Home
In this issue
Nov. 20, 2009
Rabbi David Aaron: How to make every second of your life come first
Caroline B. Glick: Whither American Jewry
Nov. 19, 2009
Binyamin L. Jolkovsky: Please Listen to this Godcast (5 minutes)
Jonathan Tobin: ADL Crosses the Line with Report Bashing Obama Critics
Nov. 18, 2009
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: What Judaism has to say about the secret of the Mona Lisa's smile
JWisdom.com: The (Jewish) Dating Game with Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff (8 minutes)
Nov. 17, 2009
Steven Emerson: How Does the 4th Amendment Impact Terror Finance Investigations?
JWisdom.com: If Frank Sinatra married Edith Piaf with Rabbi Y.Y. Rubinstein (2 minutes) Life lessons from what would be regarded as the most inappropriate lyrics ever sung
Nov. 16, 2009
The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir : When borrowing is stealing
JWisdom.com: Deconstructing faith with Rabbi Warren Goldstein (9 minutes)
Nov. 13, 2009
JWisdom.com Sarah's subjective reality with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 6 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick: Obama's failure, Netanyahu's opportunity
Nov. 12, 2009
The Kosher Gourmet By Marialisa Calta : A sweet sweet potato treat
JWisdom.com Does God get tired? with Rabbi Harvey Belovski ( 5 minutes)
Nov. 11, 2009
Rabbi Avi Shafran: Jews and money: When anti-Semitism isn't
JWisdom.com Marriages are not made in Heaven with Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff (VERY fast 15 minutes)
Nov. 10, 2009
Michael Doyle: Author of book exposing CAIR ordered to remove supporting documents from Web
JWisdom.com If the creation so loudly shouts the existence of the Creator, why aren't more people believers? with Rabbi Naftali Brawer (9 minutes)
Nov. 9, 2009
Mark Steyn: Shooter exposes hole in U.S. terror strategy
JWisdom.com It's never too late to have a happy childhood with Sarah Chana Radcliffe (5 minutes)
Nov. 6, 2009
Rabbi Berel Wein: Choosing to hear
JWisdom.com Zero to 1/60th: How to Empower An Hour with Gavriel Aryeh Sande (7 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick The mullahs' big week
Suzanne Fields A Fallen Wall for Fallen Man
Nov. 5, 2009
The Kosher Gourmet: Three scrumptious -- but simple -- butternut squash dishes
JWisdom.com Hidden Hints: Unlocking Faith & Prayer with Rabbi Jay Yaacov Schwartz (10 minutes)
Nov. 4, 2009
Tom Hamburger and Kim Geiger: Should prayers be covered?
JWisdom.com When God played peacemaker With Rabbi Sroy Levitansky (5 minutes)
Nov. 3, 2009
Martin Peretz: Beware, Barack. Beware, Rahm. Beware, Axelrod
JWisdom.com Are you are closet idolater? With Sara Yoheved Rigler (10 minutes)
Nov. 2, 2009
Paul Greenberg: The Holocaust is now on Facebook
JWisdom.com Abraham's Strange Change With Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer (5 minutes)
Oct. 29, 2003
Mortimer B. Zuckerman: Graffiti On History's Walls (MUST-READ!)

Jewish World Review Feb. 5, 2008 / 29 Shevat 5768

It's taxing without Rudy

By Tom Purcell


Printer Friendly Version
Email this article

http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | Rudy's gone and now I'm really depressed.


It's winter, you see, a rough time for the self-employed. It's rough because our 1099s — official records of how much our clients paid us the prior year — arrive in the mail.


My 1099s always add up to more than I thought they would. That means my taxes will be higher than I thought they would be, and that depresses me.


And because I'll have to organize and record hundreds of receipts that I keep in a giant box — a task that will take countless hours — I get even more depressed.


But Rudy was going to save me from such woes. His tax-reform plan was the best thing to come down the pike since home-delivered pizza and twist-off beer caps.


Like all the Republican candidates, Rudy was going to extend Bush's tax cuts. He was going to lower the capital-gains tax from 15 to 10 percent and the corporate-tax from 35 to 25 percent.


His ideas would have unleashed investment and economic growth, as lower taxes always do.


But the best part of the Rudy plan had a direct impact on ME: It would have given me the option to keep filing returns under our current nightmarish tax code or voluntarily switch to Rudy's highly simplified tax plan.


Rudy's voluntary plan had three tax brackets of 10, 15 and 30 percent. It provided basic deductions (health insurance, mortgage interest, charitable contributions, state and local income taxes and a $3,500 personal exemption). It was so simple, it required only one piece of paper. An English major could complete it.


But Rudy is gone and his simplified tax plan is gone with him.


