Last week President Trump’s tax plan was unveiled with great fanfare by the Congressional Republican leadership. Although President Trump babbled what he claimed to be the biggest tax cut in American history, the evidence is quite to the contrary. Former Reagan budget director David Stockman dissects the “beautiful tax plan,” concluding that it is nothing less than a big scam. Tax cuts are not targeted toward the middle class but the highest income earners in the country and corporations. That is not to say that taxes should not be cut for upper income individuals, families and businesses, but all taxes should be reduced for everyone.
Closing so-called loopholes is another egregious flaw in Trump’s tax “reform.” There are no tax “loopholes” in the tax code. There are only exemptions. deduction and credits. A loophole is term used by politicians and tax grabbers who think any individual, family or business that pays less taxes is getting away with not paying their “fair share.” “Fair taxation” is an oxymoron if there ever was one. Taxes are coerced from workers and business owners. Thus, taxation should have no place in a free society.
If the American people really want to live in a free society (and that is a big if considering who we have elected as president, legislators or governor around the country for decades) that will create the greatest prosperity for all working folks, they should agitate for the abolition of all taxes. I make the case for abolishing all taxes America in my 1995 book Tax Free 2000: The Rebirth of American Liberty.
Why should taxes be reduced substantially or abolished altogether? First, reducing taxes does three things for families and businesses. First, less money going to the taxman means that people can spend more on their families’ needs. Second, less money going to the taxman means that people can save more for the future. Third, less money go to the taxman means that people can increase their charitable contributions.
But the big government proponents would scream in horror… “What about the poor?” “What about the elderly and disabled?” “What about the children and education?” “What about infrastructure?” “What about our national security?” “What about all the regulatory agencies?” And on and on and on. (I explain in Tax Free 2000 how the services that people want will be funded by voluntary exchange, and how people will make choices about what social welfare services they want to support with their charitable contributions. I also discussed the transition from the current welfare-warfare state to a free society.)
For both liberals (progressives) and conservatives they cannot conceive of a free society… one in which people are in charge of their earned incomes as opposed to having to cough up anywhere from 10 to 50% of their income to the political elites that run the country who are supported by special interests and crony capitalists that put them into office.
In addition, one of the major benefits of a tax-free society would be the end of U.S. military intervention overseas. A tax-free America would end undeclared wars and bring the troops home from the hundreds of military bases around the world, ending the military industrial complex’s global empire. Substantially lower taxes or a tax-free society would end America’s welfare-warfare state once and for all, and make the United States the greatest magnet for capital, which would boost both employment and living standards considerably.
Trump’s tax plan should be deep-sixed because it does not address the fundamental issue – federal government spending. As long as the federal government spends $4 trillion a year, which keep on increasing in good and bad times, America’s welfare-warfare state will eventually lead us to national bankruptcy, because growing entitlements and global military commitments are financially unsustainable.
Trumpnomics does nothing to take us on a journey toward a freer economy. In fact, Trump’s tax plan continues the bipartisan consensus in Washington DC, namely that without the federal government spending $4 trillion a year the economy would implode. Now is the time to have the debate that former President Clinton said we should have years ago about the role of government in a free society.
I am an unabashed, unapologetic proponent of reducing both taxes and federal spending substantially, with the goal of creating a tax-free society. Where do you stand? For liberty or statism?