AS
A CONGRESSMAN, I WILL WORK TO CUT TAXES ACROSS
THE BOARD.
Taxes on the
American public are already 50% of everything
we buy. Besides obvious taxes, there are veiled
assessments called "revenue enhancements" including,
admissions to public parks and user fees added
to just about everything offered to the public.
Furthermore, government shifts its responsibilities
to private citizens. For example, tolls, impact
fees, and outright demands made on our businesses
and citizens often fund road construction once
paid for with gas taxes. No offsets in government
spending are ever made, thus government is continually
increasing its share of the economy. The one
thing our taxes do pay for are the special advisors
who counsel politicians on methods to raise
revenue without raising taxes. Of all revenue
techniques, the most misused and destructive
is our federal income tax system. Congress averages
700 pages of new tax code annually containing
clauses benefiting special interests, providing
business welfare and including destructive provisions
made to influence our investments.
The greatest
example of the economic destruction wrought
by the income tax code were provisions used
to influence real estate investment. Believed
to provide economic stimulus, real estate depreciation
periods were shortened and deductions were doubled
in several changes made from 1969 and only ending
in 1986. These progressive deduction increases
encouraged over production in real estate. Ordinary
investments were no match for the tax-enhanced
returns in real estate while our manufacturing
base was starved of capital. The results were
lost savings, failed banks, abandoned rental
projects, bankruptcies, high unemployment, the
export of jobs and a massive decline in productivity
and wages in the private sector.
The best solution to this problem is the Fair
Tax. The Fair Tax not only eliminates individual
and corporate income taxes, social security
and other taxes, it eliminates costly and time
consuming reporting, much of the corporate welfare
and much of the influence that lobbyists have
on our politicians. Best of all, it will encourage
investment in our private industries. What is
most important is the need to cut government
spending, taxes, the arduous burden of regulation
and costly litigation. If the Fair Tax cannot
be implemented immediately, we must take steps
to reduce these burdens where we can, thus allowing
our businesses to compete with world corporations
whose executives make their decisions to invest
based on the least cost and the best work force.
The American worker has proven to be the hardest
working and the most efficient. These workers
need the chance to bring industry and jobs back
to America and make the United States the productive
nation it once was. - Ed Dedelow
