It is that time of year again. President Bush will journey tonight to Capitol Hill to do a ritual called the State of the Union address before a joint session of Congress. That is, for members who decide to show up.
The President will outline what he wants Congress to do. He will get huge media coverage, those members of Congress who love getting their faces on television will arrive early to get an aisle seat so they can be seen shaking hands with the president and then they will converge in Capitol Hill’s Statuary Hall afterward and do interviews with television and any other media outlet that wants to talk to them.
Many of our media talking heads and leading opinion makers are busy speculating as to what the president will be talking about and should be talking about during this annual ritual. Let me put in my two cents.
President Bush should push Congress to pass the Fair Tax Act. It is an act proposed by Georgia Republican Rep. John Linder and it has been languishing in the hallowed halls of Congress for several years now. The tax system is out of control and the Republican controlled Congress should do something about it in order to keep the economy growing.
The Fair Tax Act (H.R. 25) is a national retail tax on new goods and services. It would replace all individual and corporate income taxes, payroll taxes and capitol gains taxes, estate taxes and gift taxes.
The Fair Tax would replace the way Americans are currently taxed, which is based on our annual income, with a tax on goods and services. It is a voluntary consumption tax. To put it simply, the more you buy, the more you pay in taxes. The less you buy, the less you pay in taxes.
Don’t worry folks. The federal government will continue to be fully funded, including Social Security and Medicare.
The Fair Tax will reduce the costs of goods and services by 20 to 30 percent. It will allow American workers to keep 100 percent of their paycheck, pension and Social Security payments with the exception being state or local withholding taxes.
Here in America, we spend too much time and money accommodating the growing complexity and oppressiveness of the federal tax structure. The time for fundamental reform is now.
Another part of the act that I am excited is the elimination of the Internal Revenue Service known as the IRS. It would eliminate it because this tax is a consumption tax paid at the cash register. Thus the American people don’t have to put up with any forms. No forms, no IRS!!!
Will the president talk about the Fair Tax Act during the State of the Union address?? Your guess is as good as mine. We need this act because past Congresses have moved in the wrong direction by making our tax laws more complex and expensive for business and individuals to comply with. This has to be changed.
Real tax reform is for all Americans. It is time to end the practice of collecting federal revenues on how much an American citizen earns. It is time to replace the present system that suffocates hard work, savings, investment and the spirit of free enterprise.
The American people should have the right to keep more of their hard earned money and not have it spent by politicians in Washington.
