Instead he put together a tip sheet for Republicans:
Terrific!
Someone will have to enlighten me on the flat tax argument...
Otherwise, count me in.
UPDATE: (Thursday)The Politico has a great article today about 6 Ways the GOP can heal itself.
UPDATE 2: David All stesses Politico's Point #3 at Slatecard.
UPDATE 3: Grand Old Partisan has excellent advice for Republicans.
Here is the Fair Tax explained at the Fair Tax site:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.fairtax.org/site/PageServer?pagename=about_main
Flat tax is explained here:
http://www.heritage.org/Research/Taxes/bg1866.cfm
I prefer the Fair Tax, I would take the Flat Tax (isn't that what part of Reagan's tax reform was about, eliminating tax loopholes?)but I don't see it happening.
DKK
Concur Fair Tax of Flat Tax any day of the week , they can still tweak the flat tax just like the mess we have now.
ReplyDeleteEnergy independence is stupid. Otherwise this is OK.
ReplyDeleteWe could be "energy independent" now if we wanted to pay $25 per gallon for gas and go through a depression.
It's the wrong direction. We need more energy production and cheaper energy. It doesn't matter where it comes from.
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MikeSAdams/2008/05/12/nothing_is_certain_but_death_and_the_fairtax
ReplyDeleteSupporter of the Flat Tax of Yesterday (SOFTY): Sorry, I support the flat tax.
Adams: How often do you change your underwear?
SOFTY: What?
Adams: I assume you change your underwear every day?
SOFTY: Yes, what the hell does that have to do with it?
Adams: That means you’ve changed underwear 8036 times in the last 22 years.
SOFTY: And?
Adams: And the I.R.S. has changed the tax code 16,000 times in the last 22 years. They change the tax code twice as often as you change underwear. How long do you think a flat tax would remain flat?
SOFTY: (Silence)
Adams: Would you like to borrow my book?
I’m sure SOFTY was still thinking about the FairTax the next day while he was (hopefully) changing his underwear.
Exactly as long as the fair tax would stay fair.
ReplyDeleteAny time someone in politics uses the word "fair" you can be sure it's loaded in favor of his friends and against his opponents. I stop listening as soon as that word appears, because it's just a label, not an argument.
ReplyDeleteKohath,
ReplyDeleteYou are wrong. We could be energy independent if we kicked the "environmentalists" who have been determining our energy policies for the last 30 years to the curb.
How about "Get the enviro-socialists out of our policymaking"
ReplyDeleteWhat good is either the so called, "fair tax" or the "flat tax" if we as a nation don't get rid of some the Constitutionally questionable socialist, nanny state programs that suck up 60+% of what is paid in taxes?
ReplyDeletenahanni,
ReplyDeleteMaybe if we did that we could be "energy independent" with only $15 per gallon gasoline and a very severe recession.
I'd rather have abundant, cheap energy and prosperity than "energy independence" and poverty.
Trade produces wealth. "Independence" from trade (i.e. protectionism and isolationism) restricts wealth and produces poverty.
You could be "clothing independent" by growing your own cotton and weaving it into cloth and sewing pants out of it. But that's extremely stupid when you can buy pants for $15, isn't it?
Simple explanation of the flat tax - the last dollar earned and taxed is taxed at the same rate as the first dollar earned and taxed.
ReplyDeleteOf course, since there's too many whiners, the first $X earned isn't taxed.
I suppose I should've let you know before now that I'm inbound to St. Louis tomorrow for a baseball-and-dinner combo.
Here's a post on the flat tax, with links to the Hertitage Foundation and the Hoover Institution.
ReplyDeletehttp://whigblog.blogspot.com/2008/04/whig-supports-flat-tax.html
Basically the Fair Tax is only adjustable as to the over rate for offsetting the embedded tax rate to achieve a desired total revenue point in the aggregate.
