I'm sorry, but adding 23% cost to my soda pop just to cover someone else's unemployment costs, or an unwed mother's formula ('cause she doesn't want saggy-boobs and will only give her kid formula) just doesn't make sense to me. For crying out loud we go over this debate year after year. SHould we have a nat'l sales tax, should it be gradual based on income, should it be flat? You know what...I think it is just a stupid ploy to confuse the average Joe Q. Stupid. Why not spend time debating these issues, it just keeps us from knowing that some policy is being put in place to fleece our wallets while we are focused on the debating process.
Here is what I think we should be doing....Kind of a Tapp Manefesto....
1. Stop all payments out of this country. No government aid. No repayment of debts. No payment to foreign goverments of any kind. I don't mean to sound like the Grinch, but we are running a deficit here. If I ran a deficit against my bank like the USA does against its bank (we the people) I would be in court very quickly. Now I am not saying just shut off the pipes - there are people who are starving...so let's create a cut-off date. "Hey everyone in Somalia. Just to let you know - we will stop supporting you on Jan 1, 2006...so finish up any crap you need to do know...plan for the future...etc., etc.
2. Stop ALL payments inside this country....What?!?! No government aid for this that and the other pork-barrel served up for my constiuents? Hey, you got elected on lies, keep peddling them to someone and I am sure you will make do. What about all of the people who are on our wellfare lines...Hey we need to set a plan for those people to not be on wellfare soon...so start them planning for this. If there is worry about that, well, take care of that later.
3. Kill the current tax code. Yup that's right, get rid of the loop-holes, all the benefits, etc. Assess a graded tax for all incomes. If I make, say $20,000/yr then I pay, say 10% tax. If I make, say $80K, then 15%, etc. For corporate income taxes it should provide the benefit of gradual tax with one complexity. If your payroll or services is more than 30% off-shore - then you pay a higher rate. If your payroll or services more than 70% domestic - then you pay a lower rate. Hmmm...this sounds interesting. BTW all the non-sense about taxes not being required to be paid and that it is illegal is all BS. You have to read the Ammendments and the Consitution itself to see how this is all a requirement for you and I. I don't like it and think the ammendment was hammered through, but it is a reality. Balancing the budget can mean stopping all spending and stopping all income. Why hasn't any politician thought about that today? Yes we need a military, but heck, look for the $$$ it takes to keep us in rockets and tanks, then leave all that in place in the income column.
4. Stop supporing the schools. What?!?! You must be out of your freaking mind. No...I am not. There is nothing in our constitution that says our federal government needs to train our people. It is here for the protection of our people only. There is no requirement in the constitution that says..."and make sure kids get a 75% on all standardized testing." Nope, read it several times and there isn't any indication that this is a requirement. Double check it for me if you like, but I can't seem to find it anywhere. Might be wrong, but shouldn't we be making those decisions at the local and state level?
5. End Free Lunches. Now he is really bonkers....Nope, just being realistic. We need to stop all the freebies - if you are getting a government grant to study how doors swing, or how fruit flys butholes close understand that its not that we don't like you, just that we don't give a damn about studying such things.
6. Stop the goal for Mars. The space program is one of the largest wastes of money on the planet. If we took and diverted the space program funding to alternative fuel research for 1 year, I bet we would be done with fossil fuels. Test me on that one. Today we spend a fraction of a fraction on such results - only to blow up a damn fool rocket every so often. DOn't get me wrong - I love the technology, and the whole idea of going to space. Yes we get a pamphlet each year showing what we bought with the technology (the pamphlet must cost $500,000 to produce), I just realize that the costs don't balance.
7. Move to a unicambrial legislative branch of government. Huh? Well, you see I think we waste a lot of time and effort screwing around with this whole concept. The only reason we have two houses is that the French or English (I can't remember which King) demanded it of Benjamin Franklin and he sold it to the founding fathers. So here we have this stumbling block we continue to poor money into and can't actually get done what we need to get done. I understand Nebraska is doing this quite successfully.
8. Close the IRS in one fell swoop. Move the employees to the USPS. Increase postage rates to match those of DSL, FedEx, and UPS. I can't believe that we subsidize the shipping of mail to/from our country and also the shipping of bulk-mail advertisements. If fulfillment companies had to pay the full amount we would not only save our economy, but also gas (less delivery vehicles) and landfills (less crap to through out).
9. Reform presidential elections. If you want to be president, find your own damn money. If you want to be president, then fine...Election races have a defined start/stop - 6 weeks. If you can't get your message out - you don't deserve to be president. All parties have to throw a couple of bucks in the hat to have debates - just to pay for the microphones. No more two party debates. if your party doesn't let others debate - you lose one random states votes. If you don't participate in a debate, you lost one random states votes. Electronic voting will happen and print out a paper reciept. Votes will be tallied independantly with some of those workers left over from the IRS. Oh, and by the way, it is illegal to have parties run elections.
10. The military of our government outspends its six closest competetors by a factor of 10. I think we can spare a few tanks.
So you see, I don't think we need all the overhead which requires the inputs we have and the foolhearted approach to levying taxes. Our politicians want us to ignore the real problem - let's not let them do it.
FOXNews.com - Politics - National Sales Tax Promoted as Fairer System
