Monday, August 9, 2004
Following up on last week’s posts (here and here) on GOP plans to eliminate the IRS in a second Bush Administration: the Wall Street Journal editorial page cautioned that the major tax reform pushed by Speaker Hastert likely would result in both a consumption tax as well as an income tax. The WSJ also criticized a stealth VAT and offered this idea instead:
A fundamental rule of any reform should be the old Ronald Reagan proposition that taxes must be felt. That is, people ought to see and feel what the cost of their government really is. In that spirit, we’ve long thought that the most useful reform Republicans could promote would be to abolish income tax withholding. Make taxpayers write one big check to Uncle Sam every year, and the IRS will matter much less because voters will insist that taxes be lower.
3 responses to “Wall Street Journal on GOP Plans to Abolish the IRS”
On Meet the Press yesterday, Speaker Hastert presented himself as an economist, having taught economics for 16 years to high schoolers. Apparently these were better students than his fellow House members, especially on the Republican aisle. Personally, I don’t think Hastert has wrestled enough with the subject so that he can be pinned down on how to improve the economy, other than perhaps another tax cut or getting Alan Keyes to run for the Senate in the Land of Lincoln.
ABOLISH the (irs) Its tax laws are very confusing and with 12,000 pages of Codes the ordinary man cant do his own tax returns nor understand the codes … DID you know you sign your 1040 returns UNDER PENALTY as being correct …did you READ the 12,000 pages of tax codes?
The Cost of colecting taxes using the present method is in the BILLIONS !!!! There are around 200,000 thousand irs collectors. Americans pay 5 billion dollars a year for PROFFESIONALS to do there tax returns. WHat a WASTE!!!!!!!
I VOTE for a National Retail Sales Tax
did you know that over 65,000.000 million people do not file tax returns, did you know more and more businessess are going offshore? Did you know that ALL the money you send in to “irs” goes to pay the natinal dept?
With a retail sales tax the poorest and the richest persons pay the same Tax “Fair Tax”
With a retail sales Tax YOU KEEP ALL YOUR PAYROLL CHECK ! GREAT NO MORE 1040 , estamated payments , tax planners, tax accountants , tax Lawyers, tax COURTS, NO MORE IRS….
Lets make life simple
Mike Carey “AMERICAN”
The best suggestion was in the last paragraph of the editorial: get rid of withholding. Honestly, withholding does more to inflate taxes than just about any legislative action taken in recent memory. Furthermore, it leads to a more disconnected and less responsible civic mindset. If people sit down and write a check, they will take more ownership in their government. That’s a win-win for everyone.