SC6 On Tax Reform: Just Do It

Coach K Has Some Sage Advice For Tax Reform .... Sort Of.



     In PBS' The Civil War, author Shelby Foote gave the most solid reason for America's greatness. Foote said, 'Americans like to think of themselves as uncompromising, but it's America's ability to compromise that makes it's greatness.'  Exactly.  To us, there are some things that you don't hammer out crappy bipartisan solutions to. To us, the rule of thumb is this: any bill that results in spending doesn't need a compromise, and will likely be bad for Americans. Compromising on Tax Cuts? That we can agree on...


    This is a make or break year for America, and taxes really are a major concern. The economy sucks, the Bush Tax Cuts are expiring, and businesses need lower taxes to reinvest in themselves to hire workers.  It's all related. Congress is in lame duck session, and it's going to flip sides bigtime. So, what's DC to do? To us, it's time to negotiate, and give in a little so something positive will start in January...


   I know, you're saying 'OK, Mr. Smartass SC6 trash-talkin' Man, what do we do?'  First off, you can kiss my butt.... ;) Now, with Democrats wanting the estimated $50 billion a year back for budget closing revenue, and Republicans not wanting it to look like they just reneged on their vow to not raise taxes, where do we go? Do we let them expire, or keep them. In times where you can't win with either, you do neither. It's time to short-term work on this, then long term make a REAL Tax Policy....


   For now, pass a two year partial pulling of the Bush Tax Cut - maybe half, and pass that $25 billion onto a middle class tax cut.  So, for now, it's a push: neither side wins, but neither loses. If we do nothing, the taxpayers lose...


   As for long-term, there are three routes to go:

Stay the Course:
     Are you happy with our current tax structure? Us too.. Too complicated, too many loopholes, too much bullshit... Back in the mid-80's college basketball reinstituted the 3-Point Shot. One of the detractors was none other than Duke coach Mike Kryzyzewski (sic). I saw a TV show where he just started drwing cicles on the court, making half-court shots worth 5 points and other ones 10 points. The idea he was getting across is that every shot should betreated with the same value. Taxes are the same. Why be given a deduction for a house or donations or other things? Tax Simplification needs to be in place, whether the Accounting Industry hates it or not. Ok, where to now?



The 'Fair Tax':
     Readers of us know our position on this for a long time.  A tax plan built exclusively on a citizens spending, and not their income, is crazy. Yes, it's regressive, becuase as a percentage of income, lower income households spend higher than more affluent.  If they're still pushing the rebate check for poorer families, we'll refer you to the first option again, not to mention the Nanny State mentality that it causes, which flies directly in the face of the Libertarian philosophy they normally espouse... Lastly, are you planning on taxing big ticket items, such as cars and boats at 23 FUCKING PERCENT also? How many cars will be sold when the tax in SC jumps from $300 to $7500??  maybe someone has tweake this plan in the past couple years, but I haven't heard about it yet...


The Reino Flat Tax:
     Yeah, we'll take credit for it.  We've kicked it around for a while now, and as weak points come up, we've tweaked it as well. Smart people do that... Rather than one Flat Tax Rate at 14% or so, we have two or maybe three tax rates that kick in at higher levels. Instead of mind-numbing deductions for everything on the planet, there is one: a single deduction that is equal to the poverty line. Therefore, the truly needy get their tax money back to make ends meet, without giving them deductions for making babies, like the EIC. 


    Past that level, the flat tax rate of 13% kicks in to $50,000 per year, then 15% from there to $250,000, and 17% flat after that. If it sounds like not enough for the rich, keep in mind that upper income people deduct EVERYTHING, and make their taxbale income as close to zero as possible. So, in the end, everyone pays, without loopholes.  The only caveat we have ever found is the potential impact on charitable groups. If you have any ideas on that, we're all ears, but exempting it from the plan sends us back to Option 1, which is verboten here...


     Finding the correct tax rates are easy... Just take the Gross Incomes of all citizens, and calculate the tax rate to equal where the Federal Budget should be.  That in essence is it's problem - it's too easy, not complicated neough to be screwed with on an annual basis by every lobbying group in America.  It would work too well for DC to incorporate. But that's all in the future...



   For now, we'll keep it simple - find some sweet middle ground for both sides to wlak away with something, then do the heavy lifting later.  An extra $50 billion in the bank would be appealing to Congress, but it's OUR money,and we could kinda use it right now..BTW, Duke sucks....

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