John McCain on Tax Reform

Sen. John McCain says he'd like to see the U.S. taxes made simpler and more fair.
This interview took place on October 12, 2007, at Iowa Public Television.
http://www.iptv.org/campaign08

Henderson: There's at least one congressman in Iowa and several members of the Iowa Republican Party who favor a fair tax, which would be a consumption tax, a sales tax to replace the income tax. There are others who have advocated, in the past, a flat tax. What would you do to fix the federal income tax code?

McCain: Americans paid $140 billion last year for preparation in their tax returns. Six out of every ten American s had to have somebody else do it. It's remarkable when you think about it. I don't -- I would sign either one if it came across my desk, but I don't think either one of them are the entire solution.

Here's what you need to do. You need to get a commission and you need to do it headed by somebody like Greenspan or somebody like that who is very credible. And all the credible economists, they report out their commission report, and Congress is required to vote yes or no.

That's the only way we ever closed the base in America was to have a commission report; by law, they vote yes or no. Every time you send it through one of these committees in Congress, the special interests prevail.

The code is that high and Americans are sick and tired of it. I understand why they want the fair tax. I understand why they want the flat taxes. We could develop a simpler, fairer tax code, I think using the best minds in America.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• IPTV
• IowaPublicTelevision
• IowaPress
• John
• McCain
• campaign08
• tax
• code
• reform
• taxes
• I.R.S.

[MarkLeviBetancourt]

Why would anyone buy anything at 23% tax? I would shop at garage sales and overseas. The rich would just my goods from other countries getting around the sales tax. But even with that said the fairtax seems plausible but I would want to see the fine print and also see how it would shape us in the global economy for the now and future when it comes to globalization and big corpirations.

[urgener]

The FairTax helps everyone! Granted, some demographics benefit more by it that others, but it'll benefit everyone. The super poor benefit the most, since they'll never even have to complete the short tax form to live tax free. Each tax payers share will go down, due to lower overhead costs, and by spreading the burden to illegals and criminals.

[diaverde09]

the fact that he'd be willing to sign a fair tax is enough to make me almost like him...almost. He doesn't realy address the issue of spending though. That's the real problem.

[Evilbeyond1]

u totally right John all talk and no action. Obama rules!!!!

[619FU619]

he always says "ill make it simpler" " ill make it better" ok how? " by making it simpler and makin it better" nice job mccain u cant even answer a simple question

[BenJr01]

Hey, Johnboy... No flag pin? What the hell is up with that?