I think I've said here once or twice, regarding the possibility of gridlock in Congress, that doing nothing is far preferable to doing the wrong thing. South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint is being told the same thing and seems to agree:
"I've been told by businesses that if we would stop the tax increases the best thing that could happen for business after that is complete gridlock. At least gridlock is predictable," he tells Bloomberg Businessweek, taking a quick break between TV appearances. His goal, he says, is to stop programs that violate his anti-Big Government ideology. "What happens in the Senate is the Republicans sink to the lowest common denominator," he says. "People want an alternative to some kind of watered-down Republican philosophy."
DeMint
Comments
The Flat Tax sounds good until you look at just a few numbers. The current federal beduget is over $3 Trillion. Personal Income is $7.5 Trillion that inclued SS, SSI, Disability pensions, wages, interest, capital gains, farms, etc.
If you want to balance the budget, by not cutting any programs, then you need to tax $3 Trillion out of $7.5 Trillion. Simple math states you need a tax rate far great then 20%.
Social Security taxes are 12.4% of the first $107K of wages and Medicare is 2.9% of all wages.
For some odd reason, those proposing flat taxes seem to forget that under the current high tax rates that are higher than 25% now, we have a budget Deficit of over $1.5 Trillion.
25% of all income would produce $1.5 Trillion in Federal Revenues. Now many confuse GDP and income as one in the same. They are not.