Loony Tunes on Tax Policy on the GOP Campaign Trail

link here to article

This article on the chatter from GOP primary hopefuls on tax policy (via Manan Shukla)is par for the course. George Bush ran his primary supporting the flat tax because it was being pushed by his opponent (Forbes) and getting a good response from the GOP base. The concept of fiat currency and advocacy for a return to the gold standard are old chestnuts among the GOP fringe. The GOP primary campaign is designed to attract the loonies who outnumber its wealthy supporters who pay little attention to this nonsense.

I would like to remind my readers that the US tax system is essentially a flat tax system already. We have a progressive income tax system, that has become less progressive, which combined with the regressive payroll tax and regressive state and local taxes results in a relatively flat tax system. One of the reasons for all of this campaign lunacy is that we don't teach our citizens the basics about tax policy and government budgets. That should be required in every high school.