Are Republicans Recommending New Taxes Now they Have Some Power?: National Sales Tax Could be on its Way

Read my lips--no new taxes!  Didn't that burn the GOP in the past? Well, it appears the GOP fresh from a huge election victory that it took over the House of Representatives may be ready to work with the Democrats to create new taxes. Yeah, I am scratching my head too.

The New York Times today writes about a bi-partisan commission that is prepared to push for a national sales tax.

WASHINGTON — A bipartisan group will present a deficit-reduction plan on Wednesday that goes beyond the spending cuts and tax proposals from the chairmen of President Obama’s fiscal commission. It also calls for a one-year holiday from Social Security payroll taxes to encourage hiring and for a national sales tax to reduce deficits.

This may be the most ludicrous thing I have heard come down the pike. Social Security is broken and is in need of funding. Have you read you Social Security yearly account statement? It gives you a total that you can plan on receiving and then it tells you that approximately 25% will be wiped off that total because Social Security is broke. What upsets me is the Republicans have a mandate to begin phasing these New Deal and Great Society entitlements out, and they continue to play Russian Roulette with them along side the Democrats. Phase Social Security out--period. Stop thinking you can fix it and playing games with it.

Then there is this national sales tax idea. With signs of inflation and consumer confidence still low, they want to attach a tax to everything you buy? Do they really believe this is going to fix anything?

The latest plan would reduce projected deficits by nearly $5.9 trillion from 2012 through 2020. It was approved unanimously by a panel led by former Senator Pete V. Domenici of New Mexico, who was the senior Republican on the Senate Budget Committee for more than a quarter-century, and Alice M. Rivlin, who served both Congress and President Bill Clinton as budget director.

Do you realize how big the national sales tax would be to kill nearly $6 trillion of the debt? The problem is people have to be making purchases to meet those projections, and if a national sales tax is that aggressive, chances are people are going to reconsider their purchases.

As well, what about the increased debt that will be created with Social Security as the baby boomers expect their due?

What's the saddest part of this? More taxes are the solution as John Boehner and the Republicans run around saying the have to "fix" entitlements. Slash the entitlements, the bureaucracies, and even the military, and chances are you wouldn't need a national sales tax. It's obvious now, that's not on the Republicans plate, which is sad because with the TEA Party movement pushing for it, there is no greater time to kill the New Deal and the Great Society than what the Republicans have been given.

Why would you expect any different? They have made those promises in the past to kill the Department of Education, EPA, and others. They never deliver.