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Date: Tue, 16 Dec 1997 05:37:44 -0800
To: (Recipient list suppressed)
From: Paul Andrew Mitchell [address in tool bar]
Subject: SLS: TAX REFORM: longest living RED HERRING?? (fwd)
Cc: ice@coolmedia.net
Such active fish need to stay all wet
in order to survive.
/s/ Paul Mitchell,
Candidate for Congress
http://supremelaw.com
<snip>
>
>I wonder if the Guiness Book of World Records has an entry for the
>longest living RED HERRING?!?! This thing could easily get the
>incumbents reelected until they all qualify for retirement!
>ICE
>
>Dems, GOP Join To Overhaul Tax Laws
>
> By ROB WELLS
> AP Tax Writer
>
> WASHINGTON (AP) -- Leading Democrats
>have joined Republicans in the clamor to
>
> overhaul the tax system, broadening
>debate on an issue certain to get plenty
>of
> attention in Congress next year.
>
> House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt,
>D-Mo., and Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass.,
>
> plus the libertarian Cato Institute and
>a San Francisco think tank called
>Redefining
> Progress, are promoting various ideas
>following GOP-sponsored debates on a
>flat tax
> and national sales tax. Many other
>alternatives are expected to crop up
>when
> Congress returns in late January.
>
> This fall, House Republicans revived
>the tax reform topic with a series of
> well-attended debates featuring a flat
>tax advocate, House Majority Leader Dick
>
> Armey, R-Texas, and a national sales
>tax proponent, Rep. Billy Tauzin, R-La.
>Armey
> and Tauzin limited the debate to
>proposals already introduced as
>legislation that
> promised a single, flat rate.
>
> House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga.,
>applauded the debates. While not
>endorsing
> either option, he backed an effort to
>scrap the income tax code by 2001 and
>replace it
> with a new system.
>
> Kennedy proposed a ``post-card tax
>return with progressive tax rates.''
>
> ``Democrats can and must seek genuine
>tax simplification,'' he told the
>National Press
> Club last week. ``But the tax rate on
>the post card cannot and must not be the
>same
> flat rate for all Americans.''
>
> Gregory Jenner, national tax policy
>director at the accounting firm Coopers
>&
> Lybrand, said, ``One of the things that
>seems to be occurring frequently these
>days is
> the co-opting of issues of one party by
>another. I don't think there is complete
>
> ownership of tax reform by one party.''
>
> Kennedy also proposed a major overhaul
>of the Social Security payroll tax,
>which he
> called ``our most regressive tax.''
>Currently, individuals pay a 6.2 percent
>rate on all
> wages up to $65,400; their employers
>match that amount.
>
> Kennedy would remove the $65,400 cap
>and use the proceeds to cut Social
>Security
> taxes to 5.3 percent for everyone.
>``Everyone earning less than $80,000 a
>year would
> receive a tax break,'' he said. His
>proposal would not affect the 1.45
>percent Medicare
> payroll tax.
>
> Jenner said Kennedy's tax idea amounts
>to ``redistributing the tax burden to
>the
> upper-income levels.''
>
> Kennedy left the details for his
>post-card tax return until next year,
>but a spokesman
> said it is ``roughly similar'' to the
>10 percent tax plan advanced by
>Gephardt, who is
> eyeing a run for the presidency.
>
> Gephardt says that under his plan, 75
>percent of taxpayers would pay a 10
>percent
> federal tax on a post card-sized
>return. He would eliminate nearly all
>deductions,
> credits and exclusions from taxes,
>except for the home mortgage interest
>deduction.
>
> Another new voice in the debate is
>economist Stephen Moore of the Cato
>Institute,
> who would let taxpayers choose between
>the current system or a 25 percent flat
>tax on
> gross income.
>
> Another new entrant is a modified
>``green tax'' proposed by Redefining
>Progress. It
> would be aimed at discouraging
>pollution and heavy energy consumption
>with new
> taxes on emissions or fuels.
>
> The basic idea involves a tax shift --
>raising taxes on socially undesirable
>pollution
> while delivering tax breaks that
>encourage investment and reward workers.
>
> ``It's not about shifting the burden
>from individuals to businesses,'' said
>Jeff Hamond,
> fiscal policy research director at
>Redefining Progress, a group of liberal
>and
> conservative academics who seek to
>expand the tax debate.
>
> ``It's not only about protecting the
>environment while we're trying to grow
>the
> economy,'' he said. ``It's about
>bringing more sense to the tax code.''
>
> The theory is to create a system in
>which people are ``empowered to reduce
>their tax
> bill through their daily behavior,''
>such as getting a more fuel-efficient
>car or reducing
> long commutes by moving closer to work,
>Hamond said.
>
> That's in contrast to the current
>system in which people generally have to
>earn less to
> pay less. ``There are dozens of things
>they can do to have an effect on their
>tax
> burden,'' Hamond said.
>
> This idea is gaining attention from
>conservative economists such as J.D.
>Foster of the
> Tax Foundation, a nonpartisan research
>group. ``It is something that ought to
>be part
> of the debate,'' he said.
>
<snip>
===========================================================================
Paul Andrew Mitchell, Sui Juris : Counselor at Law, federal witness 01
B.A.: Political Science, UCLA; M.S.: Public Administration, U.C.Irvine 02
tel: (520) 320-1514: machine; fax: (520) 320-1256: 24-hour/day-night 03
email: [address in tool bar] : using Eudora Pro 3.0.3 on 586 CPU 04
website: http://supremelaw.com : visit the Supreme Law Library now 05
ship to: c/o 2509 N. Campbell, #1776 : this is free speech, at its best 06
Tucson, Arizona state : state zone, not the federal zone 07
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_____________________________________: Law is authority in written words 09
As agents of the Most High, we came here to establish justice. We shall 10
not leave, until our mission is accomplished and justice reigns eternal. 11
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