Pivoting in his chair, the President said, “I’ve asked the Speaker of the House and the Senate Minority Leader to be here as well. What we have to discuss is important and it is now time to begin the congressional coordination aspect of this plan.” Several of the economic advisors glared at the “intruders” in the room, but the president didn’t seem to mind.
“Part of this plan is to put forth not just a new economic plan, but also a fundamental change in the way our country does business and how it runs. There will be no more compromises and no more arguing and debating for months while lobbying groups threaten to pull their support if politicians don’t support or kill a proposal. We were elected to fix the problems that both the Republican and Democrats were unwilling to fix, and fix them we will.”
“Gentlemen, the first of these economic measures being enacted is a complete change and rewrite of the tax code. Let’s face it; the country is broke and we need revenue. We need a fair system that promotes growth while still allowing the government to have the operating capital it needs to provide basic services and fund a military. Monty, will you please pass out the folders to everyone?”
The silence in the room was broken as each person received their packet and began to frantically rustle through the papers. This noise did not bother Henry in the least, and he continued on undistracted.
“I want you all to look over this information and to provide us with your thoughts on it; this folder contains the details of the economic plan, and is going to be used as a rough template for putting the country back to work. It is by no means the complete answer to all of our problems, but I believe it will be part of the solution.”
“Mr. President,” interjected the Senate Majority Leader Joyce Landrew (D), “I think you are trying to pursue too aggressive of a program. You haven’t even given your State of the Union address and frankly, I’m not sure there will be enough support in the Senate to take this forceful of an approach.” Joyce Landrew was your typical idealistic California liberal who believed the government was the answer to all of the people’s problems and that the ills of the poor could be solved if the rich would just pay their fair share.
“Senator Landrew, if you feel the proposals I am making are too radical, you are welcome to oppose them, but they will be pushed through in the Congress and you will either be with us and part of the solution, or be a part of the problem. Either way, these changes are going to happen with or without your support. The American people are tired of politicking; they are tired of leaders who will not lead and who only say what needs to be said to be elected. The Freedom Party is different, and you are about to see that difference now that the new Congress has been sworn in.”
Senator Landrew didn’t reply out loud, but in her head she was thinking, “Who does this guy think he is? If he thinks he can go around the Senate, then he is in for one nasty surprise.”
President Stein continued, “As I stated before, the first step of the plan is to reform the tax code. We need to start generating income and we need to start encouraging growth again; unemployment is hovering near 23 % and that is intolerable. The first order the Congress will take up when they come into session on Monday is the tax code. We will effectively eliminate the existing code and restart it with a new one, a much simpler tax code that will bring in more taxes while evening the playing field.”
Tax reform had been discussed by previous Presidential administrations and Congressional leaders with little actual reform being done. The Federal deficit had continued to climb at an exponential rate until it had surpassed $40 trillion, at this point the money in the Social Security trust fund was now being used to buy government bonds to offset the record deficit spending.
“The plan calls for a 10 % tax on all income earners and a 10 % sales tax on all goods purchased, with the exception of food and medicine. Corporations will pay a flat 10 % (with no deductions) and any corporation caught not paying their 10 % share will be fined by having to pay a 20 % tax for the following three years. The days of corporations not paying their fair share are over. There will also be no further personal deductions; a flat tax of 10 % on all income earners is fair to both the people and the government. There will also be a 5 % debt reduction tax which will be a part of the sin tax on alcohol, tobacco, marijuana and high fructose corn syrup.”
“Excuse me, Mr. President, did you just say corn syrup tax?” asked Sen. Landrew. Even with her freshly Botoxed face, she could not hide her thoughts as her eyebrows raised incredulously.
“Yes I did. As I said during my campaign, one of many issues I stumped on was the health problems associated with high fructose corn syrup. Our people are becoming more and more obese, and this is caused in large part by the use of high fructose corn syrup in virtually everything we eat. I will never advocate banning it outright, but we will tax it in hopes that we can start to change people’s behavior and in time, get the food industry to move away from using it and move back to a more natural sugar,” said the President.
“Well at least he is keeping to one of his campaign promises; I know this will make a lot of people in my district happy as well,” thought Sen. Landrew.
“This new tax structure will allow the government to bring in more revenue and streamline things on businesses and people. The sin tax is going to be the big winner for people; the revenues used from this tax will be used solely for the purpose of paying off the national debt. We estimate that once we begin taxing high fructose corn syrup, we will save billions of dollars a year in healthcare costs associated with poor health from this product while earning an extra $143 Billion dollars a year in new tax revenues. This will go a long way towards paying down the debt.” Other than the sound of shuffling papers, the room was quiet with rapt attention. “The simpler tax code will also eliminate immense amounts of waste at the IRS and allow for job creation. In addition, we will be eliminating numerous tax breaks that corporations and high wealth individuals are currently able to use. The reduction in the capital gains tax from 30 % to 15 % will also generate increased investment here at home, which is greatly needed.”
Since the signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) by President Bill Clinton, America had been losing jobs, manufacturing capability and other advantages America once held to subsequent “free trade” agreements. America always playing by the rules was being economically ripped off for decades by nations who did not value rules like America did. China and the rest of Asia had a particularly strong stranglehold on American manufacturing and the supply of rare earth minerals.
“The most controversial part of the tax plan is the tariffs. If a US corporation like Ford, Apple or GM choose to produce their final product abroad and bring it back into the US, they will pay a tariff equivalent to what it would have cost them to produce that same product in the US. Corporations are no longer going to be able to leverage free trade agreements to ship jobs overseas and then bring those products back into the US and pay no taxes on them. Corporations that also choose to establish their headquarters abroad are free to do so, but any money earned abroad has to be separated from money earned in the US and their US subsidiary if they want to avoid paying taxes. The cases of corporations like General Electric and others paying zero taxes will never happen again with this new tax code,” the President said with conviction.
“You almost sound like a Democrat, Mr. President,” said Speaker Fultz with a chuckle. Congressman George Fultz was a retired Army Colonel. He had joined the Freedom Party in 2029 after getting to know Henry Stein while he was running for Governor of Florida. Henry had recruited George to be one of the first party members to run for Congress and upon being elected, he was made Vice Chairman of the FP. In concert with Stein, he would run the party and focus on recruiting likeminded people to run for political office under the FP banner. Several Congressional members in both the House and Senate also joined the FP, but with strings. They were required to back the party and to not accept any Super Pac or special interest monies.