This page was last updated on April 18, 2010.
Tax code; Editorial; Beaver County Times; April 18, 2010.
This editorial and its companion try to make the case tea partiers have no basis for complaining about taxes.
The editorial says “The present system is complex, inefficient and unfair, mainly because it is shot full of breaks for politically influential special interests, businesses and individuals” and goes on to talk about “eliminating tax breaks, loopholes, exemptions and exclusions in the tax code.” This is fine, but I suspect the Times wants us to believe “tax breaks, loopholes, exemptions and exclusions in the tax code” affect only “politically influential special interests, businesses and individuals.” That’s not true, of course. Among the “tax breaks, loopholes, exemptions and exclusions in the tax code” are deductions/exemptions for dependents, charity, medical expenses, mortgage interest, municipal bonds, state sales tax, student-loan interest, childcare, property tax, energy-saving home improvements, and on and on. Let’s also remember the misnamed earned income tax credit (It’s really a handout.) and our regressive graduated income tax rates.
Don’t get me wrong; if I can’t have a flat sales tax to replace the income tax, a flat income tax rate with no credits, deductions, exemptions, et cetera comes in third place. Second place would be a flat income tax rate with an upper limit on taxed income (otherwise no credits, deductions, exemptions, et cetera), as we currently do for the Socialist Security tax. My point in calling out the Times is to draw attention to its misleading premise regarding “tax breaks, loopholes, exemptions and exclusions in the tax code.”
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