|
EDITORIAL: Reach for real reform
(Augusta Chronicle, The (GA) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Mar. 29--We've gotten another subtle peek into the mind of President Obama with his new tax reform task force.
His budget director, Peter Orszag, says the task force will try to close loopholes, streamline the tax code and generate more revenue -- and, pointedly, to reduce tax evasion and "corporate welfare."
In other words, businesses and rich people aren't pulling their weight.
The truth of the matter, of course, is that businesses are the ones that create the jobs Barack Obama has suggested we need; U.S. corporations are already taxed at higher rates than those in most industrialized societies; and "rich" people already pay most of the taxes.
According to the Tax Foundation, a nonpartisan tax research group based in Washington, D.C., the "average combined federal and state corporate tax rate in the U.S." a year ago was 39.3 percent. That's the second-highest in the world among the 30 member nations of the free-market Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
Rather than reduce corporate tax rates to make America more competitive globally, the Obama administration is embarking on a quest -- festooned as "tax reform" -- to find all the tax cheats in corporate America.
Were the effort something more than an adventure to wring more money out of greedy corporate America, the administration might be looking at all ways to improve federal revenue collections.
We can think of no better way than the Fair Tax.
The president wants to close tax loopholes. The national sales tax would do just that.
The president wants a fair tax system. The Fair Tax would accomplish that.
The president wants a simplified tax system. The Fair Tax would provide that.
Orszag claims the task force, to be headed by the legendary former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, will be "open to consider any options of any sort that it sees fit." We hope so. And we hope the group investigates the Fair Tax before reporting back to the president in December.
Tax reform should be precisely that.
To see more of The Augusta Chronicle, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://augustachronicle.com.
Copyright (c) 2009, The Augusta Chronicle, Ga.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.
[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
|
SUBSCRIPTIONS
Activate Email 
TMCnet LOGIN
Find Solutions for Enterprises, SMBs & Service Providers at the INTERNET TELEPHONY Conference and EXPO West, October 4-6, 2010. Los Angeles, CA.
