WA Times on Bush "fair & simple" tax: "Will tax reform be an increase?"

By Chris Edwards
August 8, 2005

http://washingtontimes.com/commentary/20050807-095658-6757r.htm

Will President Bush reverse course on fiscal policy and raise taxes? At first thought that seems unlikely because the president would not want to tarnish his tax-cutting record. But "tax reform" has replaced "tax cuts" on the Washington agenda, and that poses dangers for taxpayers.

The president's tax reform panel, headed by former Sen. Connie Mack, will report its findings in September. The panel is charged with proposing "revenue-neutral" options, which seems to rule out tax increases. However, in at least three ways higher taxes threaten to become part of tax reform.

---snip---

A third tax threat is that a revenue increase might creep into a reform package as it moves through Congress. Legislators might see tax reform as a chance to create a new value-added tax to pay for rising entitlement costs. Unfortunately, President Bush has a record of sending reform-oriented bills to Congress that get morphed into big government bills and then signing them into law anyway to score legislative victories. The 2002 education bill and 2003 prescription drug bill are wonderfully depressing examples.

Might there be a similar disaster with tax reform? Would the president sign a "reform" bill that made his prior tax cuts permanent, sprinkled in breaks for his favored causes such as education and imposed a VAT to win the votes of deficit hawks? I fear such a "bipartisan compromise" would create a more powerful tax engine that fuels higher government growth.

Federal sales tax?

The problem is that any simple idea has the certain and probable chance of being so screwed up by the time DeLay and his boys get through with it as to be completely indescribable in any simple news article. Therefore even something that the Washington Times can describe as possibe today has the probability of indescribeability in any bill. And as an added bonus it's sure to screw anyone making less than a Halliburton manager.

He's got to pay for all the fun he has been having somehow without every Re-Pug that's gonna run in '08 running on the ticket that says "George screwed it up, and I'll fix it all".

Food, clothes, home, car, appliance, etc... This will going to hit economy very hard as people will stop buying.

Tell me if I'm wrong on this but.
At present when someone reaches retirement age they get some tax relief. If they go with a national sales tax it would be like dropping the tax relief they get. Correct? So we would have people on set income getting hit by ? percent increase? Individuals which just have social security being hit the worst unless payments go up?