Issues for Candidates

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Issues for Candidates

What are the issues being debated today, or better yet, what should those issues be? What’s being talked about and what should be talked about are not necessarily one in the same. Decisions are being ‘made’ in the press, social media and around the dining room table with little scientific basis and heavily weighted on who your candidate is and what they say. (Or what your interpretation of that may be.)

It’s safe to say that many of the following would be included in your top 15: immigration, healthcare, global warming, civil unions, international politics, racial profiling, poverty and minimum wage. How about tax reform? Would that even make the top 25?

Most avoid this issue because it’s tough to have an opinion on, or debate something that has become too difficult to understand. The sad truth is that none of issues above can be tackled without major structural changes to our tax code. Why?

First, taxes are boring to talk about. Second, major reform would upset the power base and produce more disruption than all of the other subjects mentioned above combined. And last, it’s much simpler for the candidates to kick the can down the road, blame the other side and keep the population focused on something a little bit sexier.

The solution? A simpler, flat tax that is easier to understand and more progressive across the board. Americans need to be taught that simple is better, if no other reason than it would expose inefficiency and significantly reduce those that are really being rewarded from today’s convoluted tax structure.

In a nation that bears many double standards, perhaps the most ironic is that we hold our children and teachers to high standards in mathematics, but not those that have created a national debt and unfunded liability in excess of $110 trillion dollars.

So prior to debating any further, let’s ask how we will pay for all of what’s being proposed. Because our grandchildren’s assets have already been spent.

Mark Schuster, CEO & Founder
turnKey Taxes, Inc.

September 7, 2015

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