Legislative Policy

Monique Morrissey says We are ‘Looking for Savings in All The Wrong Places’.We are, but where We look is a ‘No Man’s Land’ of legislated junk which goes back all through the last Century. Og course, much of the shell holes in the current Tax Code have been caused by recent barrages of Special Interests in the last decade. It amazes how passage of any Tax legislation, no matter how bad, automatically makes the legislation sacrosanct; the will of God, or Allayh, or something. Notice how refusal to renew the Bush Tax Cuts has turned into Tax increases, even though Republicans initially hailed them as temporary economic fuel at passage time. It clearly highlights the reality that any Tax Code over time will become a mishmash of Special Interest desires, and only change of the structure of the Tax Code will bring effectiveness back into Tax policy.

The above is the reason I have come out for taxing Labor hours instead of Incomes, and taxing Capital transactions instead of the Gains themselves. It can be as effective in raising Tax revenues are an Income Tax, and it will be a long time before Special Interests can devise any legislation to counter the effectiveness of the Tax Code. One has to continually circumvent Those who wish to undermine all legislation for their own advantage. It is why I would insist (like Anyone will listen) that if a Tax Code based on Work-hours is introduced, it must contain an automatic Inflation adjustment mechanism; one which might best be set to Wholesale Price indexes.

Morrissey also talks about the practice of ‘earmarks’. Again, one must outfox the Pack racing to rip effectiveness from legislation. I would hereby re-advocate passage of a law insisting no future legislation can exceed 10,000 Words in length; longer legislation to be automatically defeated. Earmarks immediately disappear, though they may resurface as new separate Bills, they must sink or swim on their own merits. We bring clarity to the Issue through enforced brevity, focusing attention on immediate defined values. Readers should always remember some Games can only be won by changing the Rules of the Game. lgl