Immigration, the War in Iraq, Consumption Tax, Senator Letter
Senator,
I am writing this in response to learning that you have cast your pre-vote against S25.
To whoever reads this first:
I would suggest you copy/paste this email into a 'Word.doc' and print it out. Then tonight, at home, at your convenience, read this. It is long but it is a good read and might provoke your imagination.
Consider this a White Paper for you and other Democrats, written by an old Democrat. I'm a 61 year old American Citizen, an American Vietnam Combat veteran who has voted Democratic in every election but the last one and during the Reagan years. Sorry, but I'll take a positive can-do message and run with it before I run with the opinions based on obvious biases. I'll listen, but the weight given is small.
I am an American first, a husband and father second and an Independent Democrat third.
I am pro-choice, pro giving a hand up and helping the under employed. I am a conservative on national defense, but lean heavily in favor of liberal initiatives in the private sector if they submit to a rigorous test of history as to their success or failure. From this perspective I write. Maybe you can join me and millions of others.
Let's get on with it then:
My first point is that I don't understand why the democrats haven't taken S25 (FairTax-Consumption Tax) and made it a presidential primary issue.
Let's look at some favorite Democratic themes.
Democrats stand up for the poor and the working men and women of this country.
Do you really stand up for the poor and the working man?
If you do, give me ALL of my paycheck.
This is asked by a man that has lived in a motel room and searched for quarters on the street in order to find enough money to eat.
Let me keep all of my payroll deductions throughout the year, when I need it the most.
Supply me a pre-rebate up to the poverty level that makes my effective tax rate when purchasing 0%. The current income tax doesn't do this. It takes out money week in and week out that I could use to purchase the gas to drive or the bus ticket to ride a bus. Instead you, our Government, takes it.
Read on. It gets better.
I am convinced that a Democrat running under an S25 party plank could reunite the American people. The Democratic Party would no longer be seen as an obstructionist party without a cohesive plan. This sponsorship of a simple consumption tax would get the attention of every American.
Our current tax code affects our ability to deal with EVERY important issue now facing us.
Historically it has been shown repeatedly that American spending variances are less than income variances. This has passed the test of history.
Taxing on spending immediately opens almost all of our entire GNP to taxation.
In other words S25 (The FairTax Bill) broadens our tax base, simplifies compliance, thus bringing the cost of compliance down and the percentage of those that comply up. This is addressed further later in this letter.
Let's think about whether the Democratic Party wants to win elections or win some theoretical "moral high ground" that 51% of the American people rejected in our last presidential election.
Before we heft a hearty toast to President Bush's recent loss of popularity we must also realize the American people's confidence in their Congressional leadership is below that of President Bush. This includes the Democratic Party Senator.
This is not a good score for our party.
As for our next presidential candidate, let me suggest the Party platform be this, "In recognition of the American people wanting honest-long term, sustainable resolutions to our current issues of higher gas prices, the war for freedom in Iraq, and paying for natural emergencies like Hurricane Katrina, we will repeal all income taxes, payroll taxes and we will no longer tax Social Security Benefits."
You don't think this would galvanize the American people behind you?
Does the Democratic Party wish to serve a myriad of often opposing special interests, or does our vision include serving all Americans, Republican or Democrat? Can we sponsor a change in our basic method of collecting the support we need for the various Government obligations now on the table?
Let's look at another major issue that confronts our body of Congress.
When polled, the vast majority of Americans (79%) say that the rich have successfully lobbied for Exclusions, Exemptions, Deductions and pre-Tax write offs to the point that they currently pay little if any income tax. Who do we hold responsible?
We are holding you and your colleagues responsible Senator.
A consumption tax under S25 would recover this lost tax revenue by taxing at the point of sale, where there are no deductions, exemptions or write-offs.
The points of compliance monitoring currently stands at over 180 million America Citizens. This doesn't include the points of compliance on investments and Social Security. The IRS must examine every wage earner, investor and senior citizen to the expense of 10 billion dollars every year.
In one step we go from over 180 million points of compliance to less than 8 million by taxing at the retail point of sale. 45 States already has sales tax technology implemented. For these states especially there would be minimal expense in implementing a National Consumption Tax.
S25 also repeals all Capital Gains taxes and taxes on investments and savings.
