Free Republic

Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee didn't just blast President Obama's new gun control initiative and move on, he's produced three shooting targets for opponents to aim their fire directly at the administration. "Americans should go out and buy a new gun – and to improve your accuracy, you can take aim at Washington stupidity, blow holes in ridiculous government programs and shred our unfair tax code with a customized shooting target," said the former Arkansas governor and shooter.

Do you really believe there will be a significant simplification of the U.S. tax code under any not-so-freely elected government? Determining the length of a book is a simple matter . . . just open the back cover and look at the last page for the answer. Not so with the U.S. tax code, apparently. Google the question, “How many pages in the tax code?” Many answers appear. It could be as many as 75,000 pages, or just a few percentage points of that number, depending on who is answering the question and the motive for obtaining your acceptance of...

Ted Cruz was one of the participants in the Republican presidential debate in Milwaukee on Nov. 10, 2015. During the Republican presidential debate in Milwaukee, Ted Cruz compared two volumes -- one beloved by many, the other loathed by almost everybody. "There are more words in the IRS code than there are in the Bible -- and -- and not a one of them is as good," Cruz said. Our New Jersey affiliate checked a similar claim on length in 2013, so we’ll apply their research to Cruz’s claim here. How long is the tax code? A 2010 report...

Bush's plan starts by slashing tax rates. He'd return to the top personal income tax rate of 28% that America had when Ronald Reagan left office. That top rate, by the way, was a true bipartisan reform designed in part by congressional Democrats like Bill Bradley and Dick Gephardt. The rate has since migrated up to 42%, with many Democrats longing to tax the rich well above 50%. Middle-class tax rates would fall to 10% for families with incomes up to $89,000 and to 25% for incomes up to $163,800. For singles, the thresholds are lower. But the thresholds are...

167 Monday at an AFL-CIO Labor Day event in Pittsburgh, Vice President Joe Biden ranted about the economy as it pertains to the American labor force. Biden said, “We can’t let the changes that have taken place and crept in for the last twenty years— but they have been devastating for workers. I hope everybody in America has a chance to become millionaire and we need billionaires. But let me tell you something, man, The tax code’s not fair. It’s simply not fair. The wealthy aren’t paying their fair share. It used to be one America everybody was in on...

16 Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump declared, “I think flat tax is okay” on Friday’s broadcast of the “Matt Murphy Show” on Birmingham, AL’s WAPI. Trump said, “Who knows taxes better than me?” He continued, “You know, when they talk about fixing the tax, it’s so complicated, that people have to go and use H&R Block to do a $50,000 — a man who makes $50,000 has to spend money –.” Host Matt Murphy then cut in to ask Trump if he supports the fair tax. Trump answered, “Well, I think fair tax is okay. And I think flat tax...

This clip would feel so different if Rand was sitting at 15-20 percent in the polls right now, smack dab in the middle of the top tier, with a huge Super PAC haul under his belt. Imagine it. With the media in early panic mode about Republicans nominating a crazed libertarian who’d take a wrecking ball to government as president, here Rand would be, goofing on the hysteria behind that image while also winking at his supporters that he might in fact be the wrecking ball the left fears. The vid would, essentially, be a form of “kidding on the...

Thousands of years after the Roman Empire fell, people are still speculating about how such a powerful empire became too feeble to defend itself. Did it become corrupt? Was its taxes too high? Was it widespread lead poisoning? The refusal to break up tribes it assimilated? Was it the loss of traditional values? Did it over-expand? There are all sorts of theories, but nobody really knows. However, if American falls, historians won’t have to speculate because the problems that are destroying our country are right there for anyone to see. You want to know how to break the greatest nation...

Republican presidential candidate Rand Paul called Thursday for a “fair and flat tax” that would “blow up” the nation’s tax code, offering a proposal his campaign said would cut taxes by $2 trillion over the next decade. The first-term senator from Kentucky released the outline of a plan to institute a 14.5 percent income tax rate on all individuals, as well as a tax of the same rate on all business revenue. It was among the first major policy proposals released by Paul’s presidential campaign, although he did not make the full plan available for review. […] In a column...

(Reuters) - Appealing to working families in her first major campaign speech, U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said on Saturday she would rewrite the U.S. tax code if she is elected so that it rewards hard work, and not quick equities trades or money stashed away overseas. She also pledged to establish a national infrastructure bank financed by bonds, an idea championed by President Barack Obama, a fellow Democrat.