ReplyDeleteA Flat Tax is still susceptible to creation of carve outs and exclusions and all the current manipulation modes to eventually revert right to where we are now.
The Fair Tax is known and can be calculated and reported much more easily as a total cost element without all sorts of hidden adjustments.
Great list except I think a great deal of emphasis should be put on the results of the 2006 Election and the "do nothing" Democrat controlled Congress.
ReplyDeleteThe Republicans should bombard the media with pointing out the lack of progress in Congress for the last two years because of the Democrats. It has been disastrous for America. Nothing substantial has been accomplished!
Kohath,
ReplyDeleteOil is a fungible commodity.
Foodstuffs are also a fungible commodity.
Want to see the whole "oil" probelm go away?
Simple, quit giving away food. The OPEC countries can not produce enough food to feed themselves.
To paraphrase the Freek Brothers...
"Food will get you through times of no oil better then oil will get you through times of no food."
Nahanni,
ReplyDeletePosts like yours are a big reason why we have so many problems. You're so into yourself that you've solved the oil problem.
So no need to think about it any more. It's solved. No need to understand the real world. Oil costs a lot because "we" give away food, according to you.
Meanwhile, guys like me have to live in reality. I don't get to pretend I've solved the oil problem. I can't put my "solution" on a bumper sticker or a T-shirt and just forget about it.
Because after guys like you have had your laugh, patted yourselves on the back, and then forgotten about it, people like Barack and Hillary will be out there making the world worse and taking away our freedom.
But even when everyone's poorer you can still paraphrase the Freek Brothers (whom I've never heard of) if the government still allows you. Maybe they said something that sounds vaguely clever and rhymes. Folks will get a double-chuckle before forgetting and going back to their dreary lives.
FWIW: The OPEC countries would just buy food from someone else and sell oil to someone else. China, India, Europe, etc. Nevermind that though. It doesn't even rhyme.
Hey kohath, I have no counters to your comments, they are good comments I do believe...
ReplyDeleteYet who's really at fault for the high price of gasoline and energy in general in this country?
We all just have to look in the mirror and see who's at fault since we put the politicos in office that have passed all sorts of asinine legislation that has made what is an excessivly plentiful domestic supply of energy almost completely out of reach due to these elected fools pandering to the tree huggers and root kissers and other assorted parasitic losers...
Posts like yours are a big reason why we have so many problems. You're so into yourself that you've solved the oil problem.
ReplyDeleteI worked long enough in the oil business to know what we have and the potential of what we got. The only thing that has been keeping us from being energy independant are the NIMBY's in energy hog states like California and Florida and the "environmentalists".
It also doesn't help that people are extremely wasteful of energy. For example my niece never opens the windows of her house, her AC/heat runs 24/7. And, no, she doesn't have a medical reason for doing so.
So no need to think about it any more. It's solved. No need to understand the real world. Oil costs a lot because "we" give away food, according to you.
You did not grasp the point, which is not surprising. Ever heard of a little thing called "supply and demand"? We have an overabundance of food which we stupidly give away to corrupt regimes, the UN etc.. About 90% of that food "aid" that we give away never makes it to the people it is inteded for, instead is confiscated by rulers of those countries and sold to places like Libya, Iran, etc. Now, in the greater scheme of things what do humans need more-food or oil? I do not see the OPEC nations giving away oil for free, I see no reason why we should feed them for free.
You want to know something? If the OPEC countries were forced to pay fair market value for food you would see their attitudes change in a hurry. They would be too busy trying to grow or obtain enough to eat to cause trouble. You see, we can live without imported oil-it would be tough, but we can live without imported oil alot better then Saudi Arabia or Iran can live without food.
Meanwhile, guys like me have to live in reality. I don't get to pretend I've solved the oil problem. I can't put my "solution" on a bumper sticker or a T-shirt and just forget about it.
Your posts so far have been nothing but expanded versions of bumper sticker slogans. "WAAAAH! The price of is too high but I really do not want to do what is needed to rectify it. I just want to whiiiiiiiinnnnnnnneeeee because I want everything while sacrificing nothing".
