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By Dwight Patel, Association of Concerned Taxpayers Al Gore and taxes
seem to go hand-in-hand, ever since his days in the House.
It is a safe statement to make that Al Gore has never seen a
tax that he thought was too high.
Now Gore talks about “targeted tax cuts,” which have all
the characteristics of new spending programs. Al “Father of the
Internet” Gore doesn’t propose eliminating income taxes for low
income Americans. Rather,
he seems to identify some favored constituencies, and “targets”
his tax cuts to them. Governor
George Bush on the other hand, proposes “blind” tax cuts that come
from eliminating some specific taxes, but concentrating on lowering
tax rates in all categories. Incidentally,
this proposal has the effect of completely eliminating the income tax
for six million low income Americans. Governor Bush opposes
imposing new taxes on the Internet.
Bush seems to understand that taxing Internet connections and
Internet-specific transactions would devastate the development of this
engine of prosperity. Taxes
that treat the Internet exactly as other transactions are not affected
by the Bush proposal On the other hand, Al
Gore is much more favorable to taxes on the Internet, and susceptible
to the arguments of those who argue that local jurisdictions are
losing billions of dollars. Internet
taxes would be similar to the Gore “telephone tax” which is
designed to wire schools and rural communities to the Internet, which
sounds good until you realize that that wiring is already taking place
without government subsidies. Taxes
of this kind impose real costs on Internet connections. As they trickle down to individual users, they raise
connection costs and decimate the high tech industry.
These taxes force those Americans on a fixed income like
seniors, some middle class families and low income American (from whom
Al Gore still wants to collect an income tax) Governor Bush
supports tax relief for single parents.
Under his plan a single parent making $36,000 a year, with two
kids, would receive $1,500 in tax relief.
Gore’s “targets” aimed at this same constituency impose
numerous provisions further complicating an already too-complex tax
code. Governor Bush favors
real tax relief for seniors. Under
this plan seniors will be able to deduct the cost of long term care
insurance. Al Gore’s
plan has NO TAX RELEIF for seniors; under the Gore plan seniors would
pay more. Governor Bush
supports the elimination of the death tax.
Al Gore supports the death tax and would veto any legislation
that would attempt to put an end to the Death Tax. Governor Bush
supports a across the board tax cut.
Al Gore doesn’t. Gore seems to think the Government knows how to spend your
money better than you do. Governor
Bush’s plan will give an average family making $50,000 (which is not
rich as Al Gore would like us to believe) would receive approximately
$1,200 dollars back. Don’t
know about the Vice President but I could do a lot with an extra
$1,200. The Association of
Concerned Taxpayers was organized to lobby for a flat tax.
Neither candidate’s proposal approaches this desired reform,
but one’s proposal moves marginally in that direction while the
others will create reams of new rulings and regulations as the
“targets” are fleshed out and vetted by the Internal Revenue
Service. Dwight Patel serves on the Board of the Association of Concerned Taxpayers Leave your opinion about today's news, our columns, or our site. © Dwight Patel, 2000
View expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Political USA.
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