Taxes

I pledge to vote against and work to defeat any bill which will increase the tax burden on Americans.
I pledge to work to implement comprehensive legislation to make taxes simpler and fairer.
I pledge to work for legislation which will eliminate special preferences—complicated loopholes that treat certain activities and behaviors differently.
I am committed to eliminating the double taxation of savings and investment—this eliminates the government’s bias against capital, encouraging economic growth and jobs creation.

Americans spent over 100 billion dollars this year to prepare their tax returns. Some 6.6 billion hours were spent filling out some or all of the 893 forms required by the current system. Most economists agree that high tax rates and discriminatory taxation of savings and investment, reduces growth, destroys jobs and lowers incomes. Don’t just take my word for it, look at the states with the best economies and you will find that they have the lowest tax burden. Conversely, the states with the highest taxes are losing people and businesses and their economies are in the worst shape. The balanced budgets of the 1990’s were largely a result of the hyper increased revenue generated by the tax cuts of Mr. Gingrich’s “contract with America.

We must have significant and substantial tax reform!!!

Currently legislation is before Congress for the implementation of the “Fair Tax”. The fair tax would eliminate hundreds of millions of dollars in expenses and non-productive time spent every year complying with the outrageous requirements of the current tax code. It would likely bring much if not all of the money held “off-shore” back to the U.S. to be invested here and would go a long way toward leveling the playing field for U.S. producers in the world market. The negative to the “Fair Tax” is the fact that it requires a Constitutional Amendment which is difficult to get passed and risks the worst of all nightmares—the “Fair Tax” becoming a VAT tax through governmental sleight of hand. I will seek to see some additional safeguards and checks and balances on the bill in hopes of implementing the “Fair Tax” rather than something along the lines of the “Flat Tax”—attempted by Reagan with some degree of success. But, quickly usurped by Congress to become worse than ever now.