Saturday, March 05, 2005.
Simplicity, Fairness, Growth
I know you can get behind the words in the title of this post. And if I'm right, then you are already halfway to swallowing George W. Bush's next big idea, Tax Simplification. It's not called tax reform by the conservatives - reform is out, out, out. Simplification is in, in, in. It's simple - the rich keep more of their money and you lose more of yours. Really freaking simple.
Where could Bush have drawn such an idea from? The Reagan administration? "Tax Reform for Fairness, Simplicity, and Economic Growth: The Treasury Department Report to the President, November 1984". If simplicity, fairness, and growth were good enough for the gipper (who still isn't on Mt. Rushmore thanks to all of you obstructionists), the they're good enough for us. Who could possibly have a problem with these ideas? You may as well say that you hate freedom, liberty, and democracy. What, you want things to be complicated, unfair, and shrinking? That's just weird. The Heritage Foundation is behind Bush in a big way. If they could get any further into Bush's behind, they would, "The current tax code is needlessly complex, and this hurts economic growth. As the President noted, Americans spend over six billion hours filing their tax returns every year. No doubt most Americans would prefer to spend these hours more profitably, at work or at play" Jerry Falwell et al. are saying that I will have six billion hours to myself if the president stops hurting economic growth with all that complex junk? Right on! The American Enterprise Institute is competing with the Heritage people for 'nearest-to-the-first-sphincter' status, "President Bush's bold convention promise to propose fundamental tax reform in his second term creates a real opportunity to modernize a tax code that is a half-century old." Stupid Old tax system. Who wants a stupid, old, complex, unfair, economy shrinking tax code? Maybe some stinky hippie homo who hates the ground he walks on and wants to ban Jesus and kill the President with his hate. I'm still doing my homework on the Bush Tax Reform Plan (a.k.a. "War on the Poor"), but I've learned a few things that might help you understand where we are, and where we might be going. First, here's a look at how much money tax money the federal government has been collecting as percentage of our Gross Domestic Product. Our GDP has risen exponentially since the war, of course, but so has the price of everything in sight, especially housing and real estate. The point is that the Feds are collecting a relatively small amount of money from the Big Picture Economy. Out of these taxes come our defense, our bureacracies, our social programs, etc. As you've seen in the proposed FY2006 budget coming out of the White House, Bush plans to continue to cut tax revenue, slash social program spending, and raise military spending. This passes for fiscal discipline in an executive branch that has publicly stated the irrelevance of budget deficits despite the falling dollar. Anyhoo - we're collecting less than ever. So is George W. happy? Nope. He wants the poor to pay their fair share. How? Through a Value-added tax/Sales Tax/Consumption tax - whatever you choose to call it. The current White House nomiker for it is consumption tax. Or though a flat tax. Everybody pays the same percentage! Fair! Simple! Pro-growth! And the poor will have less money than ever. Lucky Duckies! Here is a site that lays out some pros and cons of (A) Consumption Tax; (B) Flat Tax; (C) Progressive Taxation like what we have now. The authors, from the Century Foundation ( I know nothing about the ideology of this group ), break their assessments down into three areas - Simplicity, Fairness, and Economic Incentive: "Congress is considering a number of proposals for overhauling the current federal income tax system. Proponents of each plan argue that theirs would be simpler, fairer, and better for the economy than today’s code." [...] "Consumption taxes, which are primarily intended to simplify the tax system and encourage saving by discouraging spending, fall into two main categories: (1) taxes levied at the point of a transaction, like a sales or value-added tax (VAT), and (2) taxes on earnings but not income from savings and investment, which encompasses many so-called flat tax proposals." [...] "The flat tax would replace