This will destroy the current 'double speak' of encouraging self reliance while taxing self-employment.
This will stop the hypocrisy of saying we want businesses to pay more in wages, then tax them through the Employment Tax when employing any worker or giving a deserving person a raise.
It would destroy the 'double speak' of encouraging saving and investment by taxing it. This obvious dichotomy must cease for us to sustain current and future Government responsibilities.
It's similar to telling your son and daughter to run as fast as they can in a race, then you put a 25-pound backpack on them.
Who would believe you really want your son or daughter to run as fast as they can?
Senator, our income tax system must be thrown out. It is too complicated to fix.
We must get the IRS out of the business of investigating every American citizen.
Let's look at another aspect of the current IRS code.
For Fiscal Year 2003, the total information returns received was 1.313 billion, the IRS also made 4.288 billion contacts and sent out 8 billion forms and instructions so taxpayers could attempt to know how much they owe.
Citing the number of penalties might be a good measurement of the complexity too.
Last year, Americans endured 28,767,480 civil penalties (19.1 million for the individual income tax alone). That's 28 million civil penalties.
The corporation income tax required the issuance of 704,012 penalties and the Employment tax 7,649,296 penalties, with the frequency of parking tickets, issued to businesses that had the audacity to employ people.
To administer the tax laws, the IRS directly employs about one hundred thousand employees.
Yet another example of the hopeless complexity in today's system can be illustrated by the IRS nor the taxpayer understanding the code.
Senator, you may find the current income tax tolerable, but this issue of complexity compels rational people to look at the dismal record of the IRS's own centers established to help people prepare their tax returns.
These centers gave incorrect answers, or no answer at all, to 43 percent of the questions asked by Treasury Department investigators posing as taxpayers.
The investigators concluded that half a million taxpayers may have been given wrong information between July and December 2002. Auditors were given correct answers to 57 percent of their tax law questions during the course of the study.
Less than half, or 45 percent, of the questions were answered correctly and completely. In 12 percent of the cases, the answer was correct but incomplete.
Of the questions answered, they calculated that 67 percent were answered accurately. This obviously skews the results but still even by their skewing the average tax payer had a 1 in 3 chance of being criminalized for improperly completing their tax return after contacting the IRS.
This is not very good odds, Senator, yet our Representatives continue to defend this current system. Is it any wonder why the percentage of non compliance has grown with each passing year?
The IRS says that fully one quarter of the tax returns exempted the tax payer from paying any taxes.
This alone places a surcharge on all taxes collected for those that do pay. We currently pay 20% more than we would if the tax base was based on consumption, not income.
In times of multiple issues as important as Illegal Aliens and the accompanying underground cash only economy it currently supports, with the expenses of the war in Iraq and our loss of jobs to foreign countries, it becomes imperative that we broaden our tax base and add transparency and efficiency to our tax law.
We must place our American global industries on more equal footing by taxing imports at the same rate as our consumption tax and repeal all taxes associated with American industry exports. Coupled with the repeal of all Payroll taxes, this will go a long way in bringing manufacturing jobs back home.
Finally, there are so many vested beneficiaries for each sentence in each Code section that the Code itself represents an employment security act for the many Members of Congress who represent those special interests and for the legions of accountants, tax collectors, and others necessary to prop up the unstable system.
The 7,000 Code sections and the 60,000 pages represent hours upon hours of efforts of advocates to mold the Code to their desires.
But, while the lobbyists and the Members of Congress that defend the Income Tax have benefited, and the industries like tax lawyers feed off the complexity, the American people suffer under the weight of its inefficiency, complexity, and unfairness.
Who do I write for besides myself?
I am a member of a group that is an ever-expanding grassroots citizen's organization of nearly 1 million citizens, the largest taxpayer group ever assembled in the history of our Nation.
We resent Congress's implication that our organization is either Democrat or Republican.
Our ranks have been formed by taxpayers of every walk of life. We are Republicans, but we are also Democrats and Independents.
We are the young and the old. We are the retired and the college student. The poor and the rich, immigrant and 5th generation are among us.
We are fiercely nonpartisan. And we resent as well the belittling of the issue of tax reform, which is one of the most important issues to face the American people, as a political football.
We have never asked one's political affiliation for membership.
