Tax The Goods, Not The Income

Imagine living in a world with no income tax; an America where each and every citizen takes home 100% of what he or she earns each week; a land where the individuals are taxed on what they choose to buy and not what the government chooses to take. This could all happen, virtually overnight, if the Washington elites would only let it. With responsible Congressional leadership, the federal income tax could be completely dissolved and replaced with a flat-rated federal sales tax. This tax of six to seven percent on all new, manufactured goods and services, would generate the same, if not more revenue for the federal government than our current, convoluted system. Take into account that all people in America, legal or illegal, resident or tourist, would then be paying their fair share of tax and the positive potential of revenue for the nation is remarkable. Once the federal government initiates such changes the states will surely follow, leaving the American public with a truly tax-free paycheck. While it is true that in states such as New York, with high sales tax rates already in place, consumers may have to pay as high as 15% on purchases; it is also true that these people will have more money to spend to begin with, leaving them at liberty to choose how to spend it.
Under this “fair tax” system, individuals who earn less will spend less and therefore, pay less in taxes. Inversely, individuals who earn more will spend more and hence, pay more in taxes. It’s that simple and it’s as fair and American in principle as a tax system can be. Upon enactment, this fair tax would transform America from the government-run economy that it currently is, into the consumer-based, super-capitalism of which it was always intended to be. With businesses no longer being taxed to compensate employees and investors no longer punished for commercial success, our economy will, once again, be free to thrive. This, of course, will result in expanded job creation, an increased GDP, and with that, more federal revenue.
No longer will politicians attack American business in endless attempts to ignite public passions. Their political fates and the success of private enterprise will now be intertwined. All political parties will seek to foster private sector growth, due to their respective links in prosperity. For the first time in over a century, what will be good for the people will be good for the politicians. The concept of representative republicanism will, once again, thrive in America.
The American people have been inundated for so long with the concept of government levies and redistribution of their hard-earned pay that, to many, it seems natural. But it should always be remembered that there is something inherently wrong with one group of people taking the bread earned from the sweat of another group’s brow and arbitrarily mandating its allocation. The American system of government is based on individual liberties and freedoms of commerce. Our practice of taxing the peoples’ incomes denies them these liberties and impedes their commercial success. Ralph Waldo Emerson once said that “America is the country of the future. It is a country of beginnings, of projects, of vast designs and expectations.” If the government would just remove the economic shackles from the American workers, investors and entrepreneurs, it could reinvent our economy and bring back the America of Mr. Emerson’s day. A consumer based, flat rated tax is the nation’s best chance to achieve this. No longer would the will of the public be disregarded due to conflicts of rival parties. Our politicians would be held directly accountable for their actions and an American economy, driven by a free and open market, could once again flourish.

Jeremy Pitcoff
Smithtown Republican Committeeman

I, Jeremy Pitcoff, of Nesconset, New York, hereby petition my state’s Assembly and Senate, to create and pass legislation clarifying its citizens’ rights to self determination. I respectfully request New York’s State Legislature to address the innate illegality of the “individual mandate,” recently passed into federal law in the guise of healthcare reform. In passing this bill, the Democrat party has enacted a law which forces individual citizens to enter into private health insurance contracts and purchase government approved policies accordingly. This is the first time in American history that such a law, mandating peoples’ private spending, has been enacted.
Because the Constitution grants only limited powers to the Federal Government, and because none of these powers carry any implied jurisdiction for federal coercion of private purchase, Obama-Care appears to wither under constitutional scrutiny. This being the case, the individual States of the Union have a moral obligation and political responsibility to uphold the 10th Amendment of the Constitution which clearly states: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” This crucial element of the Bill of Rights was created to insure that even in times of illegitimate collusion between the separate branches of government, federal power could still be reined in. In a democratic republic, the States are, and of right ought to be, the most powerful check on federal tyranny.
It is times like these, with Congress passing laws of such dubious legitimacy, that New York must reassert its rightful role as federal watchdog. Our State Legislature must step to the forefront and assertively declare that our Federal Government has no constitutional right to make decisions on its citizens’ private healthcare management. Because our new state and federal laws will prove irreconcilable, the Supreme Court of the United States will become the final arbiter of Obama-Care’s legitimacy. The Court’s decision will then become the law of the land and all interested parties will respect it as such. Win or lose, the State of New York will take pride in knowing it did its best to preserve the individual liberty and autonomy of commerce its citizens demand and expect. If New York’s current legislature proves unwilling or unable to enact a law reasserting the rights of its citizens, then these citizens will know who and who not to elect this November. The time is now for New Yorkers to unite against federal infringement and fight back this wave of big-government rule.

Jeremy Pitcoff
Smithtown Republican Committeeman