Wednesday Warren Warning - Self Serving on Tax Policy

Elizabeth Warren casts stones at a rigged tax code. On her website she recently posted a blog piece that started with this:

Huge corporations hire armies of lawyers and lobbyists to create, expand, and protect every last corporate loophole.

That's how we end up with a tax code that makes teachers and bus drivers and small business owners pay, but that allows some huge American corporations to make billions of dollars and not pay a single dime in taxes.

Simply put, the tax code is rigged.

She neglects to mention that the tax code is also rigged in favor of unions and other liberal special interests as well. She neglects to mention that the U.S. tax code is tens of thousands of Byzantine pages.

She is pandering to the liberal base by saying that the tax codes need to be fixed. Unfortunately her solutions involve yet more legislation, not simplification, not standardization - just more special rules for special circumstances. And we'll need more auditors and IRS agents no doubt, to enforce the new rules.

Of course the tax code needs changing. But how about something to simplify it and make it harder to cheat, harder to avoid, and perhaps even welcoming in terms of businesses and consumers. How about a simple national sales tax or Value Added tax of some percentage that replaces income tax for both consumers and corporate taxes? Liberal elites like Warren argue that the notion is unfair to the poor because they pay a higher portion of their net income to necessities which means that the tax will hit them harder. But aside from them therefore having some skin in the game (to paraphrase Michele Bachmann), what about the notion of some sort of sales tax rebates for those hardest hit? Nope - not up for discussion. The reason is simple. A Byzantine tax code requires a volume of additional tax lawyers versus a simpler tax code and therefore keeps that industry intact. That serves the political class like Warren far more than it does the under-served she claims to represent.

Streamlining government reduces costs and puts more money back in the hands of voters of every class. Simplify the tax code simplifies life for every American, including the poor and disadvantaged who benefit from not having to jump through hoops for subsidies or who can't afford expensive tax lawyers like elites can.

So who is really benefitting from your political positions Senator Warren? My guess, it's you and your friends. The tax code is rigged, your ilk rigged it Senator Warren, and you seem quite content to keep it that way by keeping voters in the dark about the true situation and the real solutions.