Ahhh, the beauty of starting from scratch! Sometimes, often times really, I wish we could scrap our convoluted tax system and start all over. Good luck, Iraq! You don't know how lucky you are not to be burdened with liberals! U.S. Administrator Imposes Flat Tax System on Iraq By Dana Milbank and Walter Pincus Washington Post Staff Writers Sunday, November 2, 2003; Page A09 The flat tax, long a dream of economic conservatives, is finally getting its day -- not in the United States, but in Iraq. It took L. Paul Bremer, the U.S. administrator in Baghdad, no more than a stroke of the pen Sept. 15 to accomplish what eluded the likes of publisher Steve Forbes, Reps. Jack Kemp (R-N.Y.) and Richard K. Armey (R-Tex.), and Sen. Phil Gramm (R-Tex.) over the course of a decade and two presidential campaigns. "The highest individual and corporate income tax rates for 2004 and subsequent years shall not exceed 15 percent," Bremer wrote in Coalition Provisional Authority Order Number 37, "Tax Strategy for 2003," issued last month. Voilà! Iraq has a flat tax, and the 15 percent rate is even lower than Forbes (17 percent) and Gramm (16 percent) favored for the United States. And, unless a future Iraqi government rescinds it, the flat tax will remain long after the Americans have left. "It's extremely good news," said Grover Norquist, head of Americans for Tax Reform and a Bush administration ally. Bremer's vaguely worded edict leaves open the possibility that Iraqis could face different levels of taxation below 15 percent, but "they told me it's a flat rate and it appears as though it's a flat rate," Norquist said. The tax fighter added: "It might be a hint to the rest of us."
There's insanity...and then there's insanity. And then there's this: Conservatives cheering about a fvcking flat tax in Iraq! You know what would really solve the mess in Iraq? Tort reform. Trust me on this one
Will the reactionaries ever stop lying? We already have a flat tax in the Unites States, and surprise surprise, it's roughly 18%. Proof here, here and here. You know so little about so many things, Ian, that it's downright frightening. Educate yourself about anything before blowing your load about it here.
liberal SYLLABICATION: lib·er·al PRONUNCIATION: AUDIO: lbr-l, lbrl KEY ADJECTIVE: 1a. Not limited to or by established, traditional, orthodox, or authoritarian attitudes, views, or dogmas; free from bigotry. b. Favoring proposals for reform, open to new ideas for progress, and tolerant of the ideas and behavior of others; broad-minded. c. Of, relating to, or characteristic of liberalism. d. Liberal Of, designating, or characteristic of a political party founded on or associated with principles of social and political liberalism, especially in Great Britain, Canada, and the United States i don't know ian, iraq strikes me as a place that could benefit from such people - since when did being liberal become such a bad thing?
Re: Re: U.S. Administrator Imposes Flat Tax System on Iraq They didn't have any money. How do you think he built all those palaces?
We're talking about Income Taxes here, obie, but thanks for playing. And, the original article (NY Times) that your data is based on had a gazillion holes blown thru it.
Oh, so I don't have to pay FICA or Medicare or state or property or sales or excise taxes? Thanks, Mr. Emancipator. Prove it.
Hey, go for as many as you want. I'll give you two to start: -- If you add back in welfare payments or other government expenditure programs, the bottom quintile moves to a lower percentage. But the other four remain pretty much the same. -- If you add in retirees, everything goes screwy because retirees typically have no wage income but high wealth, for which interest income is taxed. Neither of those two things repudiate my assertion that the highest wage earners do not, on average, get soaked nearly as badly as supply-siders and reactionaries would have the general public believe. And it's based on government stats -- if you or Ian can come up with some plausible reason why our own BLS is bullshitting us, go right ahead. But whatever it is, it has to compare somebody earning money right now in, say, the middle quintile vs. someone earning money right now in any of the other quintiles. And how someone can complain about high federal marginal income tax rates while ignoring all of the other taxes we pay is totally amazing. It's like complaining about your canker sore while there's a massive malignant tumor growing out of your forehead.