[fabsroman]

I didn't see anything about balancing the budget, getting rid of the national debt, and bringing back manufacturing jobs to the US, but I guess those aren't important either.

Now, if we all of a sudden go to a flat tax, what do you tell the person that bought a residential rental property with the intention of depreciating it over 27.5 years. How about the person that buys a larger house because he is currently subject to the AMT and home mortgage interest is almost always deductible under the AMT. How about the corporation that just spent $1,000,000 on new equipment because they can depreciate it?

Yes, I agree that the rich shouldn't receive the benefit of a 15% capital gain rate, but that could easily be taken care of by increasing the rate to 25% for those in the higher income tax brackets.

As far as the rich not paying any taxes, that is almost impossible with the AMT. AMT stands for Alternative Minimum Tax, and it was enacted because some genius rich guy in 1960 something started bragging about how he made a ton of money and paid absolutely nothing in federal income tax. Congress got wind of this and they passed the AMT which was targeted toward the rich to make sure they paid their fair share. The AMT was not adjusted for inflation over the years, so now it is hitting more and more people. My wife and I were hit with it this year, and if it wasn't for the temporary AMT patch that Congress passed in the 11th hour, we would have had to pay an additional $1,500 in taxes and we are far from rich. The AMT was geared to apply to people earning 6 figures back in the 1960's. Guess what, 6 figures was a heck of a lot more in the 1960's than it is today. Anyway, the patch they passed in late December 2007 only applies to the 2007 tax year because they have no idea how to recoup the lost revenue.

What do you tell the poor married couple with two kids making $30,000 a year right, barely getting by, but not having to pay any taxes because of the standard deduction, personal exemptions, and very low tax rate. According to my calculations, based upon the scenario above, and taking into account the child tax credit, the couple wouldn't have to pay anything in taxes until they exceeded $43,000 in income. What do you tell them when they have to pay $4,300 in federal taxes at a 10% tax rate? What do you tell them when they have to pay $6,450 at a 15% flat tax rate.

Everybody wants to cry about taxes, but it really isn't that bad right now. These are some of the best tax rates we have seen in quite a while, and EVERYBODY is enjoying them. Don't just tell me that the rich are enjoying them. By the way, I forgot to mention that in the above scenario, if the couple only makes $25,000, they get nearly $2,000 back from the government for the EIC, Earned Income Credit, and that is without them paying a single dollar in taxes. How do you break the flat tax news to them?

Being in the middle class and paying close to $15,000 in taxes, I'm all for a 10% flat tax because we would pay $3,000 less. Now, go break that flat tax to the rich and the poor. Something tells me that the rich won't mind it all that much. They probably wouldn't mind a 15% flat tax either. However, remember to keep this thing flat, with no deductions, credits, exemptions, etc. or other special treatment for anybody.

Yep, the flat tax sounds like a great idea until you really get down to it. The democrats talk about it, but do you really think they would pass a true flat tax. Their supporters would hang them.

I could go on for quite a while about the rest of this stuff, but you can just take a gander at my "The Senate is Killing Me" post. They cannot even get the economic stimulus bill passed without adding more pork to it. Do you really think they could get a flat tax passed? Now you are kidding yourself.

Social Security. Can you believe that the government is not earning a decent rate of return on the money put in that fund, because the money is actually being borrowed by the government itself. The SS trust fund is solvent, but it has no money in it because the US government has borrowed it all, and it doesn't pay much other than a minimal interest rate on it. If the money were invested by a decent fund manager, then social security would be able to stand a chance. Also, if a 3% increase were made to the FICA tax, the fund would be solvent well toward the end of this century. Now, try selling that 3% increase and a 10% flat tax to the poor.

Health care. I think I've said this before, but I'll say it again. The federal government cannot even administer Medicare and the state governments cannot even administer Medicaid, yet you want to put them in charge of the entire health care system. Yep, I see that being run just as well as social security. By the way, what would be the additional tax for this. We would just add that to the 3% hike for social security and the 10% flat tax. Do you think 5% could cover it. Okay, lets go with 5%. Now, go break it to the poor that they have to pay a flat tax of 18% so that we can make sure this county runs smoothly.

Does the 10% flat tax take care of the budget deficit and the national debt. Maybe we need a little more. So, tack on another 2%. Now, we have an even 20% flat tax. I'm sure the couple I mentioned above with two kids, making $25,000 a year, usually getting close to $2,000 in free money from the government each year will be jumping for joy knowing that instead of netting $27,000 a year because of the EIC, they will actually be netting $20,000, because 20% of $25,000 is $5,000 that they will have to fork over to Uncle Sam. Please, go tell them that, and make sure you tell them that we are putting this flat tax in place to make sure everybody pays their fair share, the rich included. If they own a gun, they will probably shoot you with it.

Everything sounds great in theory.