I think I like the idea of a national sales tax, but the tax should not be paid by the individuals. It should be paid by the people selling the product. This is called a General Excise Tax. When you do this, even corporations will have to pay their fair share.

Now as to why this will never happen. The people who benefit from the present tax codes will fight it. These people are at the top of the ladder and these are the people with the deep pockets and political clout. The various charitable organizations will fight it. Charities get much of their private funding because of the tax code. You take way the advantages of donating money to charities and donations will drop off drastically. Tax attorneys and Tax preparers and accountants will fight this too. After all, you scrap the code and you scrap the need for these professionals.

Bottom line, I'm afraid to say, is that the present tax system is here for a long long time.

As for those on welfare, I'm sure there are cases where they really do deserve to be on assistance. The hard thing to do is catching the cheaters. There just aren't enough case workers to root out all the cheaters.

 

A flat tax will never be used because the Republicans will block it for the simple fact that it will force the wealthy and megawealthy to pay their fair share. In one of the homes on my block lives a single mom with 5 kids under the age of 10 all have different fathers. She moved here from Puerto Rico 5 years ago. She doesn't work. She lives in a $80,000 house which the county made the initial $20,000 down payment as a grant that she doesn't have to pay back. The US government assists her with aid to pay a percentage of her living expenses, food stamps and free medical coverage at the clinic. My wife did her taxes this year, without earning a dime she received $4800.00 back from the IRS as earned income credits. My wife charged her the standard $50.00 fee for preparing her taxes and she bitched about the fee. I'm a pissed off individual also.

 

Rick99, I know that some of the down payment money for the Puerto Ricans house is revenue generated from property taxes (in most states). Now property taxes really **** me off.

 

Rick 99 - it is a big myth that the wealthy don't pay taxes. I'm not wealthy, and I pay tons of taxes and I would pay even more if I had more money.

Earned income credits really **** me off - How people who didn't pay taxes can get a tax refund is beyond me.

The biggest obstacles to any tax cuts is the demos crying that the tax cut will be only for the rich. Well, duh, it is hard to cut taxes for the people who don't pay any.

 

...and I'd like to say a few words for those of us who are filthy rich. My dad worked hard for everything I got and I resent being taxed to death for it. Lord knows what I'd have to pay if I had a job!

 

If you wanna complain about welfare, at least complain about the biggest recepients of welfare... US Corporations. Why the hell do you think we have ethanol in our gas now? Do you know how much money the government gives to ADM every year so that they can turn a profit? What about cities giving companies huge tax breaks to locate there and then the business sucking the community dry and leaving? Its obscene and a much, much bigger drain on our public coffers than food stamps and Medicare (although Medicare is seriously messed up as well).

 

The wealthy may have a tax rate higher than the middles but with certain placements of their funds and various loopholes they pay a much lower rate than middles. My wife showed me how they do it. I don't mind paying at the present rate but a Tax cut proposed by George Bush infuriates me, instead of "token" small cuts why not pay towards the deficit or SS. I am Independant voter, and I am mad at Pres Clinton for having more sex than me and the Republican congress spending 45-60 million of our money charting the path of his "Johnson". Now the Republican congress wants to spend more of our money investigating the Elian Gonzales matter. Enough of the nonsense. Deadbeats get away with their nonsense because the aid money is there for a number of things, some ridiculous.

 

I'm sorry, irresponsible handling of our tax money really gets me. Wildchild your deal turned out good and best of luck. It can be done, more people should try!

 

it's easier to complain about what we see everyday. like the 25 yr old who lives next door to me who claims to be an alcoholic. yep 100 % disability for him. cruising around in a car that i could never afford and living in a nice place without ever working.
soon after i moved here the city decided that welfare reipients needed better housing to lower crime rates. now they live about 1 block from me in brand new buildings. want to get pi$#ed off, just walk down there and look at the new porsches and mercedes. no kidding these people live way better then i could.
i live in wi. where supposedly welfare was cut off. actually they just renamed it although they did make some of them get a job. my co. decided to hire some of these "hard working and appreciative" people. i actually heard one of them outside saying that the co had actually threatened her for sleeping on the job. she couldn't believe they would be so bold as to say she had to remain awake. quote:" who do they think they are"
why bother let em starve and freeze. i've been about as low as i could get at one time even living in a tent(no tears please ) without the help of any gov't programs i managed to get back on my feet then graduate college and now have a very good career. it took time and certainly wasn't easy, but there's no reason why the welfare folks can't do it to, if given the proper motivation.

 

Let me first say that I'm not rich. I do read the WSJ everyday and have read many articles on taxes. I don't know the exact figures and I'm not going to look them up, but they in effect say something like the top 5% (the rich) of tax filers pay 60% of the individual income taxes. I've also read that the rich are getting richer, but it appears to me that they are paying their share of the taxes. I don't want to get into a big economics debate, but consumption is the big problem. The savings rate needs to be higher. A tax cut to the lower groups wouldn't be saved, it would only increase spending, increase GDP growth ... and cause inflation. Just ask Alan Greenspan......

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