Quid Pro Quo Tax Reform

Maybe we citizens should get with the program and adopt today's prevailing political tactics. Under the Blagojevich Doctrine, if we must accept a tax cheat in charge of the IRS, we should get something juicy in return. Quid pro quo, right?

Beltway wisdom insists that Timothy Geithner, confessed tax cheat (he says he's sorry) and architect of the stupid TARP program, is "not just the best, but the only" choice for Treasury Secretary. Remember that TARP (Troubled Assets Relief Program) was/is the plan to open the tax dollar fire hose on the flailing economy to the tune of $870 billion. This was to get all the "toxic" mortgage loans off the market for awhile, restoring the US economy as a safe place for investors to play. Right.

Let me further get on your last nerve, dear reader, by reminding you that the original TARP budget was $750 billion but it didn't have the votes until enough legislators were brought on board with the siren song of an additional $110 billion or so in pork.

See how that works? "You need my vote? Sure. What's in it for me?"

So now Geithner is on track to be confirmed by the Senate to guide our economic salvation. There is so much wrong with that, I don't know where to begin. His father, Peter F. Geithner, heads the Asia program at the Ford Foundation in New York, which once employed Obama's mother.

As far as TARP goes, lots of reelection mojo is invested in the economy, so it is almost understandable that politicians would want to keep throwing your money at this problem until you decide to start spending and investing again.
But bailing out the same greedy jackals who bankrupted us is unjust and forestalls the inevitable, making it worse. Maybe Frank Borman said it best: “Capitalism without bankruptcy is like Christianity without hell.”

All that said, maybe citizens can accept Geithner under the right circumstances. But it should be worth something really, really nice. How about this?:

Get the IRS out of our lives, period. Abolish federal income taxes, both corporate and individual, forever. Corporations don't pay income taxes anyway; they only collect them with higher prices. Let's be sure and abolish the 16th Amendment, too, so the income tax is dead, dead, dead. Ditch the capital gains tax and payroll taxes, too. Whoever says the US tax system is "progressive" has no idea how much more payroll taxes hurt wage earners than salaried folk.

Now we still have to fund government services, so let's put a revenue neutral sales tax on all retail sales, just like the Texas Governor does. And, to ensure our new tax system is not a burden on the poor, let's offer each citizen a monthly rebate of all taxes on poverty level spending. That's right; now government sends YOU a check - every month.

Like this idea? Me too. You know who else likes it? Nearly every big job-producing CEO on the planet. Studies suggest that if the US replaced federal income taxes with a national retail sales tax it would recapture $12 trillion dollars in assets and good manufacturing jobs that our tax code previously chased overseas. Remember "Made in the USA?"

We wouldn't need TARP or the IRS either. Tax returns would evaporate into a bad memory. With a super-majority required to adjust the tax rate, lobbyists would have to find something constructive to do besides trade campaign contributions to Congress in exchange for tax loopholes. Of course lobbyists hate this idea.

The idea is called "The Fair Tax" (H. R. 25) and it's been languishing in the Ways and Means Committee for over a decade now, so call and ask Ways and Means Committee Chairman Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY) about it. Be aware that he may not have time to reply since he himself is being investigated by the House for tax fraud.

Trust me. The Fair Tax is the only thing that could possibly make it worthwhile to place a failed financial genius and tax cheat like Tim Geithner in charge of the Treasury Department. Quid pro quo.