I have been an appliance repairman for 40 years. My natural inclination is to fix things. As I look at the state of national affairs today, nothing seems to be working right. One hardly knows where to begin the repairs. May I suggest tax reform?
The income tax discourages investment and productivity. It penalizes exporters, who must add the cost of taxes into the price of everything they export. People with high incomes are leaving the United States in droves to avoid income taxes. Working people have up to 25 percent of their income confiscated before they even get their paychecks. The IRS intrudes into our private affairs. We waste hundreds of billions of dollars and millions of hours every year in compliance costs. People defraud the system for undeserved refunds. Hundreds of billions in revenue from the underground economy and tax cheating is left on the table.
The Fair Tax changes everything. Because it is a tax on consumption, it sidesteps that entire list of evils associated with the income tax. The Fair Tax, however, goes beyond mere reform. Sometimes when I am called upon to repair an appliance, the cost exceeds the value of the unit in question. That’s what’s happening with the income tax today. The income tax cannot be repaired. It must be replaced. Of all the plans being discussed on Capitol Hill, only the Fair Tax can bring the kind of fundamental and comprehensive change that will allow for a permanent fix.
DAVID BOONE
Houston, Minn.
Mikee. HR25 is not just two years old. It was first introduced in in July 1999 and has been reintroduced in each congress since then. It has 70 cosponsors. Its chances of passage are slim because 70% of lobbyist in Washington are tax lobbyists and they and all congressmen would lose the albility to rewrite the income tax laws to help businesses and contributors. It's all about money. Lobbyist would all lose their jobs and congressmen would lose contributions and maybe their elections. So you are right, the Fairtax bill has an uphill battle, not because it is not a good bill but because it is good. Good for citizens, good for businesses, and good for the country, and is fair and compleatly untaxes the poor. The rich, and businesses can, and do, move their money out of the country because of the income tax and regulations. The Fairtax recovers this money when it is spent. See the research. You inply that Democrats would not be for the Fairtax and I agree with you and I would also add most Republicans. Why? As stated above the Fairtax removes the albility to manipulate the income tax in favor of special interests such as voting blocs and businesses in order to obtain contributions and votes. You mentioned accumalated wealth, the rich don,t pay any tax on accumalated wealth until they die, and most manage to give it away without being taxed. The Fairtax would tax it as they or their heirs spend it. Researchers for the military invented the internet not because they were given a grant to invent it, but because they, the researchers, wanted a secure way to talk to other researchers. Private individuals then saw the potential and built it into what is is today. The government got out of the way and did not kill it with taxes and regulations. The original invention allowed the internet to happen, it wasn't planed. You spoke about the government needing taxes, no one here including the author or I have said anything about cutting taxes. The Fairtax is designed to be revenue neutral, that is bring in the same revenue as the currant income tax now collects. The interstate highway system was built as a military highway as was the older US Highway system. I could add to that the trancontinental Rail system and the Panama canal, as both were built by the goverment for the ability to move troops to the western shore. This is one type of spending is one of the few that arein fact constitutional. I did not see where the Author proposed banning anything, and welfare was not mentioned by him at all and how would the Fairtax which wiil bring in the same revenue as now cause people to starve? It appears to me that you enjoy setting up strawmen so you can knock them down. So, just to be clear, neither the Author, nor I propose banning anything, nor do we propose cutting any government program. Do you understand this now. What we are proposing is The Fairtax. Please read HR 25 and the reserch on Fairtax. orghttp://www. fairtax. org/site/DocServer/TheFairTaxReducesComplexityComplianceCostsAndNoncomplian. pdf?docID=601
This letter is a great example of an opinion that is 100% fact-free.
"The income tax discourages investment and productivity. " That must be why America has one of the lowest investment levels, and the lowest productivity level, right? Neither of those are true, America is a leader in both.
"It penalizes exporters, who must add the cost of taxes into the price of everything they export. " Uh. . so? Every manufacturer must add the cost of tax into the price of everything they manufacture. Derp.
"People with high incomes are leaving the United States in droves to avoid income taxes" Unless they're moving to a third world hellhole, their taxes will be higher. Every industrialized nation has higher taxes than America.
"Working people have up to 25 percent of their income confiscated before they even get their paychecks. " They also have roads to drive on to and from work, police and fire departments to make sure they're protected while at work or home, they also have government watchdogs making sure their rights are protected while they're at work. And a 25% tax rate for having all of those benefits is pretty low, compared to the rest of the industrialized world.
"The IRS intrudes into our private affairs. " I've never cheated on my taxes, and not-so-coincidentally, I've NEVER talked to the IRS. Funny how that works, isn't it, Dave?
"We waste hundreds of billions of dollars and millions of hours every year in compliance costs. " If you give rich people a huge tax break with a "fair" tax, those wasted hours and dollars spent on compliance turn into wasted hours and dollars spent on finding food. Small trade-off.
"People defraud the system for undeserved refunds" Neat. People murder each other every day, does that mean we need to ban living?
"Hundreds of billions in revenue from the underground economy and tax cheating is left on the table. " And that wouldn't change with a fair tax, if I work under the table under our current system, why would I stop working under the table under a new system?
Thanks for sharing your fact-free, uneducated, uninformed opinions, David, but next time, write your stupid letters to a paper in Texas.