Time: Wed Jul 16 13:13:45 1997 by primenet.com (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id NAA20863 for [address in tool bar]; Wed, 16 Jul 1997 13:13:24 -0700 (MST) by usr07.primenet.com (8.8.5/8.8.5) with SMTP id MAA16356; Wed, 16 Jul 1997 12:42:13 -0700 (MST) Date: Wed, 16 Jul 1997 12:41:50 -0700 To: (Recipient list suppressed) From: Paul Andrew Mitchell [address in tool bar] Subject: SLS: An All-American Tax System (fwd) <snip> > >AN ALL-AMERICAN TAX SYSTEM >PATRICK J. BUCHANAN >July 14, 1997 > >These are truly the dog days of the Republican Party. >Successive national tickets have been defeated by Bill Clinton as >convincingly as the GOP Congress has been cowed. If the incoming mail of >one writer on public affairs is a reliable barometer of public sentiment, >the party is in trouble-for that mail is full of anger, despair and >derision for the Republican leadership. >To endure, a great party must be more than a line on a ballot or a vehicle >for advancement. It must embody people's hopes. It must be, and be seen as, >the vessel of a cause larger than itself. With the Cold War over, what is >the great cause of the Grand Old Party? >If that cause is to stand for lower taxes, and smaller, less intrusive >government, it is time to revisit an idea broached here years ago: >replacement of the U.S. income tax with a national sales tax. What would a >national sales tax (NST) -- already adopted by Rep. Bill Archer, chairman >of the House Ways and Means Committee- accomplish? It would: >* End, in one stroke, all federal taxation of salaries, wages, >dividends, interest, gifts, estates and capital gains. >* Eliminate all federal income tax forms, saving 5.4 billion work hours >spent each year filling them out. >* Shift the U.S. tax burden off work, savings and investment onto >consumption-as economists have urged for years. >* Eliminate the Internal Revenue Service. >* Tax the "cash economy" and "underground economy" for the first time. All >present tax evaders-from tourists to tax cheats, from illegal aliens to >organized crime-would become U.S. taxpayers, chipping in, like the rest of >us, every time they spent a dollar. >* Eliminate the need for hundreds of thousands of accountants, bookkeepers, >tax lawyers and trust lawyers, turning them loose for more productive work >than exploring the U.S. tax code for loopholes. >* Eliminate thousands of lobbyists now prowling the nation's capital for >special tax breaks for their industries or corporations. > >A shift to an national sales tax would also have a dramatically favorable >impact on the U.S. trade deficit. An NST of 15 percent would end the >scandalous tax evasion by foreign corporations, putting U.S. goods on a >level playing field with imports. Moreover, eliminating income and >corporate taxes from the sticker price of U.S. products would strengthen >America's competitive position in world markets. >With all federal taxes on income and investment lifted, wealth would pour >into the United States. Foreign corporations would move here. Wealthy >foreigners would stampede to make America their official residence for tax >purposes. U.S. citizens who have moved their money abroad to evade income >or estate taxes would come scurrying home. >America would become the world's greatest enterprise zone! >In the great GOP debate, between advocates of a flat tax and advocates of >NST, the latter seem to this writer to have much the stronger case, for the >flat tax has several fatal flaws. >First, a flat tax of 17 percent on all incomes above $35,000 would give the >scores of millions of Americans earning less than $35,000 no incentive to >cut federal spending and every incentive to increase it. >Second, since all capital gains and dividends go untaxed under a flat tax, >the idle rich and the David Rockefellers, Warren Buffetts and their heirs >would never pay a dime, though their employees would pay 17 percent a year. >This exemption for coupon-clippers and trust-fund babies will never pass >muster with Congress or the country. >The strongest argument against an NST has been that, under it, the poor, >working poor and elderly living only on Social Security, who pay no income >tax, would get a sharp tax hike-since all their income is spent. But the >wealthiest Americans, who are taxed today at near 40 percent of income, >would get a hefty tax cut. >GOP Reps. Billy Tauzin and Dan Schaefer propose a way around this >formidable obstacle. Under their NST, food, clothing and shelter are >exempt, and the poor and working poor are made whole with rebates. >As Rep. Tauzin argues, the U.S. income tax does not need to be reformed-it >needs to be pulled up by its roots. No system will satisfy all, and none is >perfect, but the NST seems to be the best of all possible worlds. >It eliminates the IRS. It ensures that everyone pays-but only when we >consume, not when we earn, save or invest. Tax evaders would now pony up, >like everyone else. Imports would carry the same taxes as U.S.-made goods. >Exports would go untaxed. >Everyone would contribute to the national defense and all the other >necessary duties of government, which is as it should be. In a democratic >republic, there should be no freeloaders. >The NST-call it "America's tax code"! >copyright Patrick J. Buchanan 1997 > > >TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT >(o?o) Dean Howard Stanton (o?o) >mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm >subscribe: mailto:deanstan@cybertron.com >home page: http://www.cybertron.com/~standean/ >voice email: http://www.vocaltec.com >www pager: http://wwp.mirabilis.com/127748 >mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm > > > ======================================================================== Paul Andrew Mitchell : Counselor at Law, federal witness B.A., Political Science, UCLA; M.S., Public Administration, U.C. Irvine tel: (520) 320-1514: machine; fax: (520) 320-1256: 24-hour/day-night email: [address in tool bar] : using Eudora Pro 3.0.3 on 586 CPU website: http://www.supremelaw.com : visit the Supreme Law Library now ship to: c/o 2509 N. Campbell, #1776 : this is free speech, at its best Tucson, Arizona state : state zone, not the federal zone Postal Zone 85719/tdc : USPS delays first class w/o this As agents of the Most High, we came here to establish justice. We shall not leave, until our mission is accomplished and justice reigns eternal. ======================================================================== [This text formatted on-screen in Courier 11, non-proportional spacing.]
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