Question: Doesn't 'tax surplus' mean taxpayers were overcharged? If so, shouldn't we get 100% of it back? If you go shopping and get shortchanged, do you let the store keep it to spend on improvements?
Submitted from Michael of Elko, Nevada through MSNBC.com (10/23/00)
Answer from Howard Phillips:
Constitution Party Is Dedicated To Income Tax Elimination, Not Just Income Tax
Taxes are clearly way too high.
They should not continue to increase year after year. However, considering that we have let the federal government operate practically unchecked, this trend should not surprise us.
What ought to be done is what the Constitution Party proposes, namely to eliminate all direct federal taxation on families, individuals and businesses. Instead, we would sustain only the legitimate costs of the federal government by way of a revenue tariff on foreign imports combined on excises on nonessential goods and services, like the entertainment industry.
It would effect you the way it would effect everyone else. You would not be forced to pay any taxes to the federal government. If you prefer to buy a shoe made in Communist China to a shoe made in the United States then you would pay a twenty-five percent tariff on that shoe. But if you choose to purchase an American product you need not pay any tariff whatsoever.
If you choose to view or purchase some of the entertainment that is provided by Hollywood, you'd pay a excise tax on your movie ticket. But if you don't go to the movies and you simply stay at home and watch television you won't have to pay that entertainment tax.
We will leave to the states and local communities decisions about other taxes just like they have always been left to them. However, they won't have any tax competition from the federal government.
Although Al Gore has criticized Bush for supposedly cutting taxes to much, Bush is not really talking about cutting taxes. What he is talking about is raising more revenues for the federal government every year and sending back a portion of those additional taxes to you. In other words letting you keep some of the taxes which he raises every year. This doesn't really address the central issue of the constant increase in overall federal taxation.
In 1994 the government raised $1.3 trillion in taxes. This year it is raising $2 trillion a year in taxes. That's $700 billion a year more this year than six years ago when the Republicans gained control of Congress.
We in the Constitution Party are going to cut taxes. We are not going to raise $2 trillion in a year or $2.5 trillion a year or the $3 trillion a year which the Democrats and Republicans contemplate raising. We are going to cut tax collection by the federal government back to about $500 billion a year, because that's all the federal government needs to conduct its constitutional activities as spelled out in Article 1 Section 8 of the Constitution.
The Constitution Party is offering America a rebirth of freedom.
Click here to view the Constitution Party candidate profile for Howard Phillips
No other campaigns have provided rebuttals to this yet.
|
| 
copyright © 1998 - 2002 Markle Foundation | Online presence by mindshare Internet Campaigns LLC.
Today's Rolling Cyber Debate Question for Howard Phillips
