don’t mess with taxes
by Sandra Kinne
Published: January 1, 2008
Benjamin Franklin said, “There are only two certainties in life: death and taxes.” If Mike Huckabee gets his way, there will be one less certainty for Americans. Despite his self-anointing, “I’m the Second Coming” persona, it’s not death he’s trying to do away with.
Huckabee, the most “aw-shucks” candidate since Bill Clinton, is campaigning to eliminate the federal income tax and abolish the Internal Revenue Service, replacing federal taxes with a 23% sales tax. According to the Los Angeles Times, his proposal also calls for a “prebate” to lessen the impact on poorer families; they would get a monthly cash payment to cover sales taxes on spending, up to the federal poverty level..
Tax cuts and a monthly check to the poor? Can a Republican suggest both? Someone better check to see if he’s gone completely radical. Quick, Huck, what’s your opinion on gay marriage and owning guns?
In the Los Angeles Times, Bruce Bartlett, a conservative economist, called Huckabee’s proposal “a crackpot plan.” When a guy who worked in both the Reagan and Bush I administrations opposes the elimination of a tax, you’ve got to wonder if the plan isn’t the only “crackpot” in the Huckabee campaign.
Despite the numerous faults in Huckabee’s plan, give the guy credit for what has to be the most interesting approach to much-needed tax reform. It’s more interesting than the standards found on other candidates’ websites: lower taxes, better use of Americans’ tax dollars, a simplified tax code. Plus, “A crackpot plan” is a lot funnier than “Read my lips: no new taxes.”
No candidate, including Huckabee, talks about all the useful programs and services our taxes support. When the candidates talk about cutting taxes, they don’t talk about the actual programs and services they will negatively impact with their cuts.
The troops. Interstates. FEMA. FEMA trailers in New Orleans. New levees in New Orleans. National Parks. The Department of Homeland Security. The Smithsonian. The Secret Service. That stop sign at the end of your street. The war in Afghanistan. The war in Iraq. The Supreme Court. The interest on the country’s debt. Bridges. Social Security. Salaries of elected officials. Schools. NASA. The Coast Guard. Air Force One. School vouchers. Sewers. Keeping the lights on in Congress. Veterans. Veterans’ hospitals.
Rather than push for the elimination of federal taxes or pandering to the rich, conservative base or the backwoods extremists who think government is the worst thing since Satan himself, the candidates need to have serious discussions about taxes and how the government can more effectively and resourcefully use our hard-earned dollars.
I’m not advocating for a tax increase. With the various crises we face as a nation (housing markets, mounting credit card bills, the wars) the last thing we need are new taxes.
Actually, the last thing we need right now is the elimination of taxes. But, the second to last thing we need are new taxes.
What we need is a real, honest discussion about practical, achievable solutions to taxes and how to best use them. We need less pork-barrel spending on pointless projects, like bridges to nowhere in Alaska, and more on meaningful, necessary projects, like soundly-constructed bridges in Minnesota.
Though I can chuckle at a conservative’s characteristic of a fellow Republican’s tax plan, the fact remains: there is a serious economic problem in this country. It’s nothing new; we’ve had taxes since the country was founded, and taxation without representation was a crux to creating our government. However, the economic crisis isn’t going to go away. It isn’t going to be alleviated with rhetoric about not raising taxes, and it certainly isn’t going to be to be solved by killing the federal tax.
Benjamin Franklin said death and taxes. Not death to taxes.
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