current personal and corporate income taxes, as well as federal estate and gift taxes. For individuals, wages, salaries, and pension distributions would be subject to tax at a single rate regardless of how much a family earns. But income from savings and investments—interest, dividends, capital gains, rents—would not. Because flat taxes reward savings by exempting earnings on investments from taxes, they are considered to be consumption taxes. A number of politicians have developed their own variations on the original flat tax concept, but its main features generally include: 1. A family allowance that would shield income up to a specified level, taking into account the number of dependents, from tax. Above that threshold, the flat tax rate would apply. 2. No other deductions or credits would be allowed, including those for home mortgage interest, charitable contributions, child care, and so forth. The Earned Income Tax Credit would also disappear. 3. All businesses would pay tax on their total sales, minus purchases of material inputs from other companies, investment goods, wages and salaries, and pension contributions. Companies would no longer be able to deduct the cost of nonpension benefits such as health insurance for employees or their Social Security payroll taxes. Corporate interest payments and taxes to state and local governments also would no longer be deductible. [...] "Some advocates who agree that the current system is overly complicated and unfairly skewed in favor of particular groups and industries think that the real way to promote economic prosperity is not through the increases that the proponents of the various forms of consumption tax seek. Rather, they argue that a system that significantly reduces taxes for low- and middle-income households would broadly raise living standards and improve the economy as a whole." Go read it all and get your wheels turning. Bush is going to try to ram some bad juju down the national throat just after the Social Security Bamboozle goes down in flames and just as the next war gears up. What? Are you Anti-Commander-in-Chief, Anti-Simplicity, Anti-Fairness, AND Anti-Growth? Get with the program and get cozied up to the Executive Posterior already. Soon the economic-minded bloggerati will take up post on this issue and help the rest of us pajamahadeen get our heads around it. {cross posted at Scrutiny Hooligans} |
Progressive Site of the WeekWE CARE SolarAmerican Samizdat: Underground Word Lines Since 2002
Design: Subscribe to Search American Samizdat
"Mass-market nostalgia gets you hopped up for a past that never existed. Hagiography sanctifies shuck-and-jive politicians and reinvents their expedient gestures as moments of great moral weight. Our continuing narrative line is blurred past truth and hindsight. Only a reckless verisimilitude can set that line straight." Ensure a Free and Fair Election (Ban Paperless Voting Machines20 Amazing Facts About Voting in the USAThe Brad Blog Ohio Election Fraud Rotten in Denmark Blackboxvoting.org Help America Recount Votergate Verifiedvoting.org Voteprotect.org Blackboxvoting.com Instant Runoff Voting Black Box Notes Diebold Variations Subvert the Corporate Media MegalopolyMedia MattersCursor FAIR Take Back the Media PR Watch Project Censored Lying Media Bastards Mediachannel Editor & Publisher Medianews ListenDemocracy Now!Randi Rhodes Mike Malloy Radiopower.org Free Speech Radio News Public Radio Fan OrganizeMoveon.orgAmericans Coming Together Progressive Majority True Majority DU Indyvoter.org Tribe.net Meetup Propagate the Art Gate
Postgen.com Argue EverywhereWinning Argument
More Progressive BlogsAtriosBlah3 Bush Wars CalPundit Conceptual Guerilla Daily Kos The Hamster Kicking Ass LiberalOasis MaxSpeak Nathan Newman Orcinus Neal Pollack Rebecca's Pocket Scoobie Davis Talking Points Memo This Modern World UggaBugga Uppity Negro Whiskey Bar Oliver Willis To see how many US and UK soldiers Bush has killed in Iraq with his lies, click here. Cost of the War in Iraq
(JavaScript Error)
