Ted Cruz: It’s Time to Abolish the IRS

Hewitt kicked things off by asking Senator Cruz about a recent op-ed he wrote in the Wall Street Journal advocating a 10% flat tax on ALL income. 

Cruz argued that to spur economic growth and job recovery the US needed to embrace tax reform, and, more specifically, that we needed to simplify our complex tax code. 

Cruz said that a 10% flat tax on all income after the first $36,000 on individuals and a 16% flat tax on all business income would help our economy to once again thrive. 
 
Cruz added that, as President, he would also cut spending and regulations while guiding our nation back toward sound money.

All in all, Cruz’s economic plan is a sound comprehensive move back toward financial sanity, fiscal responsibility and economic prosperity. 

Cruz’s economic plan is the best plan put forward by any of the presidential candidates thus far, and it sets a high bar for his competitors to reach.

Well, it is a simple flat tax. And so for a family of four, the first $36,000 in income, you pay zero taxes – zero income tax, zero payroll tax, zero nothing. Beyond that, everyone pays a flat 10%, and that applies across the board so that the hedge fund billionaire pays the same rate as his secretary instead of paying less, as they often do now…

In addition to the 10% flat tax on individuals, there’s a 16% business flat tax. Not it applies to all businesses, whether giant corporations or small mom and pops, and it’s simply, it is business revenue net capital investments and expenditures. And those two taxes together fund the entire tax system. 

And again, one of the great advantages of the business flat tax right now, you have giant corporations that have armies of accountants and lobbyists that sometimes end up paying little or no taxes. 

With a 16% business flat tax, every company pays the same tax rate. It is fair across the board and applies uniformly to everyone.

Partial Transcript from the Hugh Hewitt show:

Hugh Hewitt: Well, I’m going to try and right the ship from last week by sticking to economics, because you published on the day of the disastrous debate a tax plan in the Wall Street Journal, which really ought to have driven the debate that night. Let’s tell people about the central aspect of the Ted Cruz tax plan.

Ted Cruz: Well, it is a simple flat tax. And so for a family of four, the first $36,000 in income, you pay zero taxes – zero income tax, zero payroll tax, zero nothing. Beyond that, everyone pays a flat 10%, and that applies across the board so that the hedge fund billionaire pays the same rate as his secretary instead of paying less, as they often do now.

Hugh Hewitt: That has great appeal. I am curious, though, about the VAT tax side on businesses, so I thought you were going to get there next, so I’m sorry for interrupting you.

Ted Cruz: That’s exactly where I’m going. In addition to the 10% flat tax on individuals, there’s a 16% business flat tax. Not it applies to all businesses, whether giant corporations or small mom and pops, and it’s simply, it is business revenue net capital investments and expenditures. And those two taxes together fund the entire tax system. And again, one of the great advantages of the business flat tax right now, you have giant corporations that have armies of accountants and lobbyists that sometimes end up paying little or no taxes. With a 16% business flat tax, every company pays the same tax rate. It is fair across the board and applies uniformly to everyone.

Hugh Hewitt: What is the revenue impact of the Cruz tax plan? Is it revenue neutral, revenue positive, revenue negative?

Ted Cruz: It is not revenue neutral, so that the non-partisan Tax Foundation scored the plan, as they have for everyone whose introduced their plan in a static picture, which is assuming contrary to reality that there are no growth effects. This is a $3.6 trillion dollar tax cut, so it is a tax cut from current rates. When you factor in economic growth, and over ten years, this ends up reducing tax revenue about $760 billion dollars, so it is less than a trillion. It is, in terms of the impact on the budget, much, much smaller than many of the other plans introduced by other candidates. But the thing that is powerful about this, Hugh, is the growth effect. The Tax Foundation shows that this 10% flat tax, which allows you to abolish the IRS, move to a simple flat tax, would produce 4.9 million new jobs over the next decade, that it would increase capital investment by 44% over the next decade, that wages would go up, and critically, for every single income bracket, from the very poorest to the very richest, every income decile would see at least a 14% increase in after-tax income, which to put specifics on that, if you’re a single mom, you’re making $40,000 a year, struggling to provide for your kids, a 14% increase means an additional $5,600 dollars a year after taxes. That is real money to transform the ability for you to provide for your family, and I think it’s why a simple 10% flat tax that abolishes the IRS is such a powerful growth machine.

Hugh Hewitt: Will the deficit go deeply red in the first couple of years of the Cruz tax plan before those so-called growth effects kick in?

Ted Cruz: It will not, and listen, this is designed to occur in conjunction with regulatory reform, in conjunction with pulling back federal regulations and sound money. And if you look to the Reagan model, when Reagan did that, part of the reason it took a while for the Reagan tax cuts to take effect is they were phased in. So they didn’t really kick in until ’83. And by ’84, the economy was booming, growing 7.2% a year. My simple flat tax was designed in close consultation with Art Laffer, who as you know, was Reagan’s economic advisor who helped designed those, the Reagan tax cuts. And this is a plan designed to get back to the kind of booming economic growth that not only gets more and more people jobs, not only raises their wages, but ends up increasing government revenue, because a booming economy means you pay less on welfare, less on unemployment, less on food stamps, and you’re making more on taxes from people actually working and providing for their families.