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Relief is in sight
By Paul G. Jaehnert

 

November 27, 2007
Tuesday AM


For those low-wage earners who are having trouble keeping a roof over their head and putting meals on the table, relief is in sight.

All one has to do is follow the lead of Minnesota congresswoman, Michele Bachmann.

For starters, Michele would scrap the federal income tax and replace it with a federal sales tax, estimated to be somewhere between 23%-30%. Since a sales tax is a tax on consumption, only those who purchase something would pay that tax; unearned income, that is monies accumulated from investments (now taxed at half the rate of earned income), would not be taxed.

Now here's the beauty of it all. Since minimum-wage earners are barely able to purchase much of anything as it is, the money they would save by not purchasing food, clothing and shelter could be applied towards private retirement, health care and college tuition savings accounts that Michele envisions will replace Social Security, Medicare and government financial support for education.

Just think of the opportunities for minimum-wage workers. Now all they have to do is re-examine their investment portfolios and buy their stocks in the petroleum, insurance and pharmaceutical industries.

Paul G. Jaehnert
Vadnais Hts., MN

Received November 26, 2007 - Published November 27, 2007

 

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