GOP 30% sales tax on everything instead of paying fed tax

  Not to mention your taxes pay for healthcare. And there is no way, not in a billion years will Republicans get behind any form of public healthcare. The majority of those assholes would love nothing more than to get rid of Medicaid and Medicare, let alone Social Security 

 It all goes back to “keep them poor, keep them stupid”. 

So, how will the states get money? Will there still be state income taxes and/or state sales tax on top of the Federal sales tax? If not, how will the feds divide out the money between the states?? Will they divide it based on contribution? If so, I guess in theory, poor states will get poorer because they’ll spend less which means less Federal sales tax will be collected and thus less return to the poorer states.

In what world is this fair? 

Low income people who are already barely making it could not absorb a 30% increase to the cost of living. They just couldn't. They already don't have sufficient income to have emergency or retirement saving. They're living paycheck to paycheck... where is that extra 30% supposed to come from? They'd be even deeper in poverty.

Meanwhile, a 30% price increase to higher income folks might mean they have to give up some luxuries, or choose to save or invest less. Not ideal but not going to plunge them into poverty. 

And the rich... well, they'd still be rich. They'd not feel a pinch at all and it would not affect their lifestyle, assets, or anything of note. 

Please tell me how that is "fair."

Republicans are basically recycling an old idea that's been around since at least the 1990's. The idea that such a tax could be imposed without the IRS is ludicrous. Exactly who is going to administer and enforce the taxes?

And here are some important differences between the Republican plan and European countries with a VAT. Countries with a VAT have exemptions and bureaucracies to oversee administration, compliance and enforcement of the tax. A 30% tax would give companies a big incentive to find ways to avoid paying it.  The idea that you couldn't cheat on a sales tax is just unrealistic.   Companies find ways around VATs and would find ways around a sales tax.

European countries with high VATS also provide significantly more social services - healthcare, generous family leave, free college education, subsidized child care and elderly care etc.  Noticeably absent from the Republican tax plan are any plans to expand social services.  In addition, VATS have long been criticized for being highly regressive, so I'm not sure where this idea that it works great for them comes from.  Great for the wealthy, maybe. Also, the European countries with significant debts that were bailed out by the EU all had VATS which led to more government spending.

VAT is also different from the Republican plan for a national sales tax in another way - VATS are imposed at different points in the production process, not just on the final product.  

www.taxpolicycenter.org/taxvox/here-comes-fairtax-again

Our tax system has been a mess is probably the only true part of your post.  Yes, the IRS needs a massive overhaul precisely because it's been underfunded for years.  And the technology is majorly outdated.

Here's a great visual on why the IRS needs more money, not less.

www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/interactive/2022/irs-pipeline-tax-return-delays/

The fact that the bill is 132 pages long is evidence that the plan is far from "simple"

And the Republican plan would never work without a bureaucracy to administer and enforce it.  The idea that you could eliminate the IRS is not based in reality and completely impractical.  Those "adjustments" would need significant administration.

The cost of housing is already exorbitantly high.  Can you imagine if a 30% tax was added to the price of new homes and homes sold?

And fairer for who?  The wealthy?  The Republican plan is a perfect example of a regressive tax, hardly "fair"

I feel like this would cause a lot of mom and pop businesses to close and the suicide rate to soar!

This is more about the debt ceiling, but she makes an excellent point that if the Republicans are worried about debt, a better approach would be to repeal the Trump tax cuts. More proof that Republicans only care about the deficit if there's a Democratic administration.

heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/january-19-2023?r=1f0orz&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

As Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned would happen today, the U.S. hit the debt ceiling, although it can avoid default for a few months with what Yellen calls “extraordinary measures.” These consist primarily of suspending government pension investments, which will have to be made whole again when the ceiling has been increased or suspended.

Most of the media discussions of the crisis this morning focused on whether the Democrats would agree to negotiate with the hard-right Republicans, who want cuts to domestic spending before they will agree to raise the debt ceiling to access money that Congress has already appropriated.

It jumped out at me that virtually no one was talking about the fact that there are two ways to deal with unwanted deficits: cutting expenditures, yes, but also…raising revenue. Indeed, raising revenue to pay for appropriations has historically been the first option. And yet, since 1981, the Republicans have made cutting taxes the centerpiece of their economic policy, arguing that putting more money in the hands of the “makers,” rather than the “takers,” will enable those makers to invest in production and hire more workers, thus expanding the economy.

But forty years of so-called supply-side economics have demonstrated that this system does not, in fact, create extraordinary economic growth. Instead, it moves wealth upward, really quite dramatically, and creates deficits. Indeed, one of the reasons we need an increase in the debt ceiling is that the 2017 Trump tax cuts, especially the cut in the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21%, dramatically increased the deficit without promoting growth. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated in 2018 that the tax cuts would increase the deficit by about $1.9 trillion over 11 years.

It seems like repealing those 2017 tax cuts, at least, would be factoring into discussions of addressing the deficit.

They won't do anything about health care, surely not fund it. We have been waiting two weeks and two weeks over and over again for years!!

Honestly, in addition to affluence it has more to do with who you are as a person…inside. That particular poster has made that clear lots of times. I would be considered affluent but I have always been in favor of ideas that help lift those who are struggling. Warren Buffet is just one example of a very affluent/ wealthy person who can clearly see how lower income individuals are being screwed and there are others whose money doesn't take away their concern for lower income people.

Some people only care about themselves and as long as something benefits them, screw everyone else. That is a personality defect.

yes. Exactly. You're a good person with a conscience. But I figured that was nicer than saying " just another case of a wealthy person not caring about anyone else but themself"   It isn't saying all affluent folks are selfish- but the ones that think this 30% tax is a good idea ARE most definitely.

Ya no…..Canadian here - our income tax (taxes off your pay before you get it) aren’t  even a flat rate across the board. It changes depending on your tax bracket.

As for shopping - there is a flat 5% GST in all Provinces and in Ontario we also have an 8% PST so we pay 13% at the checkout for things. But not groceries.