Conservative Blog Reporting on Media Bias and the Liberal Agenda

This writer is constantly amazed by the absolutely total irresponsibility of government at all levels. While the waste at the federal level is so outlandish that it hits the news every day there is massive excess at state and local level as well. It is fascinating to observe local government managers complain about a lack of revenue when so many services in neighboring municipalities and counties are duplicated rather than shared. While it is laudable that personnel numbers are being constrained by introducing efficiency through new information technology it is outlandish that these technologies are being introduced in government silos. Even neighboring communities that claim extensive cooperation often operate independent and incompatible police and fire computer applications that inhibit rather than promote public safety. They duplicate, rather than share, expensive computer applications for human resources, parks and recreation, financial and tax management, public works administration and other needs.

While the scale may be different, the causes of this irresponsible management are the same at all levels of government. Too much money flows into government coffers from too many directions to keep track of. Those at all levels of government who receive this money are all too willing to spend it all and ask for more because they see it as their money, not the taxpayers money. Furthermore, the more money they receive the more they can build their personal domain and assure their job security.

This irresponsibility of government officials will not be changed without aggressive tax reform. Increased money always means increased power and the more money we send to government the more power moves from the people to government. It is well known that the more power a group has the more power they tend to want to have. It is a circular problem and the evidence is stark. Sending more money to the government increases government power which the government will want more of which means the government will want more money. The citizens of the republic continue to lose authority over government and eventually become subjects rather than controllers of government.

“A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have.”

Thomas Jefferson

We can and must stop this money/power spiral and transfer of authority. The government is addicted to this spiral and the only ones who can control the supply to the addict is the supplier. We can do this through aggressive tax reform at all levels of government. We have to if we want to cure the addict and not lose our republic.

PeacockWatch believes that tax reform must include the following elements.

• There must be only one all-encompassing tax at each level of government. No additional fees or assessments associated with specific items or services.
• Taxes must be consistent and predictable over several years.
• There must be no tax exemptions for anything.
• The amount of tax collected at each level of government must be posted on-line daily by each government entity.
• The total amount of tax collected must be such that it limits the government expenditures to a certain percentage of GDP.

The writers of PeacockWatch have long experience as business executives. We understand that it is important to keep things simple because they will get complicated all by themselves. Therefor we are working to keep this set of elements simple and short. However, they do require some explanation which we provide here.

There must be only one all-encompassing tax at each level of government. No additional fees or assessments associated with specific items or services.

The present tax code is outrageously confusing. It is ridiculous, and even criminal, that those who are responsible for the tax code use its complexity as a defense for breaking tax law and paying too few taxes. It is clearly designed to control behavior of the population which, except in matters of clear police action, is none of the business of government at any level. The lost labor and the expenditure associated with complying with tax law by individuals and businesses has a strong adverse effect on our gross domestic product. It works against, not for, the economic health of our nation.

Many of our taxes are hidden from clear view by the taxpayer and those that are visible are, like the income tax, collected by the various governments before the citizen even sees their paycheck. New taxes, or taxes disguised as fees, are levied by the legislatures or executive branches without giving them strong visibility. Consequently, we are all taxed at a higher level than is readily recognized on a daily basis.

PeacockWatch’s recommendation is that we go as a nation and as state and local governments to the Fair Tax and no other source of revenue collection by any government in the United States of America. This fixes the tax rate at a totally visible level at all levels of government.

Taxes must be consistent and predictable over several years.

Individuals, families and businesses must be able to develop financial plans over extended periods of time with some certainty of tax stability. When one examines monthly individual and family expenses it becomes clear that for most of us our greatest single source of expenditure is taxes. For those who want to see the details please look here. You may have thought that your greatest expense each month was for your home. In reality, your greatest expense each month is taxes with many of those taxes representing a drain that you don’t even pay attention to.

If the single greatest category of expense is taxes then there must not only be clear visibility of that expense there must be consistency in that expense so that individuals and businesses can plan with a much greater degree of certainty about this expense category than is possible today.

PeacockWatch believes that the FairTax is the most visible and most honest tax method of government revenue generation. We also believe that any FairTax implementation must be fixed over a five year planning period. Any change to the FairTax rate must be made at least two years before the end of that planning period and only with a totally visible vote by every member of the legislature without absence or abstention.

There must be no tax exemptions for anything.

Tax exemptions are the government’s tool for controlling citizen behavior. However, in a republic it is the citizens who must be controlling the government’s behavior. If the government cannot levy selective exemptions to the tax law or tax to influence behavior it keeps the government from interfering in individual and family lives. It also keeps the tax code simple and short.

The amount of tax collected at each level of government must be posted on-line daily by each government entity.

Most municipal governments, all state governments and the federal government now use computerized systems to track tax income. Each of these governments must be required to post that total income on-line at the end of each day. Just because the money moved from the taxpayer’s pocket to the government coffers doesn’t mean that it is the government’s money even if various governments would like to think so. The money still belongs to the taxpayer and the taxpayer must be provided full visibility of every penny the government has been allocated for use to the benefit of the taxpayer.

The total amount of tax collected must be such that it limits the government expenditures to a certain percentage of GDP.

This will be addressed in a future article about “Statutory Limits On Spending”. The only reason it is brought up here is that it is part of the formula for deciding what the Fair Tax rate should be.

The on-line documentation systems described above combined with a totally visible FairTax system designed within limits based on the GDP and strict debt retirement constraints can be used to provide a specific and consistent numeric guideline for a FairTax rate. The FairTax organization places the revenue neutral FairTax rate at 23%. In the initial years PeacockWatch suggests that the rate might have to be a few percentage points higher in order to eliminate debt in perhaps ten years and establish a one year financial reserve a few years later. After that, the FairTax rate could drop to a fully visible revenue neutral rate.

The whole purpose of this proposal is to simply restore our nation to economic health and improve our national security. PeacockWatch believes that the present system is being gamed by a broad range of powerful people including those at high levels of the federal government.  Some of the people gaming the system may be well-meaning but ignorant of the consequences of their actions. Others are well meaning and fully aware of the consequences of their actions and fully justify them by taking care of their constituents at the expense of a larger population. (Those two previous sentences require a very generous benefit of doubt for theoretically intelligent government leaders.) Some are just crooks who have managed to be elected or appointed to governmental power. Whatever the reason, gaming the system becomes much more difficult when the rules are simple, there are no exceptions to the rules, finances are strictly controlled by those the money belongs to (the citizen) and money income and outgo is made fully visible down to the penny in a fully public medium, the Internet.