A Republican Describes GOP Tax Policy

Bruce Bartlett is a Republican who has served in several GOP administrations. In this article he provides some of the GOP approaches to tax reform beginning with Reagan. This is an interesting history that refutes some of the GOP talking points about tax policy. The most important take away from this article, however, is that he tells us what the GOP goal is for tax policy. They really hate the progressive income tax which imposes a higher tax rate as income increases. They really want a flat tax system in which everyone is subject to the same tax rate.

This is not discussed in this article but the total tax system in the US already a fairly flat tax system. The federal income tax is somewhat progressive, but the rest of the tax system is regressive. That is the tax rate falls as income rises. The most prominent example is the social security tax. There is no tax on income above $108,000. That means that the tax rate on earned income is lower as income rises above the cap. Furthermore, sales taxes and most state and local taxes are also regressive.