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

[wintersweet.livejournal.com]

Oh, the evil!!!

[unanon.livejournal.com]

Holy shit.

*head hurts* I've had it up to HERE with Bush this week. *raised hand to top of door-frame*

And I'm a fucking Republican, dammit. *hates*

[kellinator.livejournal.com]

At this point I can't fathom why any Republican would vote for Bush. Isn't the hallmark of the party supposed to be fiscal responsibility? The man wouldn't know fiscal responsibility if it bit him on the ass.

Re: Because I knew you would like this

[kellinator.livejournal.com]

Uhhh... what?

[blackacre.livejournal.com]

Coming from NY where we have sales tax on everything which varies county wide (here, in UPSTATE ONONDAGA COUNTY its currently 8.25%, and MIGHT get jacked up higher)...

Total agreement. Hell yeah, in fact.

[football-swan.livejournal.com]

No income tax, replaced with a national sales tax isn't a new concept. This idea has been bandied about many times prior, and obviously has gone nowhere.

Don't think it will this time, either. The voters aren't stupid.

[jerseygirl1.livejournal.com]

Exactly... in fact, this reeks of a way to get the vote of republicans who are sick of him, since this is a very conservative idea.

[kellinator.livejournal.com]

I meant that I didn't see anything at all on your comment.

[tenn-crichton.livejournal.com]

Here's something to piss you off.

Got this link from one of astrophysicat's friends about the supposed fairtax. To say the least, we've come to the conclusion that this is a bunch of horses#%$.

[xforge.livejournal.com]

Smart politicos keep it from looking like a tax on the poor, which is what the hell it is, by exempting groceries and clothes and car tires and stuff like poor people damn well need to frickin' live. But do I trust President F*ckhead not to do that? Not as far as I could throw the frickin' house he's stayin' in, I don't.

[penguinicity.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately the linked article doesn't say if he means a straight up sales tax (which is asinine and horribly regressive) or a sales tax combined with a refund (such as the one advocated by fairtax.org which is the most sensible tax plan I've yet seen. Given past performance, my money's on the former. Or, possibly, someone explained it to him as the latter but that was a bit too complicated so he understood it as the former.

[moongarden1971.livejournal.com]

How can one man be so fucking STUPID???

Try this

[jerseygirl1.livejournal.com]

http://flem.keenspace.com/d/20040726.html

[gaiagurl.livejournal.com]

some of them are, unfortunately.

[gaiagurl.livejournal.com]

and if they're gonna do that anyway, what is the point of a flat tax??? keep the system we HAVE, dammit, and simplify it somewhat!

[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.

[kelliecoo.livejournal.com]

I am so pissed off at you right now, I could spit. Ha, ha, just kidding. A national sales tax is a stupid idea if it included basic essentials like food, gas (we are already taxed on that), etc. The stuff that everyone needs to survive...But if the big products we purchase were nationally taxed that would be awesome because then you know the guy in the Bentley is paying way more tax than the guy in the Hyundai. The IRS sucks, when you get married, your tax burden becomes horrendous. I used to get money back every year before marriage, now we owe about $4k and we take out more than the IRS recommends for our individual salaries.

[gmslegion.livejournal.com]

You're assuming that the pre-tax cost of the food will remain the same. Since the fairtax (cited by others above) assumes that the income tax will be removed entirely, not just from your takehome pay, the costs of production and distribution will drop. Ideally, and this assumes your grocer is willing to lower the cost of the food since it now costs less for him to purchase, you're adding the 8% you cite to a smaller base cost.

I don't blame you for being skeptical. I was, and I continue to be. Nevertheless, I've been completely sold by Congressman Linder on the fairtax, and I'm stunned and amazed that now, after all this time, our idiot president has finally done something with which I agree. I might have to knock him back from #2 to #3 on the "worst presidents ever" list.

Seriously, have a look at the fairtax.org website and read over the FAQs. They do a very decent job explaining it.

[libidoergosum.livejournal.com]

if applied correctly, the NST (National Sales Tax) would be a good idea. It would be a good idea if things like food and fuel were not taxed. But on non-essential items, I think it would be awesome. It would tax income that otherwise would not be taxable such as tourism, drug money (drug dealers/consumers are consumers of legitimate goods as well) as well as high-dollar items that the rich consume (that would have escaped taxation based on the "capitol gains" tax cut. The idea is reasonable, but in his hands it is not.

[jphthebachelor.livejournal.com]

I have a problem with this Bentley argument. The amount that the Bentley driver pays in tax is strictly speaking larger, but actually accounts for a much smaller amount of his total income. So the tax burden on the Hyundai driver is considerably greater. That's what makes the tax unfair and regressive.

[sempereadem.livejournal.com]

msick and tired of handing over 35% of my paycheck in taxes. After all my other contributions, I'm losing 40% of each paycheck.

I'd be happy to fork over extra sales tax on a box of popsicles if I was keeping the 35% of my income that goes to support schools I don't have kids in and a public transportation system I don't use and civic programs that don't benefit me.

How do you know when you've become a Republican? When you get offended at the thought of someone else taking your shit without asking permission and giving it to someone else who didn't earn it.

[kelliecoo.livejournal.com]

Oh man, I thought my argument was pretty good. :) When I lived in Britain, I loved the way they taxed. You never saw the money taken out and never had to do paperwork. So much nicer than our IRS.

[phyrra.livejournal.com]

Since I'm still in Memphis, TN, I can attest that the sales tax here is 9.25% (more than when we were living in California) and yes it is on food and just about everything. It suuuuuucks.

[misanthropist.livejournal.com]

Well, I think they would respond by saying that all of those federal taxes that come out of your paycheck wouldn't, and thus a "food tax" wouldn't be so bad.

I disagree, but that is what they would say.

And this would mean that we pay like 14-20% in sales tax (because the states need money too)?

[misanthropist.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but another hallmark is smaller government. This proposal is supposed to get rid of the IRS.

Again, not that I agree with it. Just playind Devil's Advocate, I suppose.