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<A HREF="http://www.zolatimes.com/V2.43/pageone.html">Laissez Faire City Times
- Volume 2 Issue 43</A>
The Laissez Faire City Times
December 21, 1998 - Volume 2, Issue 43
Editor & Chief: Emile Zola
-----
A Taxing Impeachment
by Jack Ryan
Life is chock full of little things we all take for granted. We expect
our automobiles to start each morning; our house keys will unlock our
doors as advertised; Janet Reno will turn down yet another independent
counsel request; and President Clinton would immolate himself on
national television before he would let a inkling of the truth pass his
lips. We also know that each payday, Uncle Sugar will collect his fair
share of the king's coin for his bottomless coffers.
Taxes and death are unavoidable. Each April 15th, roughly 100 million
Americans grab their ankles whilst Washington DC performs a fiscal
rectal examination. Most Americans have the IRS so far up their keesters
that they can't take a corner too quickly for fear of breaking a tax
collector's hand. Americans need relief, and Preparation H isn't the
answer. Looking at the last Congress, I've finally accepted the fact
that the only way I'll see my taxes lowered is by dying. Even then,
nothing is set in stone. If the government will dig up some poor slob
mistakenly buried at Arlington, what's to keep them from bulldozing my
grave, just to extract and melt down my gold crowns?
No one is safe, not even in the hereafter (wherever that may take you).
For most of us, death comes only once. Taxes are a daily part of life.
Basically, it's paying yourself into poverty on the installment plan.
Each election, Americans go to the polls with an eye on the candidate
who espouses lower taxes and less government intrusion. After each
election, the tax issue seems to get lost in the day-to-day clutter.
Certainly, there are Republicans in Congress with an eye on lowering
taxes, but any bill containing across-the-board cuts in not only federal
income taxes, but capital gains taxes as well, would be dead on arrival
in the Clinton White House. Mr. Clinton has never been about lowering
the tax burden on the average American. Bill Clinton, the ultimate
tax-and-spend Democrat, was dragged kicking and screaming into a
balanced budget deal. The president now trumpets that it is "his"
balanced budget deal--a claim that is more sizzle than steak. The truth
is that the American economy is booming not because of the president,
but in spite of him. A booming economy also means larger tax revenues.
Ronald McDonald could have been sitting in the Oval Office these six
years and have achieved the same economic results. In a way, maybe Mr.
McDonald was.
I was talking with a good friend of mine the other day about Mr.
Clinton's current troubles. My friend, a dyed-in-the-wool Democrat, put
forth a very interesting theory on how the president could stave off the
impeachment parade. His theory was this: If Mr. Clinton is really
serious about saving his hide from Hyde, he'd be well advised to table a
massive, across- the-board tax cut--now--not in January's State of the
Union address. Moreover, he could also propose a detailed plan for
scrapping the current tax code and propose instituting an 16 percent
flat tax, which in effect would also disassemble the hated marriage
penalty . His take was that--in one fell swoop--Mr. Clinton's popularity
would shoot from roughly 75 percent to 99 percent almost overnight. If
the Republican's think it's tough to impeach a guy with Mr. Clinton
current numbers, they'd positively faint at the poll numbers if Mr.
Clinton proposed this massive tax reduction plan.
Besides, said my friend, haven't we heard from day one that the
president's popularity stems from economic and not personal issues? Tax
cuts are about as economic as it gets.
The more I digested this theory, the more intriguing it became.
Certainly, there were more holes in it than a slice of Swiss cheese.
One--and most importantly--it would probably save Mr. Clinton's sorry
keester from being run out of town on a greased rail. Secondly, Mr.
Clinton has, for the last six years, been a veritable Santa Claus when
it comes to passing out goodies just to bump the poll numbers. No one
trusts his word, and suspicion Republicans would quickly castrate the
plan as a budget buster. Besides, Dick Armey, Steve Forbes and Jack Kemp
have submitted their own such propositions--and caught heavy flack from
a White House positively opposed to any flat tax plan. For Mr. Clinton
to submit such a proposal now would be seen as a cynical attempt to
curry favor with conservative GOP'ers and the public at large (as if
that's front page news). Moreover, it would infuriate the Dems. If
nothing else, Mr. Clinton desperately needs every last Democrat he can
muster for the upcoming impeachment vote.
