Taxes, The Root of Corruption

Opinion by George McClellan:

Donald Trump has sucked all the air out of the room among the other Republican candidates for President because he’s talking about issues Americans know are inherently wrong. And, there is little or nothing that can be done about. Even the “talking heads” seem puzzled.by the Trump phenomena and his ability to avoid the destructive land mines of political correctness that has derailed many a political candidate. As I recall, Howard Hughes was wealthy too, but, he wasn’t running for political office. He already had his money, just like Trump. We’ll see!

Trump has de-electrified the third rail of national politics, no, not Social Security, but Political Correctness, the theory that the Left’s taboo subjects, i.e.: those that don’t meet their definition of feel good propriety, like illegal immigration, gun control, Common Core, unearned entitlements, income equality, murdering little infants for body parts, that sort of thing, have now been challenged and exposed to the bright sunshine of disinfection. Credit Trump for the illegal immigration issue and getting the anti-liberal ball rolling. What has not yet been exposed to examination is the root cause for the corruption of our government and the remedy available to correct it. We all know what it is, the absolute lust for money and the power that goes with it!

Basically, the problem lies in our onerous progressive Income tax code. Politicians of both parties, especially the career ones who know how to game the system for their own protection, safety and longevity, simply cannot have, and will not change, the current tax code because it has become the very life blood of their sustained life style and our miserable existence.

It’s a simple scheme, really. Congress trades tax credits for campaign cash. Also, the income tax allows the dominate political party to punish their enemies and reward their friends. Simple as that!  Does not the answer to the problem suggest itself? End careerism with term limits, eliminate the Progressive Income Tax and replace it with the Fair Tax, aka: a national retail sales tax. I do not include the Flat Tax as a solution because that is still a tax on Income. Like politicians, we also misuse the proper term. It should rightly be called the “Flat Income Tax.”

If such a plan were to occur, DC lobbyists organizations would fold up overnight and the unemployment ranks would swell with former congressmen, senators, campaign managers and political consultants all looking for a way to sustain their once lucrative livelihood. It would be awful, a carnage in fact. The IRS would be cut down to a few hundred employees and thousands of CPA firms and shady tax lawyers would be seeking new lines of employment. Washington DC would finally sink beneath the slimy swamp waters of the Potomac River waiting for future historians to discover the remains and wonder what the fuss was all about.

The Fair Tax arguments have been hashed and rehashed over and over again. Everybody knows tit will work. It can save America from itself, restore our prosperity, reduce not only the deficit but the debt, something Americans are now doing household by household and the federal government is not. But, alas, only our corrupt politicians prevent it. We are in a race to the bottom where, when we get there we can meet all our friends, the Chinese, the Japanese, the Russians and the countries of the European Union. The Greeks will already be there with their lovely olive oil to protect us from the heat. Go here: www.gafairtax.org or here: www.fairtax.org for all the exciting details. Somehow we’ve got to get out of this hole we’re in. Correcting official looting is probably the best place to start.

Remember, freedom is the goal, the Constitution is the way. Now, go get ‘em! (29 Aug 2015)