Political suicides are never pretty to watch. They are always awkward and painful. Particularly when a Presidential Candidate begins his/her campaign with one the best and most elevating "raison d'etre" speeches, ever. Rick Perry managed to do just that with his stale cheap shot at Romney on the illegal immigrant/lawn care issue. (Note to Perry, if you are going in for the "kill" have your ducks in a row and don't be four years too late.)
Dr. K makes the point that this was not fatal to Perry because he has so much money in his war chest. And, that his performance proved he had a debating pulse. I disagree; the money will simply delay the inevitable. Perry proved by his actions and lack of debating skill that he is "All hat and no cattle." as they say in Texas.
Romney, too, by virtue of his response to the failed kill shot, lost any moral high ground that he might have had on the immigration debate.
Illegal is the key word in the immigration debate, his candidacy (note the root word) is not relevant to that argument.
Dr. K sees Romney's attack on Herman Cain, the fact that the 9-9-9 Plan would end up with the average citizen paying Two Sales Taxes. Dr. K describes this "apples & oranges" as a "take down" for Romney.
I emphatically do not agree.
It seems to me that everybody is forgetting (or at the very least, nobody is mentioning) a key fact of modern life which automatically dampens the private sector economy and that is WITHHOLDING. That is where the Government borrows your money without paying you interest by virtue of extortion at the hands of the I.R.S. Too many of us are happy thinking that we got a "Refund". NO, you didn't get to use your money for part of the year --sad.
Think of your purchasing power, if 1/3
rd of your salary was not being withheld by your employer for the Government. Rather, you were paying half of your tax obligation every time you made a purchase and your remaining balance of 9% was on an annual and diminishing sliding scale ending at ZERO eight years later - when the GDP has doubled or tripled.
This would return us to the pre-Woodrow Wilson days when the average citizen had no other contact with the General government than at the Post Office. Just imagine.
Rep. Michele Bachmann brought up another problem which Mr. Cain must clarify:
Business to business sales for further production or enhancement should NOT be taxable event. Otherwise, we have saddled ourselves with a stealthy de facto VAT Tax. No thanks.
I, also, see the problem of opening up other regressive streams of taxation unless we simultaneously rid ourselves of the Regressive Income Tax and close off any possibility of a VAT and other stealth taxes as bigger obstacles. This is why I called for the repeal of the Sixteenth Amendment in last
week's piece.
Moreover, not all States have a sales tax. So, if the idea, of paying two completely visible and transparent sales taxes, bothers you? Then, move to one of five States that do not have a sales tax, Alaska, Montana, New Hampshire and Oregon. Kiplinger has a handy
web page so that you can decide how best to exercise your own version of Federalism. Or, Tax Hell --New York.
That is the freedom that our Founders envisioned. It is the very basis of Federalism [ii] --in addition to the States being separate laboratories for the science of politics and governance. The
original design was for the dissolution, dispersement and decentralization of power from the General Government through the States governments to the individual citizen via local government. See: Federalist #10 & 51 and the Ninth & Tenth Amendments in the Bill of Rights.
Part of the true definition of freedom is honest and open direct taxation [iii] of every citizen by its government. This responsibility should be equal and not easily escaped. 14
th Amendment - equal protection --isn't that so? Q.E.D.
Too much political mischief is the result of the false notion that the "other guy" or the "rich" are paying the freight. This is never true, unless you are of a coming generation that is saddled with this debt. It is a sad fact that we do not mourn the opportunities that never presented themselves because they were vacuumed down the big government "rat-hole" of waste fraud and abuse.
A Federal Sales Tax would also move the accounting paperwork responsibility from the average citizen to the business sector which is already set up to handle that. BUT, more importantly it precisely blends the consumer into a taxpayer when He or She can afford it.
This IS the antithesis of Obamanomics.
But, this would be the very definition of LIBERTY?
[ii] --Federalism is the concept of the "Union"- Nationalism is the opposite --it is the concept of centralization and concentration of power.
[iii] --I am using this term not as the Framers did, its meaning as changed as we moved away from an agrarian economy. Rather I am using the term "direct" as in open & honest.
