Lord, that must be the most unglamorous diary title ever written.
Still, I think there is something to be said for this issue in the mid-term elections. The current tax cuts have cut the throat of the middle class and they are dying a slow, painful death. People must be made to understand that supply-side economics will never work, that this particular rising tide ends up looking less like Santa Monica and more like Katrina ravaged New Orleans.
But what can we do as Democrats to hammer this idea home? We can not simply run on repealing the tax cuts. Simply playing obstruction to Republican mayhem has seen us destroyed at the ballot box too many times. We must be a party of ideas, and I propose one which is truly radical for the Democrats to get behind.
Abolish the IRS.
Yes, ladies and gentleman, I am talking about the National Sales Tax.
Please keep in mind I have no love for fiscal libertarians at all. I think they are mostly evil anarchist who worship in the Cult of the Free Market. But on this one I think they have a serious point.
"But filmgeek," you say, "isn't such a tax policy regressive against the poor?"
That's a fine question, and an understandable one. Since a sales tax is a tax on consumption, and since the poor spend almost every cent they make on subsitence living, it is natural to assume that a 23% sales tax (the current federal rate of tax on income) would hurt them the most. Many supporters of the national sales tax suggest a rebate akin to the income exemptions in place right now. I say that would just add unnecessary bureaucracy. It would be much easier to simply declare all essential items for living untaxable. All food (purchased outside a restaurant), clothing (under a certain dollar amount), diapers, birth control would be off limits to the federal government. As an added bonus, the poor would be able to keep their money instead of giving it to the government, who would hold it until return time, interest free. This way, what little money people might be able to save would stay in their coffers and create points of interest for them.
And lets examine the idea of a tax on consumerism. I think this is an incredibly progressive idea. This sort of tax would have an enormous benifit beyond sound and fair fiscal policy. The environment would benefit as well. Sure, you can have your gas guzzling SUV at $40,000 if you want, but you're not only going to pay $9,300 in taxes up front on that purchase, you'll pay 23% every time you go to the pump as well. How many people would switch to a hybrid were that the case? And don't get me started on those shiny rims you want.
Nobody escapes paying taxes. Nobody! Tax shelters become a thing of the past, and the rich actually pull their weight because even they must buy goods and services. And really expensive ones at that. Make illegal money selling drugs or other naughty items? Your income's taxed buddy, despite the illigitamacy of your income.
This can be sold to the rich as well. All other taxes would vanish, including payroll and estate taxes, with no cuts to Medicare and Social Security. We all know how the priveledged hate them some estate taxes. The rich would come to the Dems faster than a starving dog to a dropped piece of meat. And the great thing about it is, they'll probably end up paying more taxes than in the current system.
But not necessarily, and that is the beauty of the national sales tax. You, the consumer, are the sole arbiter of how much you're taxed. Don't want to pay taxes? Don't buy shit. It's simple as that.
As an added bonus, we would take away one of the Republicans most cherished talking points, "Democrats are for higher taxes." If you don't like how you're being taxed under the national sales tax, you have no one to blame but yourself. And we would totally steal this straight from the Repubs, just like they tried to steal the Prescription Drug Benefit from us. Only we won't fuck this up.
As my final argument I give you these statistics. The federal government budget for FY 2007 is$2.285 billion. According to Industry Week personal spending annually is estimated at $9.2 trillion. 23% of $9.2 trillion is $2.116 trillion, almost 100 times the federal budget!
Look, I'm no economist, but if those numbers are correct we could "save" Social Security, ensure affordable health care for every man, woman, and child in this nation, and still have enough to balance the budget. We would enter into the Great Society we've been dreaming about ever since the New Deal.