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I'm going to be attending my very first political demonstration this afternoon—a Tea Party! This is the sign I'm going to be carrying. Tax rates are simply way too high and climbing, and our tax code is nothing less than an abomination. We've got to do something about it, so it's time to hit the streets.UPDATE: Cato has a variety of good articles on the flat tax concept.
11 comments:
I don't know why the main tax question isn't centered around privacy issues. For us like a bunch of sheep to disclose who we give our money to, how much our business assets depreciate, which cards we played well and which we didn't, just seems like a massive violation of our founding principles. I don't have any answers, and I'm not in the refuse to pay taxes camp, but calling it a "broken" system is kind. Oppressive and intrusive might be more descriptive. Actually, all these words apply. Can anyone come up with more?
Oh - and I'd be at a protest but there are none within 300 miles...
I love it. what a coutnry this would be with s 20% flat tax anyone could understand.
Good job, I will be attending a Tea Party here in Salt Lake City, UTAH as well. What a crazy time we live in right now, who knows where things are headed. And speaking of Taxes being the 15th and all, your right I don't think we can see the ceiling yet.
Oppressive, intrusive, confiscatory, egregious, manipulative, abusive, outrageous, punitive ...
I'm all for a flat tax over what we have. I'd rather have the FairTax (www.fairtax.org) but that's another argument. But don't be misled that a flat tax alone makes anything simpler. You get rid of the supposed progressivity, but you still have to codify what is income, what is expenses, who gets what credits, etc. The only way to permanently change the political infestation of tax policy is to take away legislators ability to tinker with the details. Ooops, guess I did argue for the FairTax. If you insist on a flat tax instead, the way to make it effective would be if you took away all deductions and counted all income the same (wages, self employment net income, capital gains, dividends, interest, etc), and paid it on every penny over a certain threshold.
Both a flat tax (with no deductions) and the FairTax have merits. Either one would be far superior to the current tax code. Both would take power away from the politicians, and that is very good. But I don't think a flat tax should be levied on dividends and capital gains--that would imply double taxation.
Scott,
I was planning to attend the local Tea Party in Wilmington Delaware to heckle with my Huey Long "Every Man a King" t-shirt and a sign reading "Share Our Wealth" but I spent the day at the hospital with Maureen instead. I'm sure you guys didn't miss me. (I have a bullhorn.) In contrast to you I think this is one of the first political demonstrations that I have failed to attend (pro or con).
I went to the San Antonio Tea Party in front of the Alamo and the turnout was humongous. It was comforting to go and see all the people who are rightly furious over Obama's fiscal insanity.
We stumbled on the Tea Party in San Antonio in front of the Alamo yesterday. The crowd was large and very well behaved. No one shoved a sign in our face or shouted at us as we worked our way to the Alamo. The signs were creative and drove their point home.
Our impression was that this might be a force to be reckoned with in the future. The Democrats and media shouldn't ignore this movement.
We attended the Tea Party at a major intersection near Victoria Gardens, in the heart of So. California's Inland Empire. I counted about 2,000 people. Very orderly, and the response from the rush-hour traffic (horns blaring) was impressive. This was as close to a spontaneous gathering of people from all walks of life as you could hope to see in this country. The vast majority of signs complained about Obama, spending, and taxes. American flags were almost as abundant as signs; this is about saving the country, this is not right-wing extremism.
My favorite sign: "The real pirates are in Washington D.C."
I predict this movement has legs, and is just getting started.
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