But my friend's suggestion provided an interesting intellectual exercise
in one respect: to what lengths would Mr. Clinton go to save his
presidency? Is it more important to curry favor with the GOP, or would
it better serve him to cultivate as much support as possible with uneasy
Democrats?
If the impeachment hearings have been any indication, nothing is set in
stone. The eddies and currents of the impeachment waters seemed to shift
from one moment to the next. Watching Mr. Clinton's impeachment hearings
in the House Judiciary Committee had a surreality to it that smacked of
dream stuff. On the right, the GOP argued that the president committed
perjury and must be impeached. On the left, the Democrats argued
conversely that Mr. Clinton might have indeed lied under oath, but even
if he did, it's not serious enough to warrant impeachment. The bottom
line is that the GOP may muscle the impeachment articles through the
full House, despite Democratic support for this week's "Wag the Dog"
maneuvers. Then it would be a matter for the Senate. That's where a tax
proposal could help. The sedate and gentlemanly Senate appears more
sensitive to polling numbers than does the raucous scrappers in the
House of Representatives.
A Clinton flat tax plan is deviously interesting in several ways. Forget
a bump in the polls. Whether Mr. Clinton survives or not, Al Gore could
quickly latch onto the tax plan and carry it with him to the 2000
elections. That would effectively nullify Steve Forbes' viability. With
Gore already ensconced as the number two guy in the White House--ready
to assume office with a fully flushed-out flat tax plan--Mr. Forbes
would have to further define himself outside purely economic issues. Mr.
Forbes has always been about tax issues, at least as far as the American
media is concerned. A Clinton-Gore move to usurp that position would
seriously weaken Forbes' attractiveness to voters who are interested in
his position on the flat tax issue.
Like the guy on a Mardi Gras float, Mr. Clinton is the master of
throwing out small, inexpensive trinkets. The baubles look great, but
are worthless underneath. A flat tax plan, announced now, would be a
substantive jewel with enough teeth to be seen as a serious initiative.
Before anyone accuse me of turning in my conservative card for purely
economic reasons, rest easy. Unlike my friend, I do not think it is Mr.
Clinton who should table a tax plan. The Republicans should do it.
Now.
I believe Mr. Clinton will still be standing at the end of the day when
the dust settles from the (probable, as of Wednesday, Dec. 16) upcoming
Senate hearings. Certainly he will be crippled, and most assuredly his
lame duck status will cripple him even further. But we know that Mr.
Clinton is a master at PR, so that leaves him two more years to bash the
GOP on a variety of issues prior to the 2000 elections. That leaves him
two more years to steal GOP initiatives to pass on to his heir
presumptive, Al Gore. If the GOP were smart, they would jump on the flat
tax plan with both feet; regain the initiative before--as my friend
would like to see--Clinton or the Democrats can steel the thunder. The
GOP can shine their buckles on the tax issue, and gain the upper hand by
attracting voters interested in purely back-pocket issues.
More importantly, with a long drawn-out impeachment trial looming in the
Senate, the public would have something to focus on other than the
day-in and day-out GOP bashing in the mainstream media. Furthermore,
with Mr. Clinton's political capital in bankruptcy proceedings, the
Republicans could virtually ram a flat tax and capital gains tax-cut
plan down the throats of the Democrat minority. A post-impeachment Bill
Clinton would be powerless to stop it.
The Republican Party has always been about lower taxes. They need to put
mouth where money is. "It's the tax- cut stupid", should be 1999's
mantra. Money talks. BS walks.
The GOP needs to start talking.
-30-
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jack Ryan is a freelance writer. His most recent screenplay "And Hell
Came with Him" is currently being packaged for pre-production on the
Left Coast. Email:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
from The Laissez Faire City Times, Vol 2, No 43, Dec. 21, 1998
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Laissez Faire City Times is a private newspaper. Although it is
published by a corporation domiciled within the sovereign domain of
Laissez Faire City, it is not an "official organ" of the city or its
founding trust. Just as the New York Times is unaffiliated with the city
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information about LFC, please contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Published by
Laissez Faire City Netcasting Group, Inc.
Copyright 1998 - Trademark Registered with LFC Public Registrar
All Rights Reserved
-----
Aloha, He'Ping,
Om, Shalom, Salaam.
Em Hotep, Peace Be,
Omnia Bona Bonis,
All My Relations.
Adieu, Adios, Aloha.
Amen.
Roads End
Kris
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