The tax debate Wisconsin needs

Originally Published in WisPolitics

The topic of tax reform is top of mind these days in Wisconsin. The latest manufactured scandal surrounds a conservative proposal that acknowledges the virtues of a lower, flatter tax code. As expected, the proposal earned the immediate scorn of the radical Left. The sin? Proposing “massive tax reform to get more money in people’s pockets” and firmly standing opposed to raising taxes “on anyone.” That’s a shame because the Badger State could use a good debate on how to reform taxes to improve growth. But scaremongering about tax cuts has become the Left’s calling card, and, unfortunately, some others have been cowered into sustaining the status quo by false rhetoric about tax cuts being a sop to the rich.

The argument about lower, flatter tax rates only benefiting the rich is simple to the point of being simple-minded — and deeply wrong. The argument is essentially this: people who earn more money face larger tax bills, so if we cut tax rates, their tax bills fall by more than people who earn and pay less. First of all, the idea that such basic arithmetic is supposed to be fatal to the prospects for tax reform is rooted thoroughly in a class warfare mentality, and this simple logic works in the opposite direction as well. Is there any limit to how high taxes should be if their primary virtue is to sock it to the “undeserving” rich? The more the tax code becomes a vehicle to penalize success and redistribute the plunder instead of raising revenues in the least economically damaging way possible, the more that America will lose its identity as a beacon for producers and creators, and the dimmer prospects will become for prosperity.

Read The Full Article in WisPolitics