And while we are of course pleased that we have the attention of President Bush and Speaker Hastert, we would be equally pleased if we had the enthusiastic support of the Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi or Democratic Ranking Minority Member of the Ways and Means Committee, Charlie Rangel, to assist us in lifting the yoke of our income tax from the beleaguered back of the American taxpayer.
We, the Americans For Fair Taxation, ask Members of Congress to take as seriously our Declaration of Independence from the income tax as our forefathers debated the separation from another tyrannical power.
We seek repeal of the onerous tax system and its replacement with the FairTax.
Instead of partisanship, we seek honest debate.
Instead of bickering, we seek consensus.
Instead of politics, we seek policy discussion.
We view our constituency as the American people, and we are staunch defenders of an equal opportunity tax reform idea.
It is time we had an honest national debate over the FairTax, and it is time that debate took place without the continual political demagoguery that trivializes its significance in this nation?s and the world's economic history.
The FairTax welcomes the endorsement of any enlightened Members of Congress who have the courage to remove the shackles of the income tax from the feet of the American taxpayer.
We would add that by no means do all Republicans endorse the plan as yet. Some endorse a flat tax.
A flat tax differs from a national retail sales tax in that it would require every business to collect and pay taxes up the chain of production as noted.
It differs in other respects. For example, it would not be border adjustable. It also would not repeal payroll taxes, which are the current law's flat tax on jobs and wage income and acts as a disincentive to hire legal immigrants.
The FairTax is fair to all Americans, and simple to understand.
The FairTax bill represents an idea whose time has come.
National polls show that more than two-thirds of Americans want fundamental tax reform, and I am one of those Americans. I live, work, and vote here as an American citizen.
I am personally requesting your support for the FairTax.
I urge you to become fully informed about the FairTax bill through the Americans for Fair Taxation's website at hppt://www.fairtax.org.
A personal reply with your comments on the FairTax bill, rather than a standard form letter, would be greatly appreciated. If you have any questions, don?t hesitate to write me.
I am always open to an honest discussion of the issues that confront this country and how we pay for our endeavors as a country.
This is an American issue. It can become a Democratic Party issue as well. Take the lead. Be progressive.
Thank you for your time.
I am looking forward to your response.
With sincere appreciation,
An Old Democrat,
I am writing this in response to learning that you have cast your pre-vote against S25.
To whoever reads this first:
I would suggest you copy/paste this email into a 'Word.doc' and print it out. Then tonight, at home, at your convenience, read this. It is long but it is a good read and might provoke your imagination.
Consider this a White Paper for you and other Democrats, written by an old Democrat. I'm a 61 year old American Citizen, an American Vietnam Combat veteran who has voted Democratic in every election but the last one and during the Reagan years. Sorry, but I'll take a positive can-do message and run with it before I run with the opinions based on obvious biases. I'll listen, but the weight given is small.
I am an American first, a husband and father second and an Independent Democrat third.
I am pro-choice, pro giving a hand up and helping the under employed. I am a conservative on national defense, but lean heavily in favor of liberal initiatives in the private sector if they submit to a rigorous test of history as to their success or failure. From this perspective I write. Maybe you can join me and millions of others.
Let's get on with it then:
My first point is that I don't understand why the democrats haven't taken S25 (FairTax-Consumption Tax) and made it a presidential primary issue.
Let's look at some favorite Democratic themes.
Democrats stand up for the poor and the working men and women of this country.
Do you really stand up for the poor and the working man?
If you do, give me ALL of my paycheck.
This is asked by a man that has lived in a motel room and searched for quarters on the street in order to find enough money to eat.
Let me keep all of my payroll deductions throughout the year, when I need it the most.
Supply me a pre-rebate up to the poverty level that makes my effective tax rate when purchasing 0%. The current income tax doesn't do this. It takes out money week in and week out that I could use to purchase the gas to drive or the bus ticket to ride a bus. Instead you, our Government, takes it.
Read on. It gets better.
I am convinced that a Democrat running under an S25 party plank could reunite the American people. The Democratic Party would no longer be seen as an obstructionist party without a cohesive plan. This sponsorship of a simple consumption tax would get the attention of every American.
Our current tax code affects our ability to deal with EVERY important issue now facing us.
Historically it has been shown repeatedly that American spending variances are less than income variances. This has passed the test of history.
Taxing on spending immediately opens almost all of our entire GNP to taxation.
