Would you agree to abolishing the IRS and going with a flat tax?

[jmowreader]

51. I'll play

1. There are two different issues here. I wouldn't agree to a flat tax (for one it's regressive, for another the Republicans would insist on their favorite starve-the-beast thing, "revenue neutrality." For some reason the loopholes they close NEVER add as much revenue as the tax rate reduction eliminates. And I wouldn't agree to abolishing the IRS either - someone has to collect the tax. That's an issue I have with the Unfair Tax advocates, who also want to get rid of the IRS: whether we tax income, wealth, consumption, toenail-polish color, or body temperature, SOMEONE has to collect the money!

2. No. Not unless the rate was really high.

3. Of course they would.

4. Most of them. We'd lose at least one branch of the military. We'd lose all our social spending. We'd lose all our regulatory agencies. We'd have to change the national motto from "E Pluribus Unum" to "Caveat Emptor." And I don't think that would fix the budgetary problem!

5. No. To put our macroeconomic problem in microeconomic terms, you don't celebrate buying a new house by quitting your job.

6. I hope so.