Everyone wants tax reform. At least we pay lip service to the idea that the U.S. economy would be better off with lower rates, a simpler code, and fewer loopholes. Yet something everyone claims to support has proved elusive time and again. Why? For starters, it's not clear that everyone's idea of tax reform is the same. Corporations want lower statutory rates; they are less enthusiastic when it comes to sacrificing their bought-and-paid-for tax breaks. Liberals want an even more progressive tax code, with higher rates on the wealthy. Conservatives want to reduce anything that looks, smells, or acts like...

’ve complained over and over again that America’s tax code is a nightmare that undermines competitiveness and retards growth.Our aggregate fiscal burden may not be as high as it is for many of our foreign competitors, but high tax rates and poor design mean the system is very punitive on a per-dollar-raised basis.For more information, the Tax Foundation has put together an excellent report measuring international tax competitiveness.Here’s the methodology. The Tax Foundation’s International Tax Competitiveness Index (ITCI) measures the degree to which the 34 OECD countries’ tax systems promote competitiveness through low tax burdens on business investment and neutrality through...

At 74,000 pages, the IRS code is a mind-boggling ode to lobbying, pork-barrel spending and graft. These are the only good things that I can say about the IRS. Ode may be too friendly a word, however. Let’s instead call it an incantation for our country. Because the code holds a country in thrall like the winged monkeys in Dorothy’s Oz were held. And until the witch is dead, we monkeys must do her bidding. Politicians, economists and ordinary citizens can’t follow the tax code, which has tripped up cabinet nominees, majority leaders and others who ought to know...

Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld filed his taxes on Tuesday with an added twist: a letter telling the IRS that he had no idea whether his return was, in fact, accurate. “Despite the fact that I am a college graduate and I try hard to make sure our tax returns are accurate...I know that I do not know whether or not my tax returns are accurate, which is a sad commentary on governance in our nation's capital," Rumsfeld's letter reads.The letter’s phrasing appears to allude to Rumsfeld’s famous “unknown unknowns” statement in 2002, when he said, in reference to...

Tax season is over for all but the greatest procrastinators among us. Two-thirds of taxpayers are celebrating their forthcoming refunds while tens of millions of others have grudgingly written a check to the IRS. Either way, this is the time of year when Americans are most acutely aware of the federal income tax system and all its flaws. Our tax code is extraordinarily difficult to navigate and it sometimes seems that it's more concerned with advancing social and industrial policy goals than raising the money needed to fund government. The plethora of preferential deductions and credits that narrow the tax...

As millions of Americans rush to file their federal income tax returns on Tuesday, few will be thinking that the current tax code is the fairest one of all, according to the latest IBD/TIPP survey. Just 39% of Americans say today's income tax code — which features multiple tax brackets along with myriad deductions and exemptions — is the fairest. As to what sort of tax system would be more fair, the public hasn't made up its mind. Thirty-six percent say a flat tax is the fairest way to collect income taxes, while 19% would prefer a national sales tax....

The Republican plan to overhaul and simplify the nation’s tax code is expected to call for a cut in the top corporate income rate to 25 percent from 35 percent, and a reduction of the seven individual tax brackets to two — at 10 percent and 25 percent — according to aides familiar with the proposal. The proposal, which is set to be released Wednesday after nearly three years of behind-the-scenes work, is the brainchild of Representative Dave Camp of Michigan, the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, and it reflects the long-held tax overhaul goals of the Republican-passed...

A new IRS tax regime in 2014 will be devastating for the U.S. economy, and for millions of Americans working abroad, especially those in the middle class. New U.S. Tax Regime is "Devastating," Experts Say The New American 30 December 2013 Already facing “pariah” status worldwide due to onerous IRS requirements, millions of Americans living and working abroad are preparing to deal with a deluge of even bigger problems in 2014, when a byzantine new tax regime starts going into effect. Known as the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, or FATCA, the deeply controversial and incredibly complex scheme is...

The May jobs report shows that the American economy added 175,000 positions. Positive employment growth is welcome news, of course. But May's gains weren't big enough to make a dent in the national joblessness rate, which actually ticked up to 7.6%. Meanwhile, revenue at most U.S. companies continues to grow as firms expand operations and accumulate capital. Yet this progress hasn't precipitated a proportional expansion in hiring. This lag has long been a source of frustration on Capitol Hill. Perhaps yet another month of anemic job growth will actually jolt policymakers into action. The best way for Congress and the...

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...