YES! Bush Tax Advisory panel "won't urge national retail sales tax!" YES!

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

HEY!

I know that some of you folks MIGHT consider me to be a pain in the ass because of all the National Sales Tax posts I've made.

I did it because I was CONCERNED. About ME. About YOU. That's why I did it. I was probably the number one "Paul Revere" on DU, riding through the countryside and screaming about Bush's favorite little plan.

So pardon my indulgence...this is GREAT NEWS, and I hope they CONTINUE to "not urge" this TRAVESTY.

Peace, B_E_B

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Health, mortgage deductions eyed
Advisory panel won't urge national retail sales tax
By William L. Watts, MarketWatch
Last Update: 3:54 PM ET Oct. 11, 2005

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) - A presidential tax-reform panel on Tuesday indicated it was ready to urge changes in the tax treatment of healthcare benefits and mortgage interest deductions when it issues its final report in the next few weeks.

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story.asp?guid=%7B40E71B0D-0D93-43A9-A732-AF1BBD305703%7D&siteid=google

Details are yet to be worked out, but members broadly agreed at the panel's penultimate public meeting to explore the possibility of putting a limit on the amount of healthcare benefits that employers would be able to provide workers tax-free. The panel also leaned toward altering, but not eliminating, the mortgage-interest deduction and other benefits afforded homeowners, including the possibility of lowering the $1 million mortgage-interest cap now in place.

Former Sen. Connie Mack, the chairman of President Bush's Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform, said panelists agreed on the need to modify existing housing provisions, while ensuring that the tax code continues to "promote home ownership," while also addressing concerns that the benefits under current rules are "not shared equally."

The nine-member committee, which must deliver a detailed set of proposals to Treasury Secretary John Snow by Nov. 1, also agreed to reject proposals to replace the existing income-based tax code with a national retail sales tax.

Using Treasury Department data, panel member Ed Lazear, a Stanford University professor and a senior fellow at the Hoover Institute, estimated that a national sales-tax rate would need to range between 64% and 87% in order to replace revenues from the corporate and personal income tax while preserving exemptions on drugs, food, clothing and other goods and services typically excluded from state sales taxes. "I get the sense - I've picked this up since the first meetings we've had - that this is an area the panel does not want to pursue," said Mack, a Florida Republican.

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[WI_DEM]

1. of course he won't do it, any senator or representative who

voted for a national sales tax would be dumped from office.

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

2. Yes, but here's the arrogance of the Bush administration in action

Bush danced around this issue a YEAR ago:

"You know, I'm not exactly sure how big the national sales tax is going to have to be, but it's the kind of interesting idea that we ought to explore seriously," Bush said, according to a Reuters report.

...and Kerry CALLED HIM on it during the campaign ("Every day will be like April 15th, every trip to the supermarket will be like a trip to H&R Block")...so, because an ELECTION was in progress, Bush DENIED his interest, and the MINUTE he got his second term he's been floating it again.

November 2004 - October 2005: ELEVEN MONTHS!

His "base" would have LOVED all of that UNTAXED, "post-consumption" income.

TOO...DAMNED...BAD.

:patriot:

[Ilsa]

3. Hell, it would probably start a revolution.

Hey, now there's an idea!

[MadHound]

4. Good news indeed, but I find it hard to party when

The bastards are now thinking about screwing the middle class even more via taxation on health benefits, and removing the tax benefits we get from our houses.

More and more this misadministration is looking to tear down the middle class. Perhaps they should read their history, you rip out the middle class and you guarantee a revolution.

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

5. Agreed, but THIS one was the worst of the worst...

You're right...there are other snakes in the pit.

But this whole National Sales Tax debacle...I honestly haven't seen ANY proposal that's worse.

So the worst one's out of the way, and that's my reason to party...for today...and then get right back in the fight against Bush's "mandate."

:toast:

[flpoljunkie]

6. $1M mortage interest cap? Geez! Talk about a giveaway to fatcats!