Ari Fleisher wrote an op-ed piece in yesterday's Wall Street Journal Online explaining why our system of government works better when everyone pays income taxes. Under the current system, Ten per cent of the people in America make more than $ 92,400 a year. They pay 72.4% of the nation's income taxes.
The article points out that:
"As a result of the 2001 tax cuts enacted by a bipartisan Congress and signed by President George W. Bush, the share of taxes paid by the top 10% increased to 72.8% in 2005 from 67.8% in 2001, according to the latest data from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO)."...
"According to the CBO, those who made less than $44,300 in 2001 -- 60% of the country -- paid a paltry 3.3% of all income taxes. By 2005, almost all of them were excused from paying any income tax. They paid less than 1% of the income tax burden. Their share shrank even when taking into account the payroll tax. In 2001, the bottom 60% paid 16.3% of all taxes; by 2005 their share was down to 14.3%. All the while, this large group of voters made 25.8% of the nation's income."
Ari Fleischer is proposing an income tax system where everyone pays some income taxes. If that were the case, everyone's taxes would go up and down according to increases or decreases in federal spending. Everyone would have a stake in how much to government was spending. We would not have the situation that we have now where everyone at all levels is trying to 'outsmart' the tax code either by loopholes or the underground economy.
The complete Internal Revenue Code is more than 24 megabytes in length, and contains more than 3.4 million words; printed 60 lines to the page, it would fill more than 7500 letter-size pages. This needs to change. Right now the tax code is the product of effective lobbying of Congress by 'special interest groups', we need Representatives and Senators who have the courage, integrity, and ability to change the way taxes are collected in America!
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