Almost no one likes paying taxes and almost all of us know one story or another about how dangerous the IRS can be if you get on their wrong side. Well, now the dear junior senator from Texas, Ted Cruz, has the solution. In his TV advertisement he proposes that we follow him in abolishing the IRS. What could be better? Right? All our troubles gone in one swift blow.
Well, not quite so fast. What does Cruz really mean or what does he really intend to accomplish. The IRS is only the institution which collects Federal taxes. Does Cruz mean to abolish taxes or merely cripple the system of collecting taxes? Congress sets tax rates and also legislates the minute details of exemptions and favors that haunt the system. It isn't the fault of IRS. Granting their may be issues in the way IRS interprets or administers tax collections, but someone must serve this function if taxes are to be collected at all.
Does Cruz actually believe that Congress can create a "simple and fair" tax system for the US and that Americans will just mail their checks to the Treasury voluntarily? He's got to be kidding! Look at the lengths to which people and corporations go now to avoid or minimize payment while the IRS looks on and real penalties are possible. I suppose what is really behind this is the standard Republican agenda of impoverishing the Federal government. The tactic is not to bother with legislation that limits or better defines government powers but rather to just make it impossible for government to exercise its powers by starving it.
So Cruz's TV advertisement --- just another cynical political ploy, standard among Republican parlor tricks --- make something sound really sweat but don't let on what the actual consequences might be.
No comments:
Post a Comment