A "Fair" Kind of Tax Plan

Last week on my blog I posted the video of the now famous “Joe the Plumber” exposing Obama for what he really is. He is nothing but a socialist who wants to play Robin Hood, and by in his own words, “Spread the wealth around.” Before I go any further, I want to know how in less than a week in a half, we know all that there is to know about Joe the plumber. Whether it is unpaid parking tickets, owed taxes, or detentions served in Junior High, the media had dug up everything they could find.

So how is it that we don’t know everything about a man who has been running for President almost as long as he has been a senator? This situation is an excellent example of what is going to happen with an Obama presidency. Anyone who questions him is going to be slammed up against the wall and hushed. Never mind the fact that Barry came up to Joe to talk to him. And when Joe challenged him on something, and he didn’t have a teleprompter or some memo from his campaign telling him what to say, he blurted out what he truly believes.

Add on the human gaffe reel Joe Biden opening his pie hole this past Monday saying that something catastrophic is going to happen to this country, and even though what Obama will do to fix the problem will not be popular with the public, we need to just trust him anyway. Talk about a jagged pill to swallow! I trust Barry about as much as a cold snake on top of a mountain. Much like the snake, once we transport him to the warmth down below, he will bite us, claiming that it is the “change” that we need.

OK, back on subject. Liberals like to cry and whine about how our tax system is unfair, and how the middle class is shrinking and being hurt by it. (Of course they don’t ever mention the reason why the middle class has shrunk is because they have moved to the upper class.) After all, according to them, if we just taxed the rich more and gave the poor and middle class more money, than everything would be “fair.” You and I know that is Socialism, but don't try to tell them that. They wouldn't understand.

Well my friends, there is a tax solution that would make everything “fair.” It would jump start our economy, and would make taxes so easy to file, even a third grader could do them. It is called the Flat Tax.

I have been reading more about the flat tax, and the more I read the more I like it. It makes things very simple. Everyone would pay the same rate of taxes. You could be Bill Gates, or the guy who messed up my Grilled Stuffed Burrito from Taco Bell. Also, there will no longer be a need for the IRS in its current form. In fact, the tax form you would have to fill out would be about the size of a post card. It would look something like this:

Major features of the flat tax are as follows:

A single flat rate
Instead of varying rates across the board, there is one low rate. This would therefore reduce penalties against productive behavior, such as work, risk taking, and entrepreneurship.

Elimination of special preferences
Things such as deductions, credits, exemptions and other loopholes would go away, which would help take care of some of the complexity of filing taxes. This would also allow your taxes to be done of the postcard sized card I mentioned above.

No double taxation of saving and investment
This means no death tax; no capital gains taxes, no double taxation of saving and no double tax on dividends. By taxing income only once, the flat tax is easier to enforce, and is more favorable to job creation and capital formation.

Family friendly tax system
All flat tax proposals have one loophole. Luckily for families, that loophole is an exemption based on family size. To give you an idea of how much you would pay, check out this website. But if you don’t have the time, I will give you a quick example. A Family of 4 would not begin to pay a tax until its annual income reached more than $37,000.

Two of the principal arguments in favor of a flat tax are growth and fairness. (Ahh…fairness, the word people on the left love and adore.) Economists across the nation like the idea of a flat tax because the current tax system, with its high rates and taxation of investment, reduces growth, destroys jobs, (check out what the tax rate is in countries where American jobs are going, and see what they are. I can guarantee they are lower than ours.) and lowers incomes. And while a flat tax would not eliminate taxes altogether, it would erase the current tax code’s bias towards saving and investment. It would also boost the economy’s performance compared to the present tax code.

Now onto the fairness part of the deal. Do you have any idea how many documents, instruction manuals, and forms that taxpayers across the nation struggle to understand? With the flat tax it would be replaced by two simple postcards. One for individuals and one for businesses, and a set of instructions on how to fill the card(s) out. This would not only make filing taxes easier, but it would give many people the peace of mind to know that there are no special advantages given to people who have political power, or can afford to hire high priced tax advisors.

Not only that, but everyone would be paying the same rate. A wealthy taxpayer who makes 100 times more than your regular Joe would be paying 100 times more. No longer would the tax code penalize success and discriminate against citizens on the basis of income.

Do you know what else a flat tax would do? No longer would politicians on either side of the aisle be able to pick winners and losers, reward friends at big corporations or punish enemies who might have crossed their path, and who use the tax code to impose their values on the economy. In other words, the amount of political corruption would decrease. Instead of corporations spending money on the lobbyists, lawyers, and accountants they send to D.C. to try and get favorable tax treatment, the money could be spend trying to grow their company, and create jobs.

The one thing that really bothers me about Barry is that he and is lib friends think that raising taxes in the answer. But if you look at what some of the old Soviet countries are doing, you will see that they are lowering their taxes, not raising them. One way they are doing this is by implementing the flat tax. When Russia implemented a 13 percent flat tax in 2001, their economy started to prosper. No longer was tax evasion and avoiding having to pay taxes as profitable. Throw in their increased oil production (Which is a great idea. Too bad if ol’ Barry is elected it won’t happen) and their bottom line is even better. Other Baltic States with a form of flat tax include (but not limited to) Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Ukraine, and Georgia.

So there you have it. Special interest favoritism goes away. All taxpayers would be treated equally. A taxpayer would no longer be able to scam the system. Economic growth would be boosted by reducing the tax burden on work, savings, and investments. No more double taxation. But most of all a simple and transparent system that would make it harder for political hacks to manipulate. I guess the only problem would be that Democrats could no longer play the political game they love to play by pitting the poor and middle class against the rich and upper class. Sucks for them I guess.

If you would like more info on the flat tax, just do a Google search. That is what I did, and found a ton of info on the subject.

Oh, I did forget a couple of the cons about the flat tax. The IRS would have no purpose any longer, and those people would have to find new jobs. Not to mention what would happen to companies like H&R Block. But the way I look at things, which are when the people who want to succeed in some other career will pull themselves up by their bootstraps, and find another way to make money. It has been done before in this country, and it can be done again.