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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsScott Walker: Abolishing Federal Income Tax 'Sounds Pretty Tempting'
Posted: 03/14/2015 2:12 pm EDT Updated: 5 hours ago
WASHINGTON -- Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) said Saturday that eliminating the federal income tax sounded like a pretty appealing idea.
"I haven't proposed that, although it sounds pretty tempting right now. Particularly in this state, I'd love that," Walker said, speaking to a group of Republicans in New Hampshire.
But the likely 2016 presidential contender did not outright endorse the idea, which remains popular among fringe, libertarian voters in the Granite State. (New Hampshire is one of only nine states in the country that does not have a state income tax.) Instead, Walker ably pivoted to a discussion of lowering income tax rates, an alternative more consistent with mainstream views in the Republican Party.
"Certainly I think lower rates, we've talked about that. We've looked at that," Walker said, adding, "should I get in this race, that's something we'll take on in that growth category out there."
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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/14/scott-walker-income-tax_n_6869936.html
PowerToThePeople
(9,610 posts)DemocratSinceBirth
(99,711 posts)greatauntoftriplets
(175,749 posts)DemocratSinceBirth
(99,711 posts)greatauntoftriplets
(175,749 posts)DemocratSinceBirth
(99,711 posts)greatauntoftriplets
(175,749 posts)DonViejo
(60,536 posts)Good one!
Salviati
(6,008 posts)What's in the tank?
DemocratSinceBirth
(99,711 posts)Salviati
(6,008 posts)If it were raw sewage on the other hand...
HereSince1628
(36,063 posts)Game theory suggests that without taxes above 50% selfishness is favored and there is no motivation to advocate policies that raise everyone in the economy
pampango
(24,692 posts)Our ancestors knew this was not true. The income tax was the most popular economic justice movement of the late 19th and early 20th century. This truly grassroots movement forced politicians to act in order to stay in office, leading to the 16th Amendment to the Constitution in 1913. Thats right, the income tax was so popular that the nation passed a constitutional amendment so that the right-wing Supreme Court couldnt overturn it.
Income and Tax Inequality in the Late 19th Century
Everyday Americans hated the tax system of the Gilded Age. The federal government gathered taxes in two ways. First, it placed high tariff rates on imports. These import taxes protected American industries from competition. This allowed companies to charge high prices on products that the working class needed to survive while also protecting the monopolies that controlled their everyday lives. Second, the government had high excise taxes on tobacco and alcohol, two products used heavily by the American working class.
These forms of indirect taxes meant that almost the entirety of federal tax revenue came from the poor while the rich paid virtually nothing. This spawned enormous outrage. The poor had a model in creating an income taxPresident Abraham Lincoln, who instituted the nations first income tax to pay for the Civil War. Lincolns Revenue Act of 1861 created a graduated tax on everyone who made at least $800 a year, allowing him to pay for the war. Although a grand success, Republicans pulled away from it as they backed off of racial equality in the late 1860s and it was overturned in 1872.
At first, Americans did not protest much against the end of the income tax, but with skyrocketing income inequality of the Gilded Age, grassroots movements sprung up to find solutions. Many Americans were attracted to simple one-size-fits-all ideas like Henry Georges Single Tax, intended to pay for all government expenditures by taxes on land transactions that supporters also hoped would draw urban dwellers back to the farms.
"skyrocketing income inequality" happened during eras of high tariffs and no income tax (the Gilded Age and again in the 1920's) as well as during eras of low tariffs and low/regressive income taxes (today). Countries with the best income equality all have high/progressive taxes.
There is a lesson to be learned there though I seriously doubt that Mr. Walker is willing to learn it. Tariffs do not create income equality. Progressive income taxes and other progressive policies do.
Thinkingabout
(30,058 posts)We could do away with the secret service, people working in the White House, grounds keepers and Air Force One. Yea, boy we could cut the income taxes.
Initech
(100,102 posts)gateley
(62,683 posts)DemocratSinceBirth
(99,711 posts)malokvale77
(4,879 posts)What does he propose would pay his salary?
Maybe we can pass a bill where corporations (who seem to be the only ones who benefit from our government anymore) split the cost of running the government.
I'm sure these corporations would have no problem supporting the giant military industrial complex they so love.
hatrack
(59,592 posts)What a phony bag of pus.
Release The Hounds
(467 posts)Walker would suggest enslaving the human race.
Telcontar
(660 posts)How much, as a percentage of total revenue, does the IRS collect from individuals. I, for one, would rather place the burden on the massive profits corporations are generating these days. How is it gas companies are paying zero in taxes?
If that is what he proposes (yeah, I dint think so either), then I'm on board with it.
flobee1
(870 posts)Sales tax goes to 25%, every road becomes a toll road, and speeding tickets cost $2000
Scotty is not about to give up HIS paycheck!