RUSH: Charlie in Omaha, Nebraska. Welcome to the EIB Network. Great to have you here.
CALLER: Hi, Rush. Mega dittos. It’s actually Carly.
RUSH: Carly, sorry about that. You’re right.
CALLER: That’s okay. So I want to tell you, I started as a huge Obama supporter. I voted in every election since I was 18 years old, and then when I was online one day I took a test that was telling you what candidate you should vote for because I was trying to decide between Obama and Hillary, and then much to my surprise the top three candidates that came up were Mitt Romney, Ron Paul, and McCain, and I kind of had this sort of identity crisis, so does that mean I’m not a Democrat? What am I? So I was searching, like you said, for a leader and I really felt during that election there wasn’t a leader that I found identified with my values. So luckily enough I stumble on to you. Even though I get a lot of flak for listening to you, I love you to death. And, you know, so now my eyes are opened and I have a lot to learn and I listen to you and like I’ve heard you say before, you don’t need to go out and read or do anything, just listen to you and we’ll know all we need to know. I’ve always wanted to call and talk to you. But today you’re talking about we need a leader. Yes, I want a leader. There’s no leader out there for me to look to. I had a question. You know, I used to work for Herman Cain. I worked for Godfather’s Pizza, that’s, you know, in Omaha, Nebraska.
RUSH: Right.
CALLER: And I’ve always loved him, what he supported, you know, I got to work with him directly and still keep in contact with him. What do you think of him as a leader? I have so many questions for you, but I guess, you know, I’ll start with that.
RUSH: I love Herman Cain. He’s obviously a leader. Herman Cain led Godfather’s Pizza, he’s great guy, fine guy, played golf with him. No, I haven’t, I’ve not played golf with him. (laughing)
CALLER: You say that about everyone. (laughing)
RUSH: (laughing) I just love to tweak ’em out there. This is the point. We have a lot of great potential leaders out there. In a better world Herman Cain would be seen as one of our foremost candidates. He’s a guy who’s got it all.
CALLER: Right. Absolutely. Okay, so can I ask you another question?
RUSH: Yeah.
CALLER: We’re talking about solving the economic problems and here on the local radio stations, the conservative radio they talk about flat taxes. And what do you think about that?
RUSH: What do I think about flat taxes?
CALLER: Hm-hm.
RUSH: I like flat tax, FairTax. I like it. The current tax system is not productive. It’s a joke. It’s rife with favoritism. It’s rife with opportunities for fraud. It’s so complicated nobody can figure it out.
CALLER: Right.
RUSH: Nobody knows whether they’re violating the law every time they file their return or not. It’s confusing as it can be, by design. The tax code, Carly, you have to understand the tax code is used as the greatest form of social architecture the government has, and that’s why they’re not gonna give up the power of going flat tax. Nobody is now. If you hear a politician campaign on it, be very, very insistent that they are serious and not just mouthing the words. But it’s going to take more than one person to make that happen. The entire lobbying industry is built around the tax code and we are talking trillions aggregately of dollars. It is built around the tax code and rewriting it and massaging it each and every year. Politicians use it to structure society, to grant favors or to punish opponents.
The tax code is one of the single greatest sources of power elected officials in Washington have. And with a flat tax, politicians would have to use their own money to buy votes. Right now they can use the federal Treasury to buy votes. With a flat tax, with no complication, very simple, here’s what you make, here’s the rate you owe, send it in, one page. It would be really difficult to camouflage a whole lot of government spending as slush funds. I mean politicians buy votes these days with the tax code. They buy votes with government programs. The simpler the tax code becomes, the fewer government programs there are related to it, and the fewer votes you can buy. It’s a way of saying that the tax code today is an insidious device of power maintenance. It is not at all about raising revenue to fund the government. That’s the last thing it’s concerned with. And, of course, the flat tax idea and the FairTax is all oriented toward creating revenue to run the government. But that’s not what the tax code’s about. That’s not what it’s evolved to at all, and don’t anybody try to tell me it is.
Nobody cares a whit how much money is raised via the tax code. If it is not enough we’ll just borrow it. If it’s not enough we’ll just spend it. The tax code is used to reward and punish, to shape, to motivate, inspire, whatever, social architecture. Asking these guys to vote to give that up would be akin to getting Hu Jintao to sign over the ChiComs to a totally market-based capitalist system. It is not saying we shouldn’t aim for it and go to it. I just want to be honest with you here about what it is. It’s easy to say you’re for a flat tax, and I am, I’m much for simplification, fairer, everything else. I’d be happy to pay taxes 20% of what it is, 15% and be done with it. Everybody would. And, by the way, the amount of revenue that would be generated going that way would double. If people got to keep 80 cents of every dollar they earned, you would not believe all the new income that would be discovered — that wouldn’t be hidden, that wouldn’t be sheltered. My God, the government would make out like bandits. But that’s not the purpose of the tax code. I gotta go. Carly, I’m glad you called.
END TRANSCRIPT
*Note: Links to content outside RushLimbaugh.com usually become inactive over time.