Honorary HarbingersDr. Helen CaldicottNoam Chomsky Alexander Cockburn David Corn Barbara Ehrenreich BartCop Robert Fisk Laura Flanders William Gibson Amy Goodman Nat Hentoff Katrina vanden Heuvel Sander Hicks Jim Hightower Arianna Huffington Molly Ivins Naomi Klein George Lakoff Robert McChesney Richard Metzger Michael Moore Mark Morford Greg Palast Michael Parenti Geov Parrish John Pilger William Rivers Pitt Ted Rall Anita Roddick Douglas Rushkoff Edward Said R.U. Sirius Normon Solomon Bruce Sterling Helen Thomas Hunter S. Thompson Maria Tomchick Howard Zinn Harbingers Past & Present(In Order of Appearance)Kirsten Anderson Fred Pyen Andrew Abb Brooke Biggs A.Q. Jensen Adam Rice Mark Woods Mr. Planet JP Sal Salasin Eliot Gelwan Jerry Westerby Evan Daze Dirk Hine Tiffany Tomkinson Wylie Sypher Craig Jensen Steve L. Judith Lewis Steven Baum Jim Higgins Brian Lamb Tony Tross Stack Kendall Clark Cynthia Korzekwa Chris Eby Joe Somebody Lia Bulaong Turbulent Velvet Jason Lubyk Eldee Graham Freeman Richard Kahn Thorizine Bob Morris Robert Sieracki Pagan Moss Ray Davis Green Flash L Johnson Garret Vreeland Michael Webb Grant Williamson Phillip Shropshire Brad Olson James Capozzola Grady Olivier Back Space Martin Wisse Hash Steven Green Amir Butler Kebbie Marc Robinson Joseph Duemer Norm Jenson Zed Lopez Henning Bertram Helen & Harry Highwater Klint Finley Team sTaRe MC Distraction Cyndy Roy Kim Osterwalder George Kelly Valis Noah Shachtman Lawrence Green Michael LaMartina Bill Connolly George Partington Phil Leggiere Ray Sweatman Tate Engstrand Tommy Tompkins The Happy Tutor Kurt Nimmo Hanan Cohen Julia MadamJuJuJive Ashley Benigno Patton Price Eli Stephens Bruce Wilson Jeremy Wells Madeleine Kane Weird Pixie Bruce Benedict Spinoza HyperSpaceGirl John Fenderson Soy Joy James Benjamin William Blaze DDJango Citizen Daryl Joe Leftist John Walz Damon Taylor Mr. Spock Alec Kinnear Susan Michelle Fierro Northstar Harry MacDougal Rick Pietz Inspector Lohmann Trevor Blake Nick Lewis Cecil B. Demented Michael Miller Ben Gloria Brame Robin Herman Bob Hate Gun Shannon Hubbell Young Fox Teresa Ortega Cap'n Marrrrk Uncle $cam Lenin Mark Elf The Retropolitan Henry Baum Screwy Hoolie The Continental Op Morgaine Swann Ashton Dirk Buchholz . . . and your host: Dr. Menlo: censored by China, Blogsnob and "The Lefty Directory" Friends of the Samizdat100 WordsworthAlmocreve das Petas American Amnesia A-noticias be the water not the rock Betacorpo.net bird on the moon blacksundae Blog Left Blogistan Blowback Burst Transmission commonSci consumptive.org Corpus Callosum Counterpoint 2004 the Daily Vexation, by Pardue Duran Defensor Pacis Dehiscence Dirty Water dratfink Drunken Monkey Style Blogging Estimated Prophet Exquisite Corpse The Fix the floating baby moses syndrome Follow Me Here Mike Golby haha no serious The Hairy Eyeball hedgeblog Heli's Heaven and Hell Radio High Masculine Tones High Water I.D. FLUX ikastikos Incoming Signals information virus Interesting Monstah it is not about you it is not the same killer empathy Knoxville Underground The Left End of the Dial L'Alliance Liberal Oasis likesunday l∅ckedinab∅x lowgradepanic Marstonalia MaxSpeak ME AND OPHELIA misnomer TomNadeau.com NathanNewman.org Netron New World Disorder No-sword No Touch Monkey! notes from somewhere bizarre Obscurantist onegoodmove Orcinus PageCount Palace Chime pleasant PNAC.info Post-atomic Prana Designs Progressive Blog Alliance Progressive Gold Que Bola randomWalks RANTISSIMO reading & writing remake/remodel The River Sassafrass Log Shou? - Igor Boog skimble skippy the bush kangaroo Social Design Notes StoutDemBlog thoughts on the eve of the apocalypse Time Is Tight 3 River Tech Review to the teeth UnaBlogger Unknown News Used Car Sales Wallybrane's Martian Adventures Warblogger Watch We Don't Agree, But Wealth Bondage weblog without a name mike.whybark The Wily Filipino Wis[s]e Words wood's lot Word for Word Youngfox Canada Yoyo Regime Archives2002 January February March April May June July August September October November December 2003 January February March April May June July August September October November December 2004 January February March April May June July August September October November December 2005 January February March April May June July August September October November December 2006 January February March April May June July August September October November December 2007 January February March April May June July August September October November December 2008 January February March April May June July August September October November December 2009 January February March April May June July August September October November December 2010 January February March April May |