Kansas Senator floats flat-tax plan for Washington

[Blue_Tires]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060308/pl_nm/economy_taxes_washington_dc

The District of Columbia would become a laboratory for a flat federal income tax system if Kansas Republican Sen. Sam Brownback (news, bio, voting record) has his way.

Brownback, who chairs the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on D.C., said on Wednesday he intends to seek support from Senate leadership for legislation to create an optional flat tax in the U.S. capital, with a low rate but none of the traditional deductions for expenditures like home mortgage interest and retirement savings.
"The federal government has a unique opportunity to try out a flat federal income tax in the District of Columbia," Brownback said.

Flat-tax proposals have featured prominently in the debate over broader federal tax reform in the past year, but President George W. Bush's tax reform panel recommended modifying the current system by eliminating some deductions but keeping others.
Under Brownback's theory, a flat tax in D.C. would boost the city's economy, driving up local revenues while drumming up broad U.S. support for a national flat tax. D.C. residents could still file under the old system, but few would want to, he said.

He convened a group of conservative and libertarian tax experts to testify at the hearing.
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TRANSLATION: Despite all the time, money and hot air we've spent hyping it, none of us is sure any of this shit will really work...So let the urban black folks in D.C. be the first guinea pigs! (Kinda similar to New Orleans or Tuskegee)...And even if it is a total failure throwing the city into chaos, no one outside of the District will know or care because things are so screwed up in the first place!

[roguevalley]

1. any tax plan by a pug is a screw job for the multitudes of us

staggering around making payments on the .5% who get a tax cut. Brownback is surely going to be indicted isn't he? I don't trust any tax revision from ANYONE in congress. They're all bastards. (With notable exceptions.)

[Blue_Tires]

4. speaking of bastardy

notice in the article that the city administrators (mostly if not all dem) were NOT invited to the planning meeting...methinks that Brownback and the other Cato free-market worshippers hope to put this through with or without any input or approval from the people that actually live there

[roguevalley]

6. I hope they go to jail soon.

[flyingfysh]

2. another way to shift taxes to poorer people

Plans like this always tax wages (and not investment income), disallow mortgage deductions (which are much more important to poorer people), and otherwise let the super-rich get off easy. But what do you expect? It's a Republican pushing it.

[1932]

3. and they allow millionaires to pay same tax on the income they barely

worked to earn (eg, the next 1,000 bucks after having already made 1 million) that a poor person pays on money they had to work hours and hours to earn.

[porkrind]

5. "libertarian tax experts" <- LOL!

"driving up local revenues while drumming up broad U.S. support for a national flat tax."

Yeah, right. I bet 'merrikans can't wait to give up their mortgage deductions. :eyes:

If these whackjobs had their way, we would all be living in a victorian slum with open sewers and no running water.

[msongs]

7. My taxes stayed the same flat tax vs current --->

a year ago we did some figures using a proposed flat tax rate and the current messy system. at my income level
the results were almost identical, itemizing vs flat tax with no deductions.

a flat tax is NOT inherently bad or evil for many people.

before one comes to a conclusion based on who is proposing such a tax, one ought to do the numbers.

no knowledge of how this will work for bigg bucks people however.

Msongs
www.msongs.com/democratsmugs.htm

[Blue_Tires]

8. it would be a little different

if he chose somewhere in Kansas to try it...But the mere fact that he is proposing 'trying it out' in a major city 1300 miles from his home state, and in a place with a racial/social demographic that is a polar opposite of said state, makes me incredibly suspicious....

I haven't even factored in the equation that Brownback has a long record of fuckwittery and general lowlife ratfink scumbag tendecies....He has never cared about anything that didn't further his career or the RW agenda of death.

FWIW, i have lived in both Kansas and the D.C. area

[emulatorloo]

9. Kansas DU'ers - I beg you -- GET RID OF ROBERTS AND BROWNBACK!

Because they irritate the crap out of me. Senator "Cover-Up" Roberts and Senator "WackJob" Brownback have got to go. As far as I can tell their main focus is to cover for Bushco and come up with horrible schemes.

(P.S. I know you are trying.

[wakeme2008]

10. Great IDEA but one little problem

Lets force all thoses living in VA/MD to pay incoming tax in DC for the work they do there.

[salin]

13. When I worked in Detroit, but lived

outside of the city - I owed taxes on the part of my income earned in Detroit. There is a precedent for what you suggest.

[wakeme2008]

14. all states do it but VA/MD have a special exception

and that is why Congress has to give $$$ to DC. If all those Govt workers in DC paid DC incoming the rest of US would not have to pay a dime for DC.

FYI if you work in VA but live in MD you pay VA incoming tax. Same if you live in VA but work in MD .

:grr:

[ShockediSay]

11. how 'bout a flat tax on everything over 100K ?

those of us below that level are struggling to make ends meet

[sutz12]

12. What we need to do.....

is rely less on taxing income and start taxing wealth.

A wealthy person can always alter their income to affect taxes in a positive way. A poor person can't. In fact, under current systems, poor people tend to get penalized for taking on a second job.

[Bridget Burke]

15. "No Taxation Without Representation"

What do DC's senators have to say? Oops--there aren't any!

[triguy46]

16. 2 concerns

1. In the past, the flat tax ploy has been a trojan horse that would ultimately defund federal government through significantly lower revenues. That was then, this is now, * has a hell of deficit built up, and with the war and Katrina "off the books" trillion dollar size deficits could result. You couldn't starve enough kids and elderly, close enough VAs, to make it work.

2. The test will be in the rate, actually, the rate AND the details, what if any deductions would be left. Then let people do a real easy comparison, how much they pay this year, FY 05, in taxes and then take their same income and multiply by by the new flat tax rate. Are there any winner?? From 1990 through Steve Forbes, I've always lost. What is scary is that such a comparison exceeds many families capability for household financial management, e.g. many people don't think they pay taxes because they get a refund, ("I dont' have to pay any taxes this year, I'm getting $450 back). Sheesh.

Lastly, never underestimate the willingness of the repugs to screw the middle class, and secondly, the middle class willing to take it.

[Blue_Tires]

17. ttt n/t