoting economic competition, business friendliness, and job growth; and last month, he unveiled his plan to get rid of income and corporate taxes in favor of a sales tax increase from 4 to 5.88 percent. There was quite a lot of grumbling about the specifics of his plan, however, and in a surprise move on Monday, he opened the 2013 legislative session with the announcement that he’s going to at least temporarily shelve his proposal in favor...

(Reuters) - Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, one of the nation's most prominent Republicans and a possible 2016 presidential candidate, has fallen out of favor with local voters, and his bold plan to scrap the state income tax is running into trouble. Jindal was re-elected to a second term with two-thirds of the vote in 2011. But his Louisiana approval rating was down to 38 percent in a recent poll, worse than Democratic President Barack Obama in one of the most conservative states. The poll suggested voters think he is spending more time traveling outside the state and burnishing his credentials...