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House Republicans to vote on bill abolishing IRS, eliminating income tax

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Re: House Republicans to vote on bill abolishing IRS, eliminating income tax

#31

Post by V__ »

_null_ wrote: post #23

This is just the first in a long list of "messaging" bills that will come from a very slim Republican House, because there is Democratic control of the Senate. They know it won't become law. The point is to rile up the media, get hits on cable news, fund raise, and generally be useless as a governing body. This is what both parties do when they are out of power, and I would say is what they _prefer_ to do. It's easie…

I really don't get this “both parties” attitude. There is no basis for that argument. There is a lot to criticize about Democrats, but they at least want to govern.

Re: House Republicans to vote on bill abolishing IRS, eliminating income tax

#32

Post by AnIdiotOnTheNet »

wustangdan wrote: post #28
mrguyorama wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Republicans have run on a platform of "Government is terrible at it's job" for 50 years, and every time they get elected they work really hard to prove it.

I have a hard time combining this sentiment with my lived experience in California.

Regardless, what's the alternative? Have corporations run everything and only majority share holders get any say? How do you think that'll work out?

Yet, that's exactly what the "government doesn't work" crowd seems to be pushing for. It's great if you're a billionaire neo-feudalist and terrible if you're literally anyone else.

Re: House Republicans to vote on bill abolishing IRS, eliminating income tax

#33

Post by hardtke »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #10
jleyank wrote: post #7

Would this eliminate the federal income tax leaving state and lower taxes? Or is it going to be nothing but one rather impressive vat?

> Would this eliminate the federal income tax leaving state and lower taxes? The proposal “gets rid of the national personal and corporate income taxes and abolishes the IRS…as well as implements a national sales tax. Additionally, the bill gets rid of the death, gift, and payroll taxes.”

The rate seems to be 23%, and given that this is only a sales tax this would mean the federal government is taxing at maybe 10-15% of GDP. If I remember correctly, federal government expenditures are around 30% of GDP.

Re: House Republicans to vote on bill abolishing IRS, eliminating income tax

#34

Post by __derek__ »

Someone wrote: post #9
whispersnow wrote: post #5

Then what's the other taxes he wants to impose?

FTA!: “a bill that would abolish the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), eliminate the national income tax, and replace it with a national consumption tax.” I guess they mean a (federal) sales tax because taxing at time of consumption is fairly hard to implement.

> taxing at time of consumption is fairly hard to implement

Yet very amusing to imagine.[1]

[1]: In a Monty Python or Douglas Adams way, natch.

Re: House Republicans to vote on bill abolishing IRS, eliminating income tax

#35

Post by riku_iki »

knubie wrote: post #27
riku_iki wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

another concerning point is that ultra-rich would be taxed much less, say now Bezos sells 100B of stock, he pays 20B in taxes (long term capital gain). With new tax he will pay nothing.

He would pay taxes on whatever he spends that 100B on. If he just has 100B sitting in his bank account does that really benefit him? Money is not worth anything until it's spent. The problem with taxing money before it's spent is that you have no way of separating out "good" consumption (e.g. health care) from "bad" consumption (e.g. yachts, 2nd homes). That kind of system leads to convoluted tax codes and things lik…

> He would pay taxes on whatever he spends that 100B on.

that's depends if reinvesting is counted as spend.

Re: House Republicans to vote on bill abolishing IRS, eliminating income tax

#36

Post by kodyo »

V__ wrote: post #31
_null_ wrote: post #23

This is just the first in a long list of "messaging" bills that will come from a very slim Republican House, because there is Democratic control of the Senate. They know it won't become law. The point is to rile up the media, get hits on cable news, fund raise, and generally be useless as a governing body. This is what both parties do when they are out of power, and I would say is what they _prefer_ to do. It's easie…

I really don't get this “both parties” attitude. There is no basis for that argument. There is a lot to criticize about Democrats, but they at least want to govern.

The kind of people who want to govern other people are not the kind of people we should encourage.

Re: House Republicans to vote on bill abolishing IRS, eliminating income tax

#37

Post by riku_iki »

bigfishrunning wrote: post #26
riku_iki wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

another concerning point is that ultra-rich would be taxed much less, say now Bezos sells 100B of stock, he pays 20B in taxes (long term capital gain). With new tax he will pay nothing.

How often does bezos sell 100B of stock, vs how often does he buy cars and boats and houses? you have to look at both sides of the scale, i'm not sure he'd end up paying less as a consumption/sales tax. I think the major argument is that the income tax is a mess, and very difficult to administer

> How often does bezos sell 100B of stock, vs how often does he buy cars and boats and houses?

Bezos very likely sold much more stocks value wise than spent on boats and cars.

Re: House Republicans to vote on bill abolishing IRS, eliminating income tax

#38

Post by [deleted] »

mrguyorama wrote: post #20
wustangdan wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sorry I'm not following you. Are you saying that what the US has now is well-functioning social institutions with mutual accountability? Since they oppose this by trying to pull funding from them.

Republicans have run on a platform of "Government is terrible at it's job" for 50 years, and every time they get elected they work really hard to prove it.

[deleted]

Re: House Republicans to vote on bill abolishing IRS, eliminating income tax

#39

Post by happytoexplain »

lurquer wrote: post #18

Meaningless. Senate wouldn’t back it and President wouldn’t sign it. Telling how ignorant audiences are of civics that this stunt would merit an article. (Indeed, a good number of these same reps literally voted to fund the IRS at unprecedented levels just a few weeks ago.)

I don't understand the implication that this must have a chance of passing to merit an article. The behavior alone merits an article. I am glad to be informed of government behavior (regardless of party).

Re: House Republicans to vote on bill abolishing IRS, eliminating income tax

#40

Post by trilbyglens »

wwweston wrote: post #22
wustangdan wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sorry I'm not following you. Are you saying that what the US has now is well-functioning social institutions with mutual accountability? Since they oppose this by trying to pull funding from them.

The US is astoundingly well-functioning and most US citizens astoundingly lucky by historical and/or global standards, and certain kinds of minimally functional mutual accountability are part of the reason why we've gotten this far. There's also plenty of room for improvement of course (including learning from other industrial social democracies as well as recent internal issues), so that's relative, but the most rea…

Astoundingly well functioning maybe if you ignore literally every single other developed nation on the planet.
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