Oh good heavens help us...

[kellinator]

The latest idea from Herr Shrub: Let's get rid of the income tax and replace it with a national sales tax.

This is the worst idea I've heard from the Idiot-in-Chief since... oh, who's counting?

I don't know a lot about economics, but I come from Tennessee, home of one of the highest sales taxes in the nation (including on food, and yes I do mean groceries). And sales taxes are definitely regressive.

Do the math. Say a person needs x amount of food to survive, taxed at 8%. For Bill Gates that tax is nothing; for the average middle-class American it's an 8% jump in the food bill. Talk about your cost of living increase...

I guess this is his way of saying he doesn't think he's put enough of the tax burden on the middle and lower class.

And if this post pisses you off, I don't give a fuck.

EDIT: Excellent article from resipsaloquitor:
http://money.cnn.com/2004/08/11/news/economy/election_tax/index.htm?cnn=yes

Comments

[skellington.livejournal.com]

I have no idea how the plan as proposed over at fairtax.org would actually work out, but as it is proposed, it is not regressive.

They give a flat rebate of the amount of sales tax times (some magic number near the poverty line) as a rebate, regardless of what you spend.

So you'd get a check from the government on a monthly or quarterly basis for something like 20k * 22% ( / 12 if monthly.)

So if you are poor, and make below 20k a year, you end up with a net positive from the plan. You also don't pay social secuirty and medicare, which represent 15% of your income in the present system (discounting the EIC and other tax credits.)

And, it taxes the illegal immigrants (and doesn't pay them the rebate? hmmm), and gets rid of normal people filing tax returns (which is a huge "industry" which is a complete waste of skin.)

Since it gets the number of people collecting/paying taxes down to a relatively small group (retail businesses), it is much easier to do audits and enforcement.

Of course, this being the shrub, he'll surely mess it up, but as proposed it doesn't completely suck. Except we'll probably end up with a NRST AND an Income Tax. Gah. Politicians.