In other words S25 (The FairTax Bill) broadens our tax base, simplifies compliance, thus bringing the cost of compliance down and the percentage of those that comply up. This is addressed further later in this letter.
Let's think about whether the Democratic Party wants to win elections or win some theoretical "moral high ground" that 51% of the American people rejected in our last presidential election.
Before we heft a hearty toast to President Bush's recent loss of popularity we must also realize the American people's confidence in their Congressional leadership is below that of President Bush. This includes the Democratic Party Senator.
This is not a good score for our party.
As for our next presidential candidate, let me suggest the Party platform be this, "In recognition of the American people wanting honest-long term, sustainable resolutions to our current issues of higher gas prices, the war for freedom in Iraq, and paying for natural emergencies like Hurricane Katrina, we will repeal all income taxes, payroll taxes and we will no longer tax Social Security Benefits."
You don't think this would galvanize the American people behind you?
Does the Democratic Party wish to serve a myriad of often opposing special interests, or does our vision include serving all Americans, Republican or Democrat? Can we sponsor a change in our basic method of collecting the support we need for the various Government obligations now on the table?
Let's look at another major issue that confronts our body of Congress.
When polled, the vast majority of Americans (79%) say that the rich have successfully lobbied for Exclusions, Exemptions, Deductions and pre-Tax write offs to the point that they currently pay little if any income tax. Who do we hold responsible?
We are holding you and your colleagues responsible Senator.
A consumption tax under S25 would recover this lost tax revenue by taxing at the point of sale, where there are no deductions, exemptions or write-offs.
The points of compliance monitoring currently stands at over 180 million America Citizens. This doesn't include the points of compliance on investments and Social Security. The IRS must examine every wage earner, investor and senior citizen to the expense of 10 billion dollars every year.
In one step we go from over 180 million points of compliance to less than 8 million by taxing at the retail point of sale. 45 States already has sales tax technology implemented. For these states especially there would be minimal expense in implementing a National Consumption Tax.
S25 also repeals all Capital Gains taxes and taxes on investments and savings.
This will destroy the current 'double speak' of encouraging self reliance while taxing self-employment.
This will stop the hypocrisy of saying we want businesses to pay more in wages, then tax them through the Employment Tax when employing any worker or giving a deserving person a raise.
It would destroy the 'double speak' of encouraging saving and investment by taxing it. This obvious dichotomy must cease for us to sustain current and future Government responsibilities.
It's similar to telling your son and daughter to run as fast as they can in a race, then you put a 25-pound backpack on them.
Who would believe you really want your son or daughter to run as fast as they can?
Senator, our income tax system must be thrown out. It is too complicated to fix.
We must get the IRS out of the business of investigating every American citizen.
Let's look at another aspect of the current IRS code.
For Fiscal Year 2003, the total information returns received was 1.313 billion, the IRS also made 4.288 billion contacts and sent out 8 billion forms and instructions so taxpayers could attempt to know how much they owe.
Citing the number of penalties might be a good measurement of the complexity too.
Last year, Americans endured 28,767,480 civil penalties (19.1 million for the individual income tax alone). That's 28 million civil penalties.
The corporation income tax required the issuance of 704,012 penalties and the Employment tax 7,649,296 penalties, with the frequency of parking tickets, issued to businesses that had the audacity to employ people.
To administer the tax laws, the IRS directly employs about one hundred thousand employees.
Yet another example of the hopeless complexity in today's system can be illustrated by the IRS nor the taxpayer understanding the code.
Senator, you may find the current income tax tolerable, but this issue of complexity compels rational people to look at the dismal record of the IRS's own centers established to help people prepare their tax returns.
These centers gave incorrect answers, or no answer at all, to 43 percent of the questions asked by Treasury Department investigators posing as taxpayers.
The investigators concluded that half a million taxpayers may have been given wrong information between July and December 2002. Auditors were given correct answers to 57 percent of their tax law questions during the course of the study.
Less than half, or 45 percent, of the questions were answered correctly and completely. In 12 percent of the cases, the answer was correct but incomplete.
Of the questions answered, they calculated that 67 percent were answered accurately. This obviously skews the results but still even by their skewing the average tax payer had a 1 in 3 chance of being criminalized for improperly completing their tax return after contacting the IRS.
