| Stroke of Genius |
12 May 2003
|
Uncle Sam to Tax Ex-Pats More
While trying to give the country a tax cut of marginal value, Congress is also trying to retain some credibility as a fiscally responsible place. This means finding sources of revenue that won't squeal when squeezed. Someone has an overly ambitious staffer because there is a movement on Capitol Hill to increase the tax of Americans living abroad; the only flaw is ex-pats don't have billions to take.
"Don't tax you, and don't tax me. Tax the feller behind that tree," goes the old Washington saw, and