Posted: Oct 12, 2005 By: Louis DeBroux

Subject: Progressivity

Comment: The website says that one of the goals is to have a tax structure that is "appropriately progressive". I am a married father of 7 children, and do not come close to falling under the status of "rich" by any means. But what i do know is that I have read Karl Marx's "Communist Manifesto", and that it is the foundational plank of the Communist platform to have a progressive tax system that destroys initiative and eliminates, through confiscation or taxation (often the same thing), private property rights. One of the driving principles of the Founding Fathers was the concept of every man being equal under the law. How is that accomplished when we discriminate and punish those who have produced and achieved, creating jobs and wealth, through hard work and ingenuity? Income taxation doesn't punish the rich, it punishes the productive. The rich are able to escape heavy taxation through special exemption, by living off of dividend payments, etc. not covered by the income tax. I do not begrudge them for that, but the income tax is inherently unfair, and therefore a violation in spirit of the 14th amendment.

I am an enthusiastic proponent of the FairTax plan proposed by John Linder. It eliminates taxes for the poor (so you cover your progressivity), and then taxes everyone at the same rate over and above the basic cost of living. Is this not infinitely more fair.

The tax code we have now is oppressive and unfair, and should be scrapped altogether. When the very people that administer the law can't even agree on the answer to a specific question because of the unfathomable nature and length of teh tax code, you know that it is a problem that can't be fixed, but needs to be eliminated.