Harmonizing the Tax System
A couple of years ago, there was a big promotion by the 'Free Market,
Free Trade' crowd to change the tax structure from an income tax to a
national sales tax on all purchases - goods and services. The idea
was packaged under the name 'Fair Tax' and it was presented to the House
of Representatives Committee that handles such things.
The big selling point for the Fair Tax was that it would eliminate
the Internal Revenue Service. That might sound attractive but the
truth is that it would just change the mission of the IRS and it would
expand the size of their department by many times. Rather than
auditing tax returns, they would be patrolling neighborhoods to see if
you pay the sales tax that is due to the government for getting your
lawn mowed. Of course they could contract out that function to a
private company to put surveillance cameras in your neighborhood instead
so that a monitor could watch 24/7 - under the 'Leave No Transaction
Behind' program.
Everything about the 'Fair Tax' plan was misrepresented or a flat out
lie - including the perfectly Orwellian name, "Fair Tax'. In the
Congressional hearing, it came out that rather than 23% it was actually
30%. In the study to determine revenue neutrality with the current
tax system, they cheated in the calculation to come out even - but the
dollar value of the error - once fixed, would increase the tax to 50%
rather than the 30%. So in exchange for completing a tax
return once a year, a person would end up paying 50 cents on the dollar
- for every dollar spent. It was a fabulous deal for Bill Gates,
Warren Buffet and the slim minority at the top of the income scale.
A terrible idea for most people in this country - especially those who
live on a fixed income, low wage earners, and young families.
The 'Fair Tax' plan was presented by Republicans to a committee
chaired by a Democrat. The Democrats didn't like the plan at all -
or so it seemed. The Republican legislation for the Fair Tax
would have had the entire country switch over to a national sales tax at
the same time. That would have been chaos and was completely
unrealistic since applying sales tax to services would be a completely
new tax so a new infrastructure would have to be implemented all the way
down the line - including educating the lawn guy to collect the tax and
fill out the forms.
At the time, I thought that Rep. John Linder, sponsor of the Fair
Tax, was just a psychopath who had eluded the white coats by hiding in
the capitol and blending in. But sometime later, when I
stumbled on the fact that Canada had a Goods and Services Tax, the dots
connected revealing that the Fair Tax plan was a plan to harmonize the
U.S. tax system with Canada and that probably the Goods and Services Tax
was the chosen method for the global tax for the international system of
"governance". It makes sense from the standpoint that the people
who are pursuing "global governance" represent corporate interests and
their mission is to break nations. Whoever collects the tax
revenues controls the government. With the Goods and Services tax,
that power belongs to the corporations who sell the most. It's a perfect
way to disempower government of the people while empowering government
by corporations and their fascist system of global control.
Goods and Services Tax
The
Goods and Services Tax was implemented in Canada in 1991.
The following is a list countries that have converted to a Goods and
Services Tax. It's important to note that it's the infrastructure
of the tax that is important - not the rates and not the exclusions.
Once the infrastructure for collection is in place, the rates are easily adjusted.
Canada
New Zealand
Australia
Singapore
India (proposed for 2010)
Hong Kong
(proposed)
Malaysia
European Union (VAT)
In the above countries - except for the
European Union, the Goods and Services Tax was introduced in an honest
way - naming it for what it is. In the United States, the world
leader in deceptive marketing, the Goods and Services Tax was named the
'Fair Tax' when the republicans sponsored it. Now that the
democrats are in power, implementation is being phased in by sector
beginning with the energy tax included in the Cap and Trade legislation.
The Cap and Trade legislation called for carbon credits which in reality
are nothing more than ration coupons and revenue stamps tradable in the
market. The estimates I saw had the new tax on all types of energy
pegged at around 30% to be passed through to consumers.
Yesterday, an article in the New York
Times introduced the idea being proposed by Blue Dog Democrats of a
consumption tax on health care - to pay for Obama's nationalized health
"reform" that really isn't Obama's plan at all. It's perfect.
It adds up to a full package of bullsh*t since the consumption tax on
health care isn't really the idea of the Blue Dogs. It's just the
health care sector of the Fair Tax which is actually the harmonized,
global Goods and Services Tax. Don't you love it?
You've got to read the New York Times article.... the author includes
lots of political intrigue to make it exciting for the mullets who think
there is really a difference between the two parties. It's really
quite funny when you know the history and the real objective.
Excerpts:
Health Care Reform and the Unpopular T-Word
By DAVID LEONHARDT
Published: July 28, 2009
Health
costs, on the other hand, are growing much
more quickly than the economy. Over the last
decade, the economy has expanded by about 20
percent, and health spending has ballooned
50 percent. The gap isn’t about to start
closing, either.
So no
matter what Congress has done to pay for its
plans, it can’t keep up.
The numbers
show there is only one sure way out of the
problem, and, after months of roundabout
discussion, that solution has re-emerged:
It’s a tax on health care.
If Congress
taxes health care, the revenue has a chance
of rising with health spending. A health tax
will also create an incentive for workers
and businesses to slow the growth of health
spending — thus reducing the amount of taxes
needed to pay the nation’s health bill.
...
To deal
with this political reality, the Senate
Finance Committee has become intrigued by a
version of a health care tax, being pushed
by the Massachusetts Democrat John Kerry,
that comes dressed up with a whole lot of
lipstick. The tax doesn’t fall directly on
workers. It doesn’t even fall on employers.
It falls on everyone’s favorite villain:
health insurance companies.
In keeping with
tradition, the masters of deceptive marketing
will propose taxing health insurers. The
joke obviously is that they will make everybody
buy insurance and the insurance companies will
pass through the tax to the insured.
So now we know why the Blue Dogs got so
much attention in the past couple of weeks. The script was for
them to be the hero-anti-heroes by opposing the Democratic House
leadership with the game plan set for them to run the ball up the middle
by proposing a solution that will be acceptable to both sides of the
aisle - sales tax on mandatory health insurance.
Vicky Davis
July 29, 2009
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