It's true all the Republican candidates have tax-reform ideas. According to the Tax Foundation, Ron Paul wants to abolish the IRS and slash spending.


Mike Huckabee wants to abolish the IRS, too, and replace the income tax with a national sales tax — an idea sensible enough that it will never happen as long as we have a Congress.


But Paul and Huckabee have about as much chance of winning the Republican nomination as Teddy Kennedy.


That leaves us with Romney and McCain. Romney would cut the corporate tax rate and eliminate all taxes on interest, dividends and capital gains for folks with incomes below $200,000. He says he'll simplify the tax code, but doesn't explain how.


Ditto for McCain. He says he'll keep Bush's tax cuts in place and simplify tax filing, too, but hasn't said how.


But at least Romney and McCain give lip service to simplification. The Democrat candidates don't even do that. They'd likely make things worse.


Hillary promises to raise taxes right out of the gate — she'll repeal Bush's tax cuts on folks making over $250,000. She has lots of other ideas, but none that will simplify our taxes.


Obama will repeal Bush's tax cuts, too — on the top 1 percent of income earners. He offers one idea to simplify taxes and it's a doozie. He'll have the IRS use your employer-provided financial information to "pre-populate" your tax-return form for you. It should take you only five minutes to complete the rest of your return, he promises.


Don't worry about the IRS making a mistake — that you owe them a couple million, for instance. I'm sure you'll be able to clear up the matter with only a minimal amount of jail time.


That's why I've been depressed since Rudy dropped out of the presidential race.


If only he'd had a better strategy in the primaries, maybe he could have made it to the White House. I had visions of him cleaning up our burdensome tax code the way he did Times Square.


It's all pointless now.


Rudy's gone and his incredibly simple tax plan is gone with him. That means I'll spend countless miserable hours this winter and spring getting my tax affairs in order. I'll worry that a Democrat will win the presidency and that filing will be even harder next year.


Thanks for nothing, Rudy.

Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.

Comment on JWR Contributor Tom Purcell's column, by clicking here. To visit his web site, click here.


ARCHIVES

© 2007, Tom Purcell

Insight (Our Columnists)

 Arnold Ahlert
 Mitch Albom
 Michael Barone
  Dave Barry
 Tony Blankley
 Andy Borowitz
 David Broder
 Stratfor Briefing
 Mona Charen
 Linda Chavez
 Ann Coulter
 Greg Crosby
 Larry Elder
 Suzanne Fields
 John Fund
 Frank J. Gaffney
 Lloyd Garver
 Jonah Goldberg
 Julia Gorin
 Jonathan Gurwitz
 Paul Greenberg
 Lewis Grossberger
 Victor Davis Hanson
 Betsy Hart
 Nat Hentoff
 David Horowitz
 Laura Ingraham
 Cheri Jacobus
Jeff Jacoby
 Paul Johnson
 Jack Kelly
 Ed Koch
 Ch. Krauthammer
 Michael Ledeen
 John Leo
 David Limbaugh
 Kathryn Lopez
 Rich Lowry
 Michelle Malkin
 Jackie Mason
 Dick Morris
 Bill O'Reilly
 Jim Mullen
 Clarence Page
 Kathleen Parker
 Dennis Prager
 Wesley Pruden
 Tom Purcell
 Jonathan Rauch
 Celia Rivenbark
 Robert Robb
 Cokie & Steve Roberts
 Pat Sajak
 Debra J. Saunders
 Culture Shlock
 Roger Simon
 Michael Smerconish
 Thomas Sowell
 Mark Steyn
 John Stossel
 Cal Thomas
 Bob Tyrrell
 Diana West
 Dave Weinbaum
 George Will
 Walter Williams
 Byron York
 Mort Zuckerman

'Toons
 Robert Arial
 Chuck Asay
 Baloo
 Chip Bok
 Dry Bones
  Lisa Benson
 John Branch
 Gary Brookins
 John Cole
 J. D. Crowe
 John Deering
 Brian Duffy
 Everything's Relative
 Mallard Fillmore
 Jake Fuller
 Bob Gorrel
 Joe Heller
 David Hitch
 Jerry Holber
 Steve Kelley
 Jeff Koterba
 Dick Locher
 Chan Lowe
 Ranan R. Lurie
 Jimmy Margulies
 Rick McKee
 Michael Ramirez
 Kevin Siers
 Jeff Stahler
 Ed Stein
 Danna Summers
 John Trever
 Gary Varvel
 Kirk Walters

Lifestyles
 How 2
 Lori Borgman
 The Savvy Consumer
 Elder matters
 Fixit
 Dr. Peter Gott
 GET A JOB! by Marty Nemko
 Richard Lederer
 Tech Maven
 Every Monday Matters
 Nutrition Myths
 Bookmark These
 Bruce Williams
 How Stuff Works