Why Doesn’t Trump Cut Spending by Executive Order? – Ep. 375

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Abolish the Capital Gains Tax?

If we simply had no capital gains tax, but wen are still taxing the worker on the value of his labor without any deductions whatsoever, I just don’t think that’s a fair system. That’s one of the reasons I would not want to just abolish the capital gains tax. I would want to abolish the entire income tax and go to an indirect tax, such as sales tax or tariffs.  We would obviously have a much smaller government if it had to survive on indirect taxes, on excise taxes. This is what the framers of the  (of the Constitution) originally envisioned.  They thought that direct taxes, like an income tax, would only be used during times of war. That’s why they made it so hard to enact.

Indirect Tax Rather than Direct Tax

During peacetime, the government was supposed to operate on excise taxes.  Of course, the whole idea of income tax to me is inconsistent with free people. Free people do not have to report everything to the government.  They don’t have to fill out paperwork under penalty of perjury and file all these tax returns, keep all these records.  If the government is forcing us to do all this, the government is the master and the people are the servants. That is not what America is supposed to be about.

Is Government the Master and We the Servants?

Of course, the biggest problem I have with the capital gains tax cut is that government spending is not also being cut. So we’re talking about another tax cut without reducing the size of government. Since government spending needs to be paid for, if we’re going to cut the capital gains tax, how are we going to pay for government spending that capital gains taxes used to pay for? Obviously we are going to borrow it. And borrowed money is going to do more damage to the economy than any benefit we get from reducing the capital gains tax.