Rand Paul's Flat And Fair Tax: Even Better Than Reagan Plan

[Mad Raven]

The problem is both Dems and Repubs, politicans and voters alike, have all bought into the spending propaganda 100%.

The thieves steal our money every year and piss it away because that's what most of us want them to do. They couldn't get away with it otherwise.

A common sense tax plan like this looks good, but I don't see how it will cut through the brainwashing. He needs to do some brilliant job of explaining, at every opportunity, why having your money stolen and spent recklessly is not a boon to the economy.

[RabbitMan]

Thanks for posting.

That's even better than I was assuming in my estimate above.

...Fishy is going to need another mattress to store all the cheddar he'll be saving.

I've been discussing this plan for a while with my father-in-law and wife who are mostly on the progressive side of things. I'm 95% positive I got all of my number crunching right, and please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong. Interestingly enough, when I originally posted, I had thought that the payroll tax on the employer side was eliminated too, but a Tax Foundation article quickly corrected me and provided some really interesting insight.

What Rand's plan actually does is take the payroll tax from the employee side and dumps ALL of it on the employer side, in the form of that 14.5% tax on all business expenses--including labor. This is the new 'Business Transfer' tax. Something to note is that this new method does not have an income cap on Social Security payments, so SS actually would receive more money than it does at the moment. Now, that by itself would be bad for businesses. BUT coupled with the drastic reduction in corporate tax rate(down to 14.5% from 30+%) and suddenly businesses start perking up again. THEN add in that all capital expenses (like machinery, equipment upgrades and new warehouses) are tax deductible in full the year they are bought instead of the drawn out system we have now.

AND THEN, add in that while the current system taxes both imports AND EXPORTS, Rand's plan makes an exception for domestic production that is exported. Imports are taxes at 14.5%.

What you get is (a) workers' pay goes up while paradoxically (b) the cost of American labor goes down while (c) encouraging immediate investment in production and improvements in the US and (d) reducing corruption at the federal level.

[Wilf]

The problem is both Dems and Repubs, politicans and voters alike, have all bought into the spending propaganda 100%.

The thieves steal our money every year and piss it away because that's what most of us want them to do. They couldn't get away with it otherwise.

A common sense tax plan like this looks good, but I don't see how it will cut through the brainwashing. He needs to do some brilliant job of explaining, at every opportunity, why having your money stolen and spent recklessly is not a boon to the economy.

All he has to explain how goverment programs are unefficent and how private companies whould do a better job

[RabbitMan]

All he has to explain how goverment programs are unefficent and how private companies whould do a better job

The problem with this specific argument is that trickle-down arguments, ala the economic theory made popular by Reagan friend Art Laffer and one of the guys behind Rand's proposal, has been widely discredited lately. The Kansas experiment under Sam Brownback's leadership backfired big time and Scott Walker's state balance sheets are looking atrocious.

Rand must state unequivocally that lowering taxes isn't enough, restructuring the entire tax code is necessary and the unique attributes of his plan need to be hammered to the masses. Because once you really 'get it', his plan is a fantastic start to the tax debate.

[otherone]

What Rand's plan actually does is take the payroll tax from the employee side and dumps ALL of it on the employer side, in the form of that 14.5% tax on all business expenses--including labor. This is the new 'Business Transfer' tax.

Good Gravy...the self-employed will be crushed.

edit:
Now I'm not so sure...on the individual basis, "profit", "income", and "labor payments" are the same amounts....would profit then be taxed twice at 14.5%? Once as profit, and once as labor payment?

[Wilf]

The problem with this specific argument is that trickle-down arguments, ala the economic theory made popular by Reagan friend Art Laffer and one of the guys behind Rand's proposal, has been widely discredited lately. The Kansas experiment under Sam Brownback's leadership backfired big time and Scott Walker's state balance sheets are looking atrocious.

Rand must state unequivocally that lowering taxes isn't enough, restructuring the entire tax code is necessary and the unique attributes of his plan need to be hammered to the masses. Because once you really 'get it', his plan is a fantastic start to the tax debate.

I was thinking of privatizing and liberaztion of certain industries

[dude58677]

In the end he'll just end up pardoning people for tax evasion. He'll start with Irwin Schiff and have a special ceremony being awarded the Medal of Freedom where he'll state in his speech" There is no law requiring anyone to pay income taxes". The reason it will end up this way is because the American Bar Association and members of Congress who are part of it will do everything to stop Rand's tax plan to get enacted. It will be an effort to get the law off the books and sound reasonable during the campaign.