Tennessee GOP urges Congress to rig tax system for the rich
Category: News & Politics
Via: john-russell • 4 weeks ago • 8 commentsBy: Austin Linfante (Heartland Signal)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
On Thursday, the Republican-controlled Tennessee House passed a resolution urging Congress to pass the Fair Tax Act of 2023, a federal bill that would drastically overhaul the tax code to favor the wealthy.
Wow! TN GOP just voted for encouraging Congress to raise Tennessean's sales tax to over 30 cents per dollar. I thought they were against higher taxes. Economically idiotic. #HJR0017
— Rep. Gloria Johnson (@VoteGloriaJ) March 13, 2025
The body voted 69-22 to pass House Joint Resolution 17, which now heads to the state Senate.
The Fair Tax Act would replace income, payroll, estate and gift taxes with a national sales tax of roughly 30% on goods and services like housing, health care and groceries. Some experts predict the tax burden for lower and middle-class families would increase while wealthier families, who spend less of their total income on consumption, would benefit.
The bill would also eliminate the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), which would be another potential benefit for the wealthy as the department is largely responsible for enforcing corporate income tax laws. The plan would also eliminate earned income and child tax credits, which help lift lower class families out of poverty.
The Center for American Progress, a liberal policy think tank, also points to a drastic reduction in federal revenue and the government's ability to fund public services like Medicare and Social Security, which both rely on payroll taxes.
The bill was reintroduced by Rep. Buddy Carter (R-GA) in January.
Tags
Who is online
35 visitors
This is pure insanity.
pure GOP
a "fair tax" inherently favors the wealthy. We should stop favoring the wealthy.
everydamnthinG Trump does, favors the Wealthy, as he's supported by so many he robs.
Yes, let’s add 30% to the cost of the most expensive and least effective healthcare on the planet.
The Fair Tax nonsense is intended to show the public just how much government costs. It's just another political gimmick to get the public's attention. Add a 30 pct Federal sales tax to the typical 10 pct state and local sales tax and people are going to notice. People don't seem to realize that Federal spending is close of 25 pct of GDP. Add in state and local government spending and the total government expenditures becomes close to 45 pct of GDP. (That's the reason people claim the United States doesn't produce anything any more.)
Congress doesn't want the public asking why government costs so much. That would threaten the gravy train. Those public questions may become even more pointed after Elon Musk and DOGE guts the Federal government and we're still left with a $1 trillion deficit.
Automatic withholding is what allows the government to keep taxation so high. If people had to physically take money out of their personal accounts and send what they owe every month to the government, they'd never consent to the levels we pay.
A valid point. But the government manages the current system with difficulty. Imagine the chaos your proposal would cause.
A Federal sales tax would turn merchants into tax collectors just as with state and local sales taxes. IMO that's a backdoor way to privatize the IRS. Who gets the skim off the Federal revenue? That ought to amount to a tidy little sum.