Bruce Bartlett Needs To See The Auditor
By Repair Man Jack Posted in Liberals — Comments (7) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
Senator Clinton’s favorite “Conservative” Bruce Bartlett has dug his way to the bottom. It seems he doesn’t like the idea of Candidate Fred Thompson’s National Sales Tax proposal and has no scruples about using it’s previous endorsement by The Church of Scientology as a bludgeon to attack Thompson’s start-up campaign.
Like Scott Thomas Beauchamp, Bartlett has authored a disingenuous piece of fiction for The New Republic. Like Scott Thomas Beauchamp’s Shock Troops diary, the piece reeks of being a cheap, unfair smear job.
Bartlett released his sewage in hopes of ruining Republican Candidate Fred Thompson’s entry into the GOP nomination battle. He missed and successfully trashed what little reputation he has left for being a fair-minded and intelligent observer. He titles his article Fred Thompson channels L. Ron Hubbard. Dianetics, the Tax Plan. His opening paragraph oozes obnoxious, self-satisfied contempt.
The basic theological tenets of the Church of Scientology are well known: a fanatical hatred for psychiatry coupled with a creation myth that involves an evil alien ruler named Xenu and his sundry galactic allies. The basic tenets of its tax policy are somewhat less familiar. But Scientologists promulgated and, at one point, heavily promoted a proposal that would replace all federal income taxes with a national retail sales tax (NRST). And the theology and tax policy aren't entirely unrelated: Xenu used phony tax inspections as a guise for destroying his enemies.
He then complains that he gets too much grief from other people for offering smear jobs. Like his new favorite presidential candidate, he insults his opposition and then complains that they are all too mean to him. Oh, and while he’s at it, he continues throwing mud by claiming that they are all ignorant. Poor, little Bruce Bartlett.
But, when you mention any hint of the nexus between Scientology and the NRST--as I did briefly in a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed--you'll be denounced by FairTax supporters as a smear artist. This retort, however, is simply evidence that these FairTax supporters don't know the history of their own proposal. That's too bad. Perhaps if they understood its origins in Scientology, they might have a greater appreciation for its inherent flaws.
Then, after complaining about being poor-mouthed by all those thin-skinned, sensitive people who don’t appreciate being compared to L. Ron Hoover and The First Church of Applientology, Bartlett denies he meant to give offense. He was just kidding, guys. The whole Scientology thing was just a gag.
The reason I brought up the Scientology connection in the first place was not to create guilt by association. Rather, it was to explain that cats had one very specific goal: the abolition of the Internal Revenue Service. Anything else that the NRST might accomplish was entirely secondary. And, in the rush to rid the world of the IRS, the plan's authors neglected some important details, not to mention some key facts.
He then goes on to offer up a dollop of economic reasoning as to why he’s no fan of The National Retail Sales Tax. He feels that it is deceptively calculated and it wouldn’t do what its authors claim it would. Fair enough, I personally haven’t decided whether I like the NRST either. I’d like to hear more about this idea before I agree that it truly is a Fair Tax Plan.
Making my mind up about Bruce Bartlett is nowhere near as difficult. I’ve got plenty of data regarding him, and none of it paints a pretty picture. The man has become embittered against the GOP and will climb into the gutter to smear any Republican that gets within range of his slime-chucking apparatus.
At one time, in the recent past, Bruce Bartlett was considered a credible authority in the field of economics. Regrettably, like Paul Krugman of the New York Times, he decided to become a liberal political partisan while still claiming to be a deeply intellectual economic thinker. Perhaps that’s why Bartlett now writes for The New Republic, instead of being considered a reputable intellect.
I saw his insulting article this morning and was considering how to do a proper fisking of it, but you did better than what I was thinking. Thanks.
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(Formerly known as bee) / Internet member since 1987
Member of the Surreality-Based Community
really is a part of Scientology?
I just thought that was made up by the creators of South Park...
"Tom Cruise won't come outta the closet!"
"I Will Always Place The Mission First.
"I will never accept defeat.
"I will never quit.
"I will never leave a fallen comrade."
Warrior Ethos, US Army
is slightly more credible than Bruce Bartlett. Just think of how much tabloid ink he could get if he ever did come out of the closet.
James Hansen - Scott THomas Beauchamp with a PhD.
Operating Thetan Level III training tells you all about it.
Be warned, though. Hubbard said that unless you're 'Clear' and have gone through extensive preparation, just READING it could kill you.
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Reality: Thompson/Romney Dream: Santorum/Watts.
