Republicans Want to Eliminate the U.S. Income Tax They Invented. Yup, It's True...

https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/january-18-2023

Thank you Heather Cox Richardson for keeping us informed about how the past informs the present:

'One of the promises House speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) made to the extremist members of the Republican conference to win his position was that he would let them bring the so-called Fair Tax Act to the House floor for a vote....The measure repeals all existing income taxes, payroll taxes, and estate and gift taxes, replacing them with a flat national sales tax of 30% on all purchased goods, rents, and services.

The bill says the measure will “promote freedom, fairness, and economic opportunity.”...But a 30% sales tax on everything doesn’t seem to do much for fairness or economic opportunity for all, since it would, of course, hit Americans with less money to spend far harder than it would Americans with more money to spend...

But the measure is illuminating. It explicitly rejects the position, and the principles, of the original Republican Party....Members of the Republican Party invented the U.S. income tax during the Civil War, and they created the precursor to the IRS to collect it....Such a bill is not going to pass this Congress, and if it did, President Biden would not sign it.'