Bachmann Favors National Sales Tax

Prospective presidential candidate Michele Bachmann says she wants a national sales tax, but can’t vote for it because she believes Congress would just add it to the current income tax system.

In a profile in The Wall Street Journal, Bachmann says she loves the FAIR tax proposal but just cannot bring herself to back it in the House.

“If we were starting over from scratch, I would favor a national sales tax," the three-term Minnesota congresswoman says. But the reality is that if it were enacted, the chances are “we would end up with a dual tax, a national sales tax and an income tax."

Bachmann says her tax plan would be to take corporate rates down from 35 percent to nine percent and “zero out” capital gains tax, the alternative minimum tax and the death tax.

But she says the main problem with the U.S. tax system is that nearly half the population pays nothing. She says all deductions should be abolished “because there is no tie to the government benefits that people demand.

“Everyone should have to pay something," she insists.

Bachmann says federal spending has to be reined in so much that entire government departments, including education, should be scrapped. When it comes to Social Security and Medicare, she says the country has an obligation to those who are already retired, but not to future seniors.

“People realize the crisis we face isn't in 25 years or even 10 years off. It is right now. And people want it solved now—especially Republican primary voters."

Writer Stephen Moore, who spent two days with Bachmann, says he has no doubt that she will end up running for the Republican nomination and says it would be a mistake to count her out. “She's defied the prognosticators in nearly every race she's run since thrashing an 18-year incumbent in the Minnesota Senate by 20 points in 2000,” he points out.

For her part, Bachmann tells him, “If I do run, like all my races, I will work like a maniac."

And if both she and Sarah Palin throw their hats in the ring, she says America should not expect a catfight. “People want to see a mud-wrestling fight. They won't get it from me because I like Sarah Palin and I respect her."

But when asked whether Tim Pawlenty was a good governor of her state, she was less complimentary, saying, “I really don't want to comment."