Mike Gamecock DeVine @ The Charlotte Observer
www.race42008.com
www.hinzsightreport.com
www.theminorityreportblog.com
"One man with courage makes a majority" - Andrew Jackson
... Thompson was the wrong man to worry about. Listen to his pre-announcement interview with Sean Hannity (listen to members of the audience shouting "FairTax!" to ensure the question was popped) and you'll hear a Thompson who hasn't yet settled the direction of tax reform.
It's Mike Huckabee that Bartlett should have worried about. It is he who is one with the FairTax grassroots movement. Whether the demagoging comes from the President's 2005 Tax Reform Panel, or Bruce Bartlett (who's already receiving his comeuppance), Huckabee has spent the time to investigate and thoroughly understand why the FairTax plan is experiencing growing acceptance in the professional / academic community. (For example, renown economist Laurence Kotlikoff believes that failure to enact the FairTax - choosing instead to try to "flatten" what he deems to be a non-flattenable income tax system - will eventuate into an irrevocable economic meltdown because of the hidden aspects of the current system that make political accountability impossible.)
The recent FairTax Act referendum posed to many Republican contenders, recently, on “This Week with Geo. Stephanopoulos,” drew a sharper contrast between Huckabee and his leading peer contenders who do not yet fully understand this juggernaut-in-the-making. Huckabee's understated, homespun way of communicating that the income tax can't be fixed with "a tap of the hammer, nor a twist of the screwdriver" registers with the over-burdened American worker. That his party's leading contenders continue to cling to the destructive income tax code, the IRS, preserving political power of granting tax favors at continued cost to - and misery of - American families, invigorates his campaign's raison d'etre.
Of the FairTax, Huckabee asserts that it's...
• SIMPLE, easy to understand
• EFFICIENT, inexpensive to comply with and doesn't cause less-than-optimal business decisions for tax minimization purposes
• FAIR, FLAT, and FAMILY FRIENDLY, loophole-free, and everyone pays their share
• LOW TAX RATE is achieved by broad base with no exclusions
• PREDICTABLE, doesn't change, so financial planning is possible
• UNINTRUSIVE, doesn't intrude into our personal affairs or limit our liberty
• VISIBLE, not hidden from the public in tax-inflated prices or otherwise
• PRODUCTIVE, rewards - rather than penalizes - work and productivity
My own detailed benefits analysis of the plan (having throughly scrubbed The FairTax Book pages several times over) explains Huckabee's ardent advocacy:
For individuals:
• No more tax on income - make as much as you wish
• You receive your full paycheck - no more deductions
• You pay the tax when you buy "at retail" - not "used"
• No more double taxation (e.g. like on current Capital Gains)
• Reduction of "pre-FairTaxed" retail prices by 20%-30%
• Adding back 29.9% FairTax maintains current price levels
• FairTax would constitute 23% portion of new prices
• Every household receives a monthly check, or "pre-bate"
• "Prebate" is "advance tax payback" for monthly consumption to poverty level
• FairTax's "prebate" ensures progressivity, poverty protection
• Finally, citizens are knowledgeable of what their tax IS
• Elimination of "parasitic" Income Tax industry
• NO MORE IRS. NO MORE FILING OF TAX RETURNS by individuals
• Those possessing illicit forms of income will ALSO pay the FairTax
• Households have more disposable income to purchase goods
• Savings is bolstered with reduction of interest rates
For businesses:
• Corporate income and payroll taxes revoked under FairTax
• Business compensated for collecting tax at "cash register"
• No more tax-related lawyers, lobbyists on company payrolls
• No more embedded (hidden) income/payroll taxes in prices
• Reduced costs. Competition - not tax policy - drives prices
• Off-shore "tax haven" headquarters can now return to U.S
• No more "favors" from politicians at expense of taxpayers
• Resources go to R&D and study of competition - not taxes
• Marketplace distortions eliminated for fair competition
• US exports increase their share of foreign markets
For the country:
• 7% - 13% economic growth projected in the first year of the FairTax
• Jobs return to the U.S.
• Foreign corporations "set up shop" in the U.S.
• Tax system trends are corrected to "enlarge the pie"
• Larger economic "pie," means thinner tax rate "slices"
• Initial 23% portion of price is pressured downward as "pie" increases
• No more "closed door" tax deals by politicians and business
• FairTax sets new global standard. Other countries will follow
While passionately supporting FairTax, Huckabee's understands that, if elected President, Congress will have to present the bill for his signature. His call to action goes beyond his candidacy, Main Street will have to demand that their legislators deliver the bill.
of Democratic presidential candidate positions vs those of Communist Party USA. It should be much easier as they line up pretty much one for one instead of having to invent some convoluted linkage that makes no sense.