The Tax-Reform Racket - Mises Institute

Excellent analysis of tax-reform proposals by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.:

"But let us focus on the first part of the tax reform message, the part that is undeniably true: the current tax code is a disaster...

"But the neutral tax is a myth. In one way or another, every tax punishes productivity in both seen and unseen ways...

"Actually, all of history shows that taxes are a leading cause of the breakdown of civilization. The higher the tax, the less wealth there is to create and sustain civilization. We have civilization despite taxes...

"The only tax plan anyone should trust is the most simple possible: the one that proposes to lower existing taxes...

"[T]he Bush administration genuinely believes in creating a new forced savings scheme... [T]hese people do not... trust people to manage their own money...

"Let me close with a proposal that we abolish the income tax. It took in $873 billion last year. If we cut the budget by that amount,... We would end up with a federal budget of about $1.5 trillion, where it was in the last year of Clinton's second term. If anyone thinks that the federal government was too small back then, I can only recommend a complete education in economics, politics, and the truth about human freedom...

"Thus do I end this talk with a call, not for reform, but for an end to the income tax. It should be replaced with nothing at all. In any case, that would be a good first step."

The Tax-Reform Racket - Mises Institute