A Balanced Budget Amendment... and Tax Reform to Match

[unixronin]

Find this petition on PatriotPetitions:

To President George Bush, House Speaker Dennis Hastert, House Majority Leader John Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist:

We, the people of these United States, rightfully petition our President, House of Representatives and Senate to proffer a Balanced Budged Amendment to the Constitution, coupled with the enactment of the tax system overhaul Republicans promised.

The only real hope for preventing the weight of the central government from crushing the life from our Republic is to renew the bid for a constitutionally mandated balanced-budget amendment and to enact real tax reform as originally outlined by Ronald Reagan.  That amendment and reform will force Congress to either make dramatic cuts in government spending or enact enormous tax increases to pay for the current distended and mostly unconstitutional government budget.

A Balanced Budget Amendment, combined with real tax reform; namely, a flat or national sales tax with deductions and exclusions, will result in a reduction in government spending, as American taxpayers will not tolerate bearing the burden of the actual cost of government.

We call on Republicans -- our President and Congress -- to make such legislation the new priority in Washington, ushering in a new era of restraint, responsibility and respect for the constitutional limitations of government.  We expect President Bush to embrace Ronald Reagan's legacy, and make limited government and fair taxation his administration's principal objectives for the remainder of his second term.

Go sign it.  They're looking for 100,000 signatures.  It's unlikely the hogs wallowing at the public trough in Washington will pay attention ... but hey, they certainly won't if people don't sign it.  Give it a shot.  You never know, it might get results.

Comments

[gdmusumeci.livejournal.com]

There are some pretty horrible problems with a flat and/or national sales tax scheme, the biggest of those being that those methods are both extremely regressive.

I'd really like tax reform, but more than that, I'd like taxes to be fair. I suspect that having a balanced budget is also a very different problem relative to whether the government is spending more than it takes in....

[koyote.livejournal.com]

I agree with the argument about national sales taxes, to a point. As a one size fits all solution they suck. You have to have NO exceptions or the exceptions WILL be twisted and loopholed to advantage the power hungry at the expense of the powerless (the at the expense of bit is what stick in m'craw).

As a partial solution, though, a 1% ALL INCLUSIVE tax would be beneficial. When I say all inclusive, though, I mean all.

Flat taxes are okay if you can keep the definition of "income" honest. you just don't tax the first $(var== poverty level for family unit + poverty level adjustment for each additional household member) . Keeping the definition of income honest, well, that's the rub. i doubt we will ever see anything even remotely approaching that.

I will agree 105% that having a balanced budget and tax reform (aside from axing stupid tax cuts) are seperate issues to be dealt with seperately.

I will also note that the only president to manage to get us close enough to spit was a man every man jack of these poepl RAILED against the whole time he sat in the chair (getting oral sex, yes.)
-- Not necessarily blame, but a comment on what happens if ALL yoou ever do is say no.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

It's not a simple problem, and doesn't have simple solutions that aren't flawed. But the current system is so horribly broken it's hard to imagine a replacement that would stand any actual chance of passing that wouldn't be a big improvment. The current income tax system has a vast, bloated tax code that apparently not even the IRS themselves fully understands any more, combined with a patchwork maze of state regulations so tangled and inconsistent that I can live in one state (NH) and be taxed by a state I neither live nor work in (MA) on unemployment benefits from yet a third state (CA) which neither the state of origin nor the state I live in taxes me on -- unless we file separately, in which case we end up paying MA even MORE tax.
The system is broken beyond any possibility of mere repair, and we need to scrap it entirely and start over. Any attempt to do so will probably meet with vast resistance from the legal and accounting industry, though, because the current rolling trainwreck of Federal and state tax codes creates so much business (and so much employment) for tax lawyers and tax accountants.

[bbwoof.livejournal.com]

The Fair Tax Act (S25 and HR25) has been languishing in committee. If your Senator or Congressman is on the relevant Ways and Means committee, then I urge you to write and support this legislation.

[sierra-nevada.livejournal.com]

So ... no more Keynesian deficit spending to stimulate the economy in a slump? No more WPA?

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

I thoiught the jury was still very undecided on whether deficit spending does any short-term good at all, let alone enough to counter the long-term harm.