Reply #101: I'm not arguing for a particular tax scheme [View All]

[Pithlet]

I'm arguing against one. Hell, the current tax system, as regressive as IT is, is a hell of a lot better than a flat tax. I could write paragraphs on suggestions on how to improve THAT one. Hell, why not return to a time when the rich paid more of their fair share? Once upon a time they did, before the Republicans changed things. Why not start by removing all of those tax breaks? I'll even throw in higher taxes on unearned income. I could write paragraphs of suggestions easily. I'm not going to, because a) I don't have the time, and b) not doing so doesn't change the fact that a flat tax is a stupid, right wing supported idea. Your proposals for an exemption don't change that.

Ummm, you're the one who seems to have a fundamental problem with comprehension. An exemption doesn't change the fact that you're taxing the rich and the not so rich at the SAME RATE. It doesn't change the fact that it eases the burden off of the rich. The more money they make, the more that is so. That is entirely regressive. Where does all the money that the rich will save on a flat tax going to come from? You failed to answer that question. You entirely ignore the fact that a flat tax would fail to come up with needed revenue. Surely you know what happens when the rich get more tax breaks. State and local governments get starved of federal money. How do they make up for that? Three guesses. There is no way states are going to give up their property tax and sales tax revenues. They couldn't, if they wanted to survive. I don't know about you, but I enjoy maintained roads, police protection, and public schools for my kids. If the state and local governments can't get rid of them, and your flat tax proposal eliminates the tax breaks the poor and middle class get, then who gets hurt the most? The poor and middle class.

Speaking of tax breaks, you also conveniently ignored how a flat tax would eliminate thousands of dollars of tax relief that the poor and middle class still manage to get. You conveniently ignored those aspects of my argument. All you can come up is "What are YOUR suggestions?" As if that somehow weakens my argument against the flat tax.