Forbes Flat Tax = Recycled Republican three card monte

Michael Kinsley does his usual excellent job of skewering another of the right-wings' "newly recycled" big ideas. The flat tax is pure propaganda of the type that makes it seem "simple is better", when in fact "simple" is just not in line with the complexity of the types of income many taxpayers have. Here is a sample from his LA Times article:

"The flat tax is a game of three-card monte that deliberately confuses the issues of simplicity, fairness and the total tax burden on society. A simpler tax system would be a very good thing: good for the economy, and good for everyone's sanity. But contrary to what Forbes would have you believe, progressive tax rates 'higher taxes on higher incomes ' aren't what make the current system so complicated. It's as easy to multiply by 40% as it is to multiply by 17%. Even Republicans can easily do it - or hire someone to do it for them, if necessary.

The complications come in defining and calculating income. Some of the complications are unavoidable because people and companies have complicated affairs. The day may come when you can file your income tax on a postcard (millions come close even today, with the sorta-simple 1040EZ), but that day will never arrive for Steve Forbes. As for the unnecessary complications, most of them were not put there by people or interest groups pushing for higher taxes and bigger government. Quite the opposite: The complications are mostly special rules for people or companies trying to lower their taxes."

Steve Forbes is pushing this for two reasons. First it because he still has political ambitions, and second is because his income is not like that of most of us, income from wages for work. The flat tax would be a personal windfall for him and his class of people.

Forbes' reaction to that statment is going to be something along the line of "Well, then everyone should be like I am." Typically Republican self-centeredism. Thank God most of us aren't like him.