Our Troubling Tax System

This video was produced by Caleb Brown ( http://www.twitter.com/cobrown ) and Austin Bragg ( http://www.twitter.com/habragg ).
The U.S. tax code gets more complex every year. It violates civil liberties and, left unchanged, will leave the United States at a powerful competitive disadvantage in years to come. Chris Edwards, Director of Tax Policy Studies, Senior Fellow Daniel J. Mitchell and Director of Information Policy Studies Jim Harper dissect the troubling aspects of our tax system.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Taxes
• Cato
• Income
• Federal
• Government
• Politics
• 1040
• Form
• IRS
• Washington
• DC
• congress
• obama
• bush
• tax
• law
• dan
• mitchell
• chris
• edwards
• jim
• harper
• FAIRTAX
• Flat
• Fair
• Tax

[jdhein22]

I think the basic problem is this: should the federal government use it is primary method of revenue collection to engineer desired social, economic, and financial behaviors it wants from individuals and businesses? Well, it does, and it breeds complexity, non-compliance, corruption, and abuse of authority.

[Texasjim2007]

On next years tax forms Congress should let tazpayers check off which party in Congress they want to authorize to manage their money. Then Democrats can raise taxes from all those rich Democrats for projects beneficial to Democrats and pay off their own debts anyway they want and Republicans will be able to cut programs not beneficial to Republicans and only have Republican debts to pay off.

[LogicalFlawDetector]

@overmind25

There have been societies with limited government -- 19th century Britain, 19th century United States, Hong Kong, Singapore -- but there have been no stateless societies which have had the same success. You have a better shot at going back to a limited government than an anarchist society.

[dfpolis]

Most tax regulations are the result of special interests. We should base corporate taxes on the profits reported to attract investment. Flat taxes are regressive because poor people need to spend more of their income on subsistence. Peace, DP

[danswim11]

@UBSCARED If the people of a state through their elected officicials decide that some service is not a good investment, then why should the federal government pay for it? Example: The people of St. Louis rejected a tax increase for expanded public bus services but the bus service "found" money from the federal government. Now people outside of STL are forced to pay for my bus service that I decided was a bad investment. The money has to come from someone. 

[100CommonCents]

@danswim11 probably only for that tax period. but still... bureaucratic nonsense will strangle the economy.

[danswim11]

3.8 million full-time workers to complete tax forms. There is only 1.4 million people in the U.S. military plus 0.8 million in the reserves. Preparing tax forms requires more people than our national defense. Amazing.

[KripDrip]

i dont wanna pay $20 for a fast food meal. Thats whats gonna happen if the government were to do that.

[youneverheard]

@UBSCARED I'm not a moron, I just disagree with you. In fact, I reject the authority of the Constitution insofar as it gives a body of individuals, such as the federal government or anyone else, power to control other individuals by compelling payment and / or providing unwanted or unnecessary services.