A Looney Tunes Delight: The American Tax Code
U. S. Constitution Article 1 Section 8 empowers the United States Congress to collect taxes. The 16th Amendment just says the Feds don't have to split the take with the states. Title 26: The Internal Revenue Code, says so many things that no one alive can make any sense out of it. This sprawling monster of laws, regulations, special interest loop holes and endless tangles of hopelessly inept, irrelevant and outdated meddling by generations of desperate politicians bore-sighted on the next election is rapidly approaching meltdown, and in extreme scenarios could either be the trigger, or one of the triggers, for violent civil unrest or even armed insurrection.
I, along with pretty well any citizen with no connections to high powered lobbyists, say it's way past time for major changes. And I, along with so many of the before mentioned citizens, have ideas on how to go about it.
There are other systems that people talk about, things like the VAT, the Fair Tax (oxymoron?), the Flat Tax, variations on the sales tax, a million or so variations on the system we have now, and the anarchists in our midst would have us believe we could get by with no taxes. But until civilization evolves past a basic need for complex societal infrastructure (read: Transportation, power grid, defense, food production, etc) there will be taxes to pay for it and government to collect and disburse said taxes. Governments being governments it is unlikely the collection and disbursement of said taxes will ever be fair and/or equitable.
The chances that our government, in it's present form, could break the mold and “do” taxes right are slim, but if we the people backed them the lawmakers into a tight little corner then read them the riot act, or, like we say down here in the South, held a little prayer meeting with the rascals, then we might get something done.
Remember K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple Stupid)? KISS is the cornerstone of my plan. A few givens: My plan is for the millions of wage earners and small business people out there who are not raking in the mega-billions. The big corporations can work out their own deal with the taxman, and they've got enough money to hire the big legal guns to sort their stuff out. This plan is for the federal income tax, although it would be hoped the states with income taxes would emulate the plan.
My plan would also require a constitutional amendment, to bullet proof it against all those who would use it for social engineering, special interest blocs, punitive taxation and/or political whim. The amendment would contain a clause that would require revisiting on a periodic schedule to adjust only the taxable income floors and ceilings, and then only in relation to the country's median income levels. The basic structure of the plan would remain unchanged.
My Point Being:
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For an indicator of how much respect the American people receive from their government, news outlets and entertainment media just watch fifteen minutes of American TV and all those dirty little suspicions will be confirmed.
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