Letter: Reasons for a flat fed tax rate; why it may not have support

To the Editor,

I want to thank The Oak Ridger for publishing my letter about a couple of ideas about having a fair tax rate, one of which was a 10% across-the-board federal tax rate.

Something I should have also mentioned was that it would ensure the funding of Social Security and Medicare funds for retirement and for disability and would nullify the bizarre custom of threats to the national budget in recent years.

After the letter appeared, I mentioned it to middle-aged members of our family, and the response of one was, “I have always been in favor of a flat-tax rate.” The response of another family member was, “Steve Forbes was for that years ago, but Congress will never do it because it would take away political power from its members.”

This latter statement rings true with the plan released by Congressional Republicans in the Republican Study Committee, made up of 80% of Republicans, to cut Social Security and Medicaid by $1.5 trillion.

Apparently, it proposes to eliminate survivors’ benefits for spouses and children. It revokes Medicare’s power to negotiate lower prices on prescription drugs. (Wonder which contributors to Congressional campaigns want this?) It also proposes increasing the age of retirement, along with cuts to Medicaid affecting children in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) which is also available to the elderly. According to the U.S. Census Bureau senior poverty increased for a million older Americans in 2021. The Republican Study Committee proposal would take away SNAP from older Americans.

It is possible to read more about this would-be plan on the Internet by looking up Republican Study Committee Report ,Republican Study Committee, or Republican Study Committee Membership.

Tennessee representatives on the committee are Scott DesJarlais, Chuck Fleischmann, Mark E. Green, Diana Harshberger, David Kustoff, Andrew Ogle, and John W. Rose.

It is interesting, too, that this proposal was released a week after former President Trump called for Social Security cuts.

It is easy to see now after talking with younger members of my family, why some Congressional members would not be interested in a flat tax rate since that might affect the amount of money they could raise for their campaigns for election. But voting for a flat tax rate might bring votes for re-election.

Virginia M. Jones

Oak Ridge

This article originally appeared on Oakridger: Letter: Reasons for a flat fed tax rate; why it may not have support