You want cheap energy but you don't want to sacrifice to get it. You don't want to give up your computer which is a frivilous waste of energy, you want to be able to have all your electronic toys-instead of reading a book you want to watch your big screen TV, you don't want to have nuclear power, you don't want coal burning electric plants, etc.
Look, honey, I lived through the oil embargo and that was worse then what we are going through now. It was drilled into my head by my parents that wasting energy=wasting money.
To this day I still turn off the lights/electronics in rooms as I am leaving them and I use maybe one light at a time. The TV/DVD/VTR are on a power strip that is turned off when I am not using those items to cut the "vampire" energy wastage from those items. I have planted trees and installed insulation to cut my heating and cooling costs. FYI-my electricity bill for last month for a 2,000 sq. ft. house was $41.78 and my gas bill was $19.06. What were your energy bills for last month and the sq. ft. of your dwelling?
I have always had a car that gets over 30mpg despite the fact that I could have had nicer, more comfortable ones with poorer gas milage. I do not make "special trips" to shop-I shop on the way home from work. I use about 8 gal. of gasoline a week. How much do you use?
Because after guys like you have had your laugh, patted yourselves on the back, and then forgotten about it, people like Barack and Hillary will be out there making the world worse and taking away our freedom.
I won't be voting for them and if the people in this country are stupid enough to elect them then they deserve everything they get.
But even when everyone's poorer you can still paraphrase the Freek Brothers (whom I've never heard of) if the government still allows you. Maybe they said something that sounds vaguely clever and rhymes. Folks will get a double-chuckle before forgetting and going back to their dreary lives.
You better face the fact that the majority of people in this country are going to be "poorer" and the reason they will be is because they have lived way beyond their means for the last 15 or so years and they have now hit the end of their "credit rope".
The fault is theirs for living beyond their means, not mine.
FWIW: The OPEC countries would just buy food from someone else and sell oil to someone else. China, India, Europe, etc. Nevermind that though. It doesn't even rhyme.
Oh, really? I guess you have not noticed that China is essentially turning parts of Africa into big "plantations" because they can no longer feed themselves. India can no longer feed itself, either. Europe does not have alot to export. So that basically leaves Australia, Canada and the US as the major grain exporters.
Have you looked at the price of commodities such as wheat, rice, oats, soybeans and corn recently?
I like it.
ReplyDeleteThat platform would get my attention but more importantly, my vote.
Yes. This is more like it.
ReplyDeleteValerie
A (pure) flat income tax is simple: One rate for everybody, no credits or deductions.
ReplyDeleteHell, you don't have to achieve complete energy independence overnight. But how in the world does it not make since to reduce our dependence on volatile parts of the world, fight less wars, and not be subjected to periodic supply shocks, when we could easily start planning for clean nuclear energy.
ReplyDeleteJason,
ReplyDeleteWhat do you mean by "planning?" I used to work for my local electric company. They had one nuke. When they planned it, they budgeted $750M to pay for it, the same as a coal plant. Then, they found themselves subject to the rules of the NRC. At one point, the cost had risen to $5Bn and then the accident at TMI happened. Then, they really went to red tape hell and when the project was completed, it cost $12Bn. My job put me in contact with high-level management and not a single one of them had any desire whatsoever to go down that road ever again.
There is no "planning" that needs to be done. What needs to be done is to get the Enviro whack jobs out of the NRC and make contracts with power companies that the regulations they start building with are the ones that they will finish with.
There is never going to be a flat tax. We use our tax policy to influence all sorts of individual decisions. We could have a one-page tax return for young unmarried people who have not accumulated any investments.
ReplyDeleteI would add "Environmental Stewardship" to this list. There is no need to cede that issue to the Democrats, especially because they have chosen an irresponsible environmental hysteria as a substitute for policy.
Valerie