This is not very good odds, Senator, yet our Representatives continue to defend this current system. Is it any wonder why the percentage of non compliance has grown with each passing year?
The IRS says that fully one quarter of the tax returns exempted the tax payer from paying any taxes.
This alone places a surcharge on all taxes collected for those that do pay. We currently pay 20% more than we would if the tax base was based on consumption, not income.
In times of multiple issues as important as Illegal Aliens and the accompanying underground cash only economy it currently supports, with the expenses of the war in Iraq and our loss of jobs to foreign countries, it becomes imperative that we broaden our tax base and add transparency and efficiency to our tax law.
We must place our American global industries on more equal footing by taxing imports at the same rate as our consumption tax and repeal all taxes associated with American industry exports. Coupled with the repeal of all Payroll taxes, this will go a long way in bringing manufacturing jobs back home.
Finally, there are so many vested beneficiaries for each sentence in each Code section that the Code itself represents an employment security act for the many Members of Congress who represent those special interests and for the legions of accountants, tax collectors, and others necessary to prop up the unstable system.
The 7,000 Code sections and the 60,000 pages represent hours upon hours of efforts of advocates to mold the Code to their desires.
But, while the lobbyists and the Members of Congress that defend the Income Tax have benefited, and the industries like tax lawyers feed off the complexity, the American people suffer under the weight of its inefficiency, complexity, and unfairness.
Who do I write for besides myself?
I am a member of a group that is an ever-expanding grassroots citizen's organization of nearly 1 million citizens, the largest taxpayer group ever assembled in the history of our Nation.
We resent Congress's implication that our organization is either Democrat or Republican.
Our ranks have been formed by taxpayers of every walk of life. We are Republicans, but we are also Democrats and Independents.
We are the young and the old. We are the retired and the college student. The poor and the rich, immigrant and 5th generation are among us.
We are fiercely nonpartisan. And we resent as well the belittling of the issue of tax reform, which is one of the most important issues to face the American people, as a political football.
We have never asked one's political affiliation for membership.
And while we are of course pleased that we have the attention of President Bush and Speaker Hastert, we would be equally pleased if we had the enthusiastic support of the Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi or Democratic Ranking Minority Member of the Ways and Means Committee, Charlie Rangel, to assist us in lifting the yoke of our income tax from the beleaguered back of the American taxpayer.
We, the Americans For Fair Taxation, ask Members of Congress to take as seriously our Declaration of Independence from the income tax as our forefathers debated the separation from another tyrannical power.
We seek repeal of the onerous tax system and its replacement with the FairTax.
Instead of partisanship, we seek honest debate.
Instead of bickering, we seek consensus.
Instead of politics, we seek policy discussion.
We view our constituency as the American people, and we are staunch defenders of an equal opportunity tax reform idea.
It is time we had an honest national debate over the FairTax, and it is time that debate took place without the continual political demagoguery that trivializes its significance in this nation?s and the world's economic history.
The FairTax welcomes the endorsement of any enlightened Members of Congress who have the courage to remove the shackles of the income tax from the feet of the American taxpayer.
We would add that by no means do all Republicans endorse the plan as yet. Some endorse a flat tax.
A flat tax differs from a national retail sales tax in that it would require every business to collect and pay taxes up the chain of production as noted.
It differs in other respects. For example, it would not be border adjustable. It also would not repeal payroll taxes, which are the current law's flat tax on jobs and wage income and acts as a disincentive to hire legal immigrants.
The FairTax is fair to all Americans, and simple to understand.
The FairTax bill represents an idea whose time has come.
National polls show that more than two-thirds of Americans want fundamental tax reform, and I am one of those Americans. I live, work, and vote here as an American citizen.
I am personally requesting your support for the FairTax.
I urge you to become fully informed about the FairTax bill through the Americans for Fair Taxation's website at hppt://www.fairtax.org.
A personal reply with your comments on the FairTax bill, rather than a standard form letter, would be greatly appreciated. If you have any questions, don?t hesitate to write me.
I am always open to an honest discussion of the issues that confront this country and how we pay for our endeavors as a country.
This is an American issue. It can become a Democratic Party issue as well. Take the lead. Be progressive.
Thank you for your time.
I am looking forward to your response.
With sincere appreciation,
An Old Democrat,
posted by Old Democrat at 8:38 AM
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