Taxes

We struggle to earn enough to feed our families, build our lives, and search for the American Dream. The single largest obstacle we Americans must overcome to achieve our goals, and the real reason for our current economic mess, is an archaic, unpredictable, complex, federal tax structure which needs to be completely replaced.

Economic recovery does not come from Washington, it will come from the American worker. The most effective means of helping the economy recover is to improve the incentives that drive economic activity, and that means reducing tax rates on small business, corporations, personal savings, investments, risk taking, and entrepreneurial activity. Taxpayers must not be encouraged to cheat and avoid their responsibility to support our nation, and tax policy must make sure that every single person has skin in the game.

Tax policy should follow three basic principles:

1. Taxes must fund constitutional government, not affect behavior. The current tax code is a complex scheme which rewards lobbyists and special interests, and seeks to encourage certain conduct and behaviors. By its complexity, however, it drives businesses overseas, and allows those with the best accountants to use loopholes to evade liability. It is also a tool to inappropriately subsidize private businesses at taxpayer expense.
2. The tax code should be simple and predictable. People and businesses should be able to determine precisely what they will owe, and the government what to expect.
3. Everyone should pay something, even if only $1 / day. The top 5% of income earners pay 80% of the taxes; the next 45% pay the rest; and 50% pay nothing.

Consistent with these principles, we should carefully examine going to a flat tax which requires a minimum tax on every individual, but a maximum tax for federal purposes of 15%. In the meantime, to spur economic activity immediately to get this economy, the current code should be amended to:

-Eliminate the capital gains tax;
-Eliminate the “Death Tax”;
-Extend the so-called "Bush" tax cuts;
-Cap the Earned Income Tax credit so that no refunds are paid to those whose tax liability is "zero".
-Reduce the maximum Corporate tax rate to 20%.

We must, once again, become a competitive, robust nation, not a nation on hold.