Dear Editor,
A couple of weeks ago Kevin McCarthy had an epiphany and decided after 20 years of Washington’s print, borrow and spend polices, “We need to cut government spending!” To date he is unable to suggest where he should begin. Again, last week he had another epiphany! Kevin promised a committee hearing on a proposal which would eliminate taxes on income, capital gains, gifts, estates, payrolls and corporations. The payroll tax helps fund social security. This proposal would eliminate the IRS too, leaving the government to levy a 30 percent national sale or consumption tax on everything we buy. I am not an economist; I find it difficult to comprehend how in a society where less than 10 percent of the population controls 90 percent of the wealth, will a consumption tax be a fair and equitable system of taxation for 90 percent of the population? With Kevin’s plan a consumption tax would redistribute wealth from the poor and middle class to the rich, for whom consumption is a much smaller proportion of their income. If your family were required to pay a 30 percent sales tax on all of your purchases this year; how much money would you have for discretionary spending next Christmas?
Will state sales tax still be collected, if not how will the states pay their bills? If you bought a new car for $30,000 you would pay $10,800 in national and Michigan state sales taxes. Kevin’s proposal would surely solve our supply chain problems, eliminate inflation, slow the economy and guarantee President Biden another four years in office. Kevin, I am getting a clearer picture of why it took 15 ballots to elect you Speaker of the House.
There seems to be two schools of thought regarding Kevin’s ascension to Speaker of the House. Some analysts say the speaker vote was healthy deliberation and democracy at work. In a democracy aren’t you supposed to have more than a single candidate on the ballot? During a two-week period, the house cast 15 ballots for the same individual – Kevin was finally elected! The second school of thought is, it took two weeks for the party bosses and big money campaign donors to coerce the freshmen representatives to see things their way. Which scenario do you think more plausible?
— Tom Janicki
Almont
