Finally, something Bush wants to do that I agree with. If you take a step back for a split second and think about this it makes so much sense. Eliminate the IRS and replace it with a national sales tax.
All of a sudden, the problem of what future generations owe in Social Security and Medicare wont be so daunting anymore. The answer is to grow the economy, and the key to doing that is making sure we have a tax system that attracts capital and builds incentives to keep it here instead of forcing it out to other nations.
Imagine if you make $40,000 a year. The IRS takes 30% of that. The sales tax would probably be proportional maybe even a little less (since the IRS wouldn’t be sucking up funds to run itself). But what makes this great is that I don’t have to ever fill out another 1040-ES ever again. And that, my friends, is reason to rejoice.
I do not really like this idea. If I lived in texas I would think its the best thing since sliced bread. I would go to mexico and buy everything and drive it back. For instance I can buy a tv for 200 bux. It would be 260 in the US and 200 in mexico. Imagine a laptop. I could fly to Europe for 200 bux pick up the laptop fly back for about 1200. In the US that laptop would cost 1600 dollars. The US will have to crack down on smuggling even more. From what I heard we only check 2% of the freights?
There needs to be a lot more planning in this decision then the plan to piss off the world in Iraq.
Jonathan:
WOW. Have you ever taken an economics course? I think you’re comment is a *bit* off. Check back later if you’re interested in an explanation.
Sounds great – until you realize that you’re paying about a 25-30 percent sales tax on nearly every item – from food and Mac firewire right down to your underwear. Also, those wonderful tax benefits of home ownership and child birth? Say bye-bye. Mortgage right offs and child tax credits are out the window. Of course, if you give a damn about working class people trying to join the middle class (yes, Mr. Bush, we know you don’t) you’re slapping them with a massive tax increase (since the bottom rate right now is about 10 percent – the only good part of the Bush tax cuts, and the least expensive) and instituting a highly regressive tax that allows the wealthiest among us to pay just as tax on a gallon of milk or gas, or a box of cereal, as people scraping by on $20,000/year. Like much of what comes out of Mr. Bush’s mouth (if it’s in English) it sounds good, but the details show that people on the top reap the benefit while the rest of us get the shaft.
As an aside, we’ll all still be paying SS and Medicare taxes – which are a flat tax – and the burden of which falls largely upon lower income Americans. Of course, when computing the tax burden by income groups (who pays the most), flat tax advocates ignore SS and Medicare taxes and focus solely on the Federal income tax. You can say there’s a difference, but Joe Six Pack doesn’t really care which pot the money is going into. He does notice, however, that his gross and net on his pay stub are vastly different numbers – and SS/Medicare taxes take a huge bite – a bite the flat tax will not reduce.