Why do you think most Republicans and Democrats are so scared of the National Flat Tax System?

Answer 1

They are not scared, don't be silly. It has been Republicans that have advocated a flat tax - well, something called a "flat tax" anyway. Every proposal that called itself a "flat tax" isn't really flat. It's a single tax rate, but only on income above a certain amount. This makes the effective tax structure progressive. There's no way Democrats or Republicans would ever pass a real flat tax.

The main problem with any tax reform, including a flat tax, is what happens after it's passed. The original Federal income tax was fairly flat, but evolved into what we have today. The dynamics of the evolution of the tax code have to do with the various lobbies that get Congress to change the tax code to their favor. There's no reason to expect that any major change to the tax code - like a flat tax, or a sales tax - would be permanent. The only way to simplify the tax code would be a constitutional amendment that limits what congress can do. And that wont happen without a constitutional convention.

Answer 2

Because the top .1% of income earners would have to pay taxes for a change, and they don't like it. Since they control the corporations, who in turn make huge donations to the political parties.

The only way to create fairness and Democracy, is to first take money out of politics. Anyone that gets enough signatures, can be on the ballot, and each candidate would be given the same amount of advertising and flyers and whatnot. This guarantees that elections are not about who has the most money to spend, but who's in agreement with the American People on the issues. The small amount of money this would cost (perhaps $40 million per presidential election) is insignificant compared to the vast amounts of money wasted helping corporations that donate to the political candidates. For instance, the old standby Halliburton. Cheney still recieves a huge amount of money from them every year ("deferred salary"), with a huge bonus waiting when he's done with his vice-presidency, and both Cheney and Bush own stock in Halliburton. Halliburton now receives huge amounts of money (supposedly to rebuild Iraq and New Orleans), which it keeps most of, then pays another company (a subsidiary of Halliburton) to do the work. The subsidiary (ie Kellogg, Brown, and Root) then keeps most of the money and pays some other company (commonly companies in poor nations that will work for cheap) to actually do the work. If the administration wasn't making personal money from this deal and had the country's best interests in mind, they would just hire a company that would actually do the work and cut out the middleman, saving $ Billions!

Then when leadership has no incentive to waste money giving it to their buddies, the money will start being used how the American People want it to be used, everyone would see the results, and not have a problem with paying some taxes and not giving the ultra-rich tax breaks. The US's total revenues this year was $2.6trillion. If everyone in the country payed a flat 27%, the revenues for this year would be closer to $24trillion! A lot more money to go to things that need to be done...like free healthcare for everyone, excellent free education for everyone, etc.

Answer 3

Loss of power to grant favors to assorted groups. But I would rather see the Fair Tax (National Sales Tax) which would get rid of the IRS all together. Look here: http://www.fairtax.org/ or here: http://www.fairtaxvolunteer.org/smart/sketch.html You pay no payroll tax at all, not even SS. There's a refund paid quarterly to the poor, to make up for taxes on food & such. Everything new is taxes, used items are not.

Answer 4

Because under such a tax the lower class would find a much larger percentage of their earnings going to the government and the lower taxation enjoyed by many employers could easily be outweighed by the pay increases they would have to implement so that their workers would have enough money to do things like pay rent and eat.

Answer 5

For the same reason all people should be - it won't raise enough money unless you tax the very poor.
20% flat tax * $50,000 (ave household income) * 100,000,000 households = 1 trillion dollars. This is 50% of our current budget so it's insufficient. In reality you'd have to bring in even less, because the fact is taxable income per household is less than $50,000, everybody gets a deduction otherwise you'd be taxing $2,000 from someone only making $10,000 a yr. And it doesn't address that that 30% of american households currently pay less than 20% taxes, so you'd be raising taxes on them while cutting taxes on the very wealthiest people.

So really, a better idea then a flax tax would be a simplified graduated tax. Because someone making 100 million a yr should spend a higher percentage of their income paying for the government than someone making 10 or 20,000 a year.

Answer 6

Most people don't understand a flat tax. Those that do usually support one.

Answer 7

We already use a flat tax system for funding Social Security.

A flat tax is a regressive tax, which means that it has a greater impact on the poor than the wealthy. 10% of a poor persons income means paying rent or eating. 10% of a wealthy persons income means hiring one fewer person for their business. Both are more damaging to the poor, so the Dem's don't like it.

Republicans don't like it, because I think they like the loophole system, where, through investments and deductions, you can eliminate your tax altogether.

Answer 8

I'm a Republican and I heard about this from my dad who is a Republican. We both think it's a great idea. Change is scary for most people.

Answer 9

They derive their power from taxation and spending the proceeds. The Fair Tax will strip away most of that power, leaving them vulnerable and with less power. This is the reason we SHOULD insist that if they want our votes this fall, they will do what we hire than to! No EXCUSES!

Answer 10

You use most so flippantly.

Most Americans are drinking beer and doing as little as possible. The choice of which Jerry Springer reruns to watch is a big decision for most people.

All the political decisions are made by a few insiders.

Go big Red Go