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When the Senate Finance Committee reorganized its five subcommittees recently, one reason was so that its newest member, John E. Sununu , could get his assignments. But the New Hampshire Republican shouldn't start clearing his campaign-season calendar just yet. The Subcommittee on Taxation, IRS Oversight and Long-Term Growth, to which he was posted, hasn't held a single hearing or legislative markup in the past 15 months.
On the other hand, maybe having John E. AWOL from his senate duties is not such a bad thing in respect to an IRS oversight subcommittee, since the Sprinter's stated preference is "tearing up the tax code or replacing it with a flat tax."
It must be contagious or something. First we hear John E. Sununu openly calling for a flat tax, then Jeb Bradley decides to make it a centerpiece of his campaign. Now CD1 candidate John Stephen, in an effort to distinguish himself from Bradley, nonetheless shows that he's also been smitten with a fever for regressive tax structures:
"I'd love to see a flat tax, but I want to give Americans choice," Stephen said.
The Intertubes are flooded with links from well-funded winger think tanks espousing the millionaire protection program eloquent beauty of a flat tax, but I'll let a banal graf from Wiki speak for the opposing view, with emphasis mine:
Some taxes other than the income tax (for example, taxes on sales and payrolls) tend to be regressive. Hence, making the income tax flat could result in a regressive overall tax structure. Under such a structure, those with lower incomes tend to pay a higher proportion of their income in total taxes than the affluent do. It is a fact that the fraction of household income that is a return to capital (dividends, interest, royalties, profits of unincorporated businesses) is positively correlated with total household income. Hence a flat tax limited to wages would leave the wealthy much better off. Similarly, the loss of deductions will adversely affect some middle income households. The upshot could be a regressive shift in the tax burden. Hence opponents of the flat tax conclude that it is deceptive to advertise that tax as fair, when in fact it shifts the tax burden from the well off to the middle class. The real issues are deductions and what money counts as taxable income, not the flatness of the tax rate schedule.
Phony libertarian John E. spent some time with the Free State Project Liberty Forum last January trolling for votes from the Ron Paul crowd.
The thing I really like about the Paul people? They tape everything. And for once we have the real John E. Sununu speaking his mind in front of a friendly audience. No obfuscating, cloudy, SenatorSpeak here. John E. goes full force with ridiculing Obama's campaign slogan, followed by an open admission of his dream goals for change: a flat tax and the privatization of Social Security.
A partial transcript of the comic stylings of our junior senator (apologies for any errors; the audio is not great):
They're running to offer "change that you can believe in." [laughter] ...I think I heard that line uttered by Peter Sellers in Being There.
I'm not sure what that means. And I hope over time, left or right it doesn't matter, people actually ask the hard questions like "what are you talking about?" [laughter]
Look, change can be good, change can be bad. Change for the good can be tearing up the tax code or replacing it with a flat tax, that's my preference, tax simplification, real tax reform, get rid of the loopholes, the deductions, the tax credits.
...a change can be good if it means modernizing Social Security giving workers real power and control over their own money to invest in their own retirement accounts. That is their personal property. That can certainly be change for the good.
Unbelievable. And this is just from Part 2 of 5.
p.s. Interesting how Iraq war enabler Sununu doesn't spend a lot of time talking about that misadventure in front of the Ron Paul crowd, huh?
