Thompson on Taxes, Social Security.
Written by Sam on November 25th, 2007
Republican presidential hopeful Fred Thompson proposed an income tax plan Sunday that would allow Americans to choose a simplified system with only two rates: 10 percent and 25 percent.
Thompson’s proposal, announced on “Fox News Sunday,” would allow filers to remain under the current, complex tax code or use the flat tax rates.
Asked whether the plan would cut too deeply into federal revenues, the former Tennessee senator and actor said experts “always overestimate the losses to the government” when taxes are cut.
“We’ve known for years any time we have lowered taxes and any time we’ve lowered tax rates, we’ve seen growth in the economy,” Thompson said.
Thompson added that money would be saved by his Social Security reform plan. He proposed that workers younger than 58 receive smaller monthly Social Security checks than they are now promised. Individuals could contribute 2 percent of their paycheck to a personal retirement account, an amount that would be matched by the Social Security trust fund.
The retirement plan “faces up to the fact that Social Security is going bankrupt and we’re going to have to do something about it,” he said.
Thompson proposed permanently extending tax cuts enacted in 2001 and 2003, reductions that would end after Dec. 31, 2010 unless Congress acts.
This is a pretty good idea and I think Thompson is approaching these issues the right way. The tax cuts he proposes are enough to give another boost to our economy and help middle and lower income families, but not so outrageous that the Democrats will have to be resuscitated with a defibrillator. He also puts up a nice plan to ease into private accounts for Social Security where it might be more palpable for those who opposed the Bush plan. Something has to be done on S.S. and the Democrats and a handful of RINOs simply aren’t up to it. Maybe Thompson could reach a middle ground by introducing these proposals as president.
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Great performance. Also like him taking Fox to task on their coverage of his campaign.
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Joel, not sure which Fox News Sunday you were watching. I thought Thompson did poorly, and accusing Fox of belittling his campaign is a stupid thing to do. There is no doubt that his campaign unsteady thus far (yea, I know he is tied in SC, but that doesnt get the job done). Also, his answer to the abortion line of questions was bordering on incomprehensible.
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According to Greg Mankiw (who worked for W and, if anything, has a conservative tilt), the previous round of tax giveaways were about 10% self-financing. The idea that these tax cuts pay for themsleves is outrageous. Do you have any evidence to support your assertion?
If you support cutting taxes on ideological grounds, that’s fine. But you should just say this rather than making a patently false claim.
Of course, I don’t expect you to admit that you’re wrong. I proved that you plagiarized your health care post and I just proved that your assertion about party affiliation and economic breakdown was incorrect, so it seems to me that you’re more interested in spewing rhetoric than in gathering and analyzing information.
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Tax cuts could conceivably pay for themself, if spending is cut. But that has not happened under President Bush. These tax cuts are far from self-financing and to claim otherwise is patently absurd.
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Nobody is disagreeing with you Shiffman. We have made that criticism ourselves many times on this site.