US Needs Flat — Not Fat — Tax

We are a deeply divided country. There are two Americas nowadays. The divisions are along the lines of fiscal conservative versus socialist redistributor — producer vs. looter — job creator vs. job killer.

The choice is best exemplified by the choices of taxes they propose: flat vs. fat.

On one side are the producers and job creators who understand you must reward, not punish successful business owners — the people risking their own money and working 16 hour days.

Potato slices drop from automated slicers into hot oil at a plant in Brewster, Ohio. They are a potential target of the so-called fat tax. (AP Image)

That group wants America to emulate Hong Kong, the most successful economy in the world. Hong Kong’s economy is booming, with unemployment around 3 percent. What’s their secret? A 15 percent flat income tax, with deductions for home mortgage interest and charity, combined with a capital gains tax of zero.

Anyone with a brain can see that a simple, low, flat tax combined with zero capital gains tax will excite and inspire entrepreneurs and financial risk-takers.

Millions of jobs will be created. A flat tax would turnaround this economy quickly from bust and depression, to boom and expansion.

Just as Ronald Reagan turned Jimmy Carter’s economy from the worst since the Great Depression into the greatest economic expansion in world history.

How? By cutting income taxes from 70 percent to 28 percent. By inspiring and motivating, not punishing.

Can you imagine what kind of expansion we could create now by cutting income taxes to a flat 15 percent and eliminating capital gains?

Hong Kong and Singapore are both shining examples. Don’t believe me? Ask the co-founder of Facebook, who just renounced his U.S. citizenship to move his billions of dollars to Singapore. Great minds think alike.

The problem is that our country is filled with leftist, progressive, nanny state politicians who want to emulate semi-socialist economies in Europe. You know — the countries called PIIGS whose economies are imploding and falling off a cliff.

Not only do these European-style leftist politicians want to stop any talk of a flat Tax, they are proposing a “fat tax.”

As usual they are modeling Europe. Many European countries already have a fat tax. Look at the results of high taxes in Europe — economic carnage, unprecedented crisis, unrest in the streets, and bank runs. The left won’t be happy until they ruin the U.S. economy, just as they’ve already ruined the E.U. economy.

These politicians on both sides of the pond have one thing in common — a love of taxes. They are experts at looking for new and creative ways to loot your hard-earned money. They’ve never met a tax they didn’t like.

Obama is the best example of this breed. Some people play golf, others tennis, chess, or poker. But Obama’s hobby is raising taxes. He talks about them so often, he must dream of them at night.

He doesn’t have visions of fairies and sugar plums dancing in his head. Obama smiles as he dreams of IRS auditors and tax liens. Never underestimate a man who brought us the “tanning bed tax.”

Obama’s buddies in the looting business — i.e. Democratic politicians from coast to coast — are now licking their lips as they propose a fat tax instead of a flat tax.

There won’t be any flat tax with Obama and his socialist cabal in charge. They don’t want simplicity. They want complexity. They don’t want subtraction (tax cuts). They only desire addition (new taxes to add to your burden). They don’t want to inspire you to create jobs. They want to punish you, so that only government can create jobs.

This newest idea for taxes is called a fat tax. It would add a new nanny state tax on foods these busybodies declare “unhealthy.” Soda, candy, potato chips, sugar, ice cream — they’d all be hit with crushing new taxes. You’d now be taxed based on your lifestyle choices.

I’m the perfect guy to fight this tax. Because it doesn’t affect me in any way. I’m a health and fitness fanatic. I work out in my state of the art home gym three hours per day.

I eat a holistic diet of organic food. I pop 100 vitamin pills per day. I don’t eat junk food, fast food, or fatty food. I haven’t had a sip of soda in over 30 years. McDonalds hasn’t made one cent off me in 30 years. That’s how long it’s been since I set foot in a McDonalds. So I won’t be affected by this fat tax.

Yet I’ll fight it with every ounce of fiber in my body (excuse the pun). Because of what it represents. It’s a nanny state lifestyle tax. It opens the door to politicians deciding how we should live our lives — and punishing us with taxes if we don’t follow their desired choices.

No thanks. I’ll eat what I want, when I want, where I want. I don’t need to ask permission from no stinkin’ politician.

What’s next? A tax on meat because some uptight vegetarian gets elected to office? A tax on blonde hair because we elect a jealous brunette who isn’t having more fun?

A tax on your religion or mine, because someone is elected to office who doesn’t like our choice? A tax for turning on the wrong TV channel or radio station because some politician thinks it’s immoral or offensive? A tax on private school tuition because a teacher’s union leader is elected to office and is resentful of anyone who has escaped the clutches of failing public schools?

Where does it end? The answer is, with the Obamas of the world in office, it doesn’t. There’s always a new tax based on what they approve or disapprove.

The way to save America is with a flat tax emulating the most successful economy in the world. The way to destroy America is with a fat tax emulating the failing economies of Greece, Spain, Italy, Portugal and France.

The choice is clear. Vote flat or fat.

Wayne Allyn Root is a former Libertarian vice presidential nominee. He now serves as Chairman of the Libertarian National Campaign Committee. Read more reports from Wayne Allyn Root — Click Here Now.