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a CITIZEN JOURNALIST celebrates the 25th Anniversary of the Hall-Rabushka-proposed flat tax

True, I was only able to do so by way of an analogous gesture, but I think most of the people at Arby’s appreciated my point.

Which is not to say they were exactly happy about my collecting three each of their curly fries—regardless of the size of their order—but that reaction, I suspect, had more to do with my having not washed my hands first.  Besides, I had already rather loudly complained to “Sierra” the cashier that I’d forgotten my stupid wallet—which the more cynically-minded roastbeef aficionados took as an ulterior motive.

Still, justice triumphed, I think—though I must say the manager wasn’t particularly amused, and asked me to leave before he called the local police.

Most likely a Democrat, that manager, is my guess.

Developing…*

17 Replies to “a CITIZEN JOURNALIST celebrates the 25th Anniversary of the Hall-Rabushka-proposed flat tax”

  1. Boss429 says:

    Carter really said that??….Must have during the same trip when he was telling about the giant swimming rabitt attacking the canoe from which he and Billy were fishing.

  2. Jeff Goldstein says:

    Consider this post my death knell.

  3. Major John says:

    Death Knell?  Were the fries really that bad?

  4. JohnAnnArbor says:

    Or did the ‘dillo attack you for some fries?

  5. David Ross says:

    What you’ve described is a poll tax.

    In a flat tax, you would ask everyone how much income they make, check that against how rich they look, keep tabs on those people who look at you funny and then, during their meal, take those guys out back and ream ‘em.

    But at least you’d tell them up front what the criteria would be. In the Federal system, you’d start by forcing everyone to fill out massive and incomprehensible forms at gunpoint.

    Here in Texas, the mayor takes a proportion of your fries based on how much the fries cost.

  6. kelly says:

    Carter really said that??….

    Sorry, I can’t help myself. Carter really said that??

  7. Major John says:

    Yes, Kelly, Mr. Carter was disappointed so many of the “rich” got away with “not paying their fair share” because of the loopholes, arcana, and impossible code deciphering…

  8. Tai Chi Wawa says:

    If you get behind in your fry tax, you’ll never . . . ketchup.

    Oh, “groan” yourself!

  9. kelly says:

    Speaking of the “rich” and the US tax code, MJ, it occurs to me that Carter must have been in office to sign the Alternative Minimum Tax into the code. I know it was enacted in the ‘70s. Does that sound about right?

    And yet another reason to despise the man.

  10. kyle says:

    AMT came into in effect in 1970 – one of the few awful things of the last 50 years that we can’t tie to Carter.

  11. Jim in KC says:

    19%!  Holy cow!  How about getting rid of every department not fulfilling a Constitutionally-recognized role of the federal government and making it more like 5%?

  12. kelly says:

    AMT came into in effect in 1970 – one of the few awful things of the last 50 years that we can’t tie to Carter.

    Damn.

  13. Major John says:

    Of course every Congress and President since then made sure not to idex the AMT either.  May they all cringe in shame.

  14. B Moe says:

    A flat tax is easy to calculate, minimizes cheating, is least subject to constant tinkering and reduces the monumental transaction costs involving lawyers, lobbyists and accountants.

    Why do these pinheads always say this?  The cheating, tinkering, loopholing and lawyering don’t have anything to do with the percentage you pay.  All the finagling is done trying to determine ones income.  Any income tax is going to lead to endless bickering and pages of laws about how to determine what is income and what are expenses.

    A sales tax is far and away the easiest and simplest way to do things.

  15. McGehee says:

    AMT came into in effect in 1970

    Nixon would have been my second choice if I were trying to guess. He did a lot of crazy liberal-ish things even as the then-New Left despised him as a conservative. Wage and price controls to defeat inflation, for example.

  16. David Ross says:

    Thank you, B Moe, for getting to the root of it.

  17. Sticky B says:

    The writer makes the blanket statement that all workers would pay less tax under this 19% flat rate. Back of the napkin calculations suggest that I’d have to find a way to make $110,000 look like $67,000 before I would pay less tax than I’ll pay this year. Which gets us into the territory BMoe covered. The present tax structure is actually pretty damned friendly to me, compared to the 80’s and 90’s.

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