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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Frank Griffin who wrote (41817)	10/3/2000 2:56:35 AM
From: phyxter	Respond to of 769667

I am quite surprised - I agree with most of what you had to say. I'll disagree here: an estate tax of some sort is critical to prevent society from degenerating into feudalism where the very few control virtually the entirety of a country's wealth. However, a 55% top rate is probably excessive. Probably most appropriate would be to treat estate bequests as normal income for the recipient. Simplifies a lot of things. I dislike the idea of a consumption or a flat or consumption tax as it shifts the tax burden from those most able to pay, and have gained the most from society, to those less able (an aside: lotteries are a cruel hoax on the public and grossly unfair). The tax code is indeed an abomination, but the mangling of the tax code has been an equal opportunity employer - Republicans and Democrats alike tinker with it. Get rid of all but the most basic deductions. Ban the breaks written in obscure text that are targeted to single individuals or companies, and require legislators to put their name on the pieces of the code they author - let's see who's doing the pay-offs instead of this nasty process our congress uses where bills come out of conference with clauses that appeared in neither the House or Senate versions, and noone is willing to take responsibility for, with zero time for anyone to investigate before a bill must be voted on. And for goodness sake, let's do something about the legalize bribery which fuels this process: serious and meaningful campaign finance reform.