Monthly Archives: January 2013

Fair Tax

FairTax Video

Seven features of an effective tax system. An effective tax system is one that can meet all seven.

  1. SIMPLE. It should be easy to understand.
  2. FAIR. Has the same rules for everyone. Emphasis on EVERYONE.
  3. VISIBLE. Taxpayers can plainly see the taxes they pay and the cost of government in their lives.
  4. NEUTRAL. The revenue needed to sustain the government and the system of taxation to collect it, must not interfere with the economic choices of people, business, and corporations.
  5. EFFICIENT. An efficient tax code will, minimize administrative and enforcement details for the government, minimize compliance details for the taxpayer, and maximize cost effectiveness for the government and the taxpayer.
  6. STABLE. All the features that make the tax system effective also serve to reduce the need for frequent changes to it, thus people, businesses and corporations can plan accordingly for the future because of the stability inherent to the tax system.
  7. FOSTER ECONOMIC GROWTH. The tax code must be free of any obstructions and penalties that deter capital investment and domestic businesses which in turn obstruct job growth and the potential for greater wages. It also must be free of any details that deter any individual’s motivation to work, save, and invest.

Of paramount importance in items six and seven is the elimination of uncertainty. It is the uncertainty that any decision a person, business, or industry makes might come back to bite them in an ever-changing taxing environment.

The current IRS code fails to meet all seven elements. Time for bold and real tax reform has come. Let your federal representative know that you support H.R.25 in the House.

UPDATE: Rep. Rob Woodall (R-GA7) introduced H.R.25 into the 113th Congress yesterday Jan 3, 2013. The Senate version cannot be introduced until January 22 at the earliest.

And to further illustrate the need for a more efficient tax code, look how much difficulty our Treasury Secretary had in paying his taxes.

Here’s a snapshot of how complexity begets uncertainty.

According to government figures, there have been approximately 4,428 tax code changes in the last 10 years, including an estimated 579 changes in 2010 alone. Based on an analysis early last year, the tax code had grown from 1.4 million words to 3.8 million words just since 2001. Between 1986 (the last major tax reform) and 2005, Congress passed 14,400 amendments to the tax code – an average of 2.9 changes every day for the full 19 years.

By contrast, the entire FairTax bill is 145 pages.

 

Politics, Race Relations

113th Congress, Most Diverse

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz (R)

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz (R) has pledged that his first bill would seek to repeal “every syllable of every word” of the Obama administration’s “‘Affordable’ Health Care Act.”

South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott (R)

South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott (R) of was sworn into office Thursday  on a historic day that saw him become the first African-American United States senator from the South since Reconstruction and the upper chamber’s only current black member.

Links: Cruz Sworn In As Texas’ First Hispanic US Senator, Will Introduce Bill To Repeal ‘Obamacare’ « CBS Houston.  |   Sen. Tim Scott’s Swearing-in Caps Historic Rise  |  113th Congress Is Most Diverse Yet; Hispanics Make Gains

Venezuela

Is Hugo Chavez At Room Temperature?

Ding Dong. Some think he is already dead. Chavez’s opposition party might get another chance to free Venezuelans from the dictator and maybe have food on the shelves in markets again. The country may have a shovel-ready project of their own.

Give credit where credit is due, to the fine health care system in communist Cuba.

Link: Hugo Chavez: Venezuelan politicians demand ‘the whole truth’ over condition of President | Mail Online.

Economy, Media, Politics

The ‘Fix’ Is More Taxes, And More Spending, What?

Only President Obama has the nerve to lie (and get away with it) to the American people when he says he is serious about cutting taxes and reducing the debt.

President Obama’s statement at the pep rally in The White House yesterday . . .

Last year in 2011, we started reducing the deficit through $1 trillion in spending cuts. Those have already taken place.

The truth is, shelving a proposed trillion-dollar spending measure is not reducing or cutting anything real.

The agreement being worked on right now would further reduce the deficit by asking the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans to pay higher taxes for the first time in two decades, so that would add additional hundreds of billions of dollars to deficit reduction. So that’s progress, but we’re going to need to do more.

The smoke and mirrors that the media ignores and the dumb masses can’t figure out is that, there is no connection between raising taxes and deficit reduction. Period.

The bill that passed the Senate earlier today raises taxes, and raises spending. The ratio is 1:6.7 For every dollar of tax increase, spending increases nearly seven dollars. It does zip, zero, nada to decreasing the national debt or the deficit. And what’s worse is this. The Left is fine with the lies. They’re upset because, in their mind, Obama caved and didn’t raise taxes enough.

Economy, Politics

Lack Of Transparency, Leadership, Created The ‘Fiscal Cliff’

Monday’s Morning Joe show on MSNBC  led off with Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) responding to a question from Co-host Mika Brzezinski, expressing frustration as to why this fiscal cliff exists, and why doing something about it has come down to the last minute.

The short answer to her question is this.  The leadership (Obama, Reid, Biden) does not have the balls to be open or transparent about what they want, and don’t want, to do. Don’t you remember when Speaker Pelosi said, unequivocally, you’ll have to pass the health care bill to see what’s in it? That’s the way Obama rolls.

There is a 4 1/2 minute set-up to the segment with Sen. Coburn.


Transcript is below.

 Mika Brzezinski:You are paid to take care of this country’s wallet, to take care of this country’s reputation, to take care of this country’s health. Why wouldn’t you all just stay there and get it done. The whole thing. Not something little. Not something that ‘kicks the can down the road.’ You’ve used that phrase time and time again saying we can’t keep kicking the can down the road. I’m tired of hearing it. But even moreso our country needs some stability and balance and not temporary solutions. Why wouldn’t you all, who are paid to do this, stay there ’till you get it done?

Sen. Coburn: No one can argue with that. The problem is what you have to argue with is the fact that everything is done in a dark room, back room, not the committee, not on the floor. And the reason we haven’t achieved anything, is that the process that was intended to work for our country doesn’t work anymore because we won’t bring bills to the floor anymore.

We wouldn’t be where we are today if we actually had regular order in the Senate where you actually had bills come to the floor that actually went through committee, and amendments were offered and we took an up or down vote and then did something with them. We’ve not done that. And that’s because our leadership values the political more than they value the country. We put a premium on protecting members rather than exposing truth and letting the American people see the process.

… we have not done our job but the reason we’re not doing our job is because most members want to have it both ways. They don’t want to have the criticism of making a tough decision.