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

testify! ;)

[10dimensions.livejournal.com]

Yeah, once you become a home owner you get to shell out an extra $2k [for us, anyway] a year in property taxes, the bulk of which are school taxes.

Plus the 35% out of our income... when Dave and I were both employed by someone other than ourselves, we were both claiming zero exemptions, and still owed. *grumbles about marriage penalty*

Now that I'm self-employed I get to see firsthand how much is going to taxes and Social Security. When you're employed your employer has to pay that matching share, you never see it. When you work for yourself you pay your share and the "employer" share. But just because your employer pays, doesn't mean they're actually paying it for you. That's just salary you're not getting, because they have to hand it over to the gov't first. So, you have to count that amount into what you're paying in income taxes.

[My old boss always used to say that if employers stopped paying employee taxes up front, and if people actually had to pay it all themselves and saw how much taxes are costing them out of their potential income, there would be a national uprising.]

Plus we pay sales tax on nearly everything we buy. And don't get me started on ad valorem taxes, gas taxes, tariffs and all sorts of other ways that every dollar you make is taxed into oblivion. Everything we buy has been taxed and tariffed so much, no wonder a pair of jeans cost $30!

By the time all is said and done, we're giving the damn gov't at least 50 cents on every dollar we make, in some form or another. And we have horrible educational quality, a health care system that is fast excluding all but the wealthiest, and Social Security that, according to the statement they recently sent me, will only be able to cover about 75% of what I'm due when I retire. If I'm lucky.

Will even a good flat tax plan fix all of that? Who the fuck knows. I'm politically cynical enough to say not a chance in hell...the gov't will find some way to fuck it up no matter how simple it is. I wish I had a good answer. I don't. But it does piss me right the hell off.

Boy I'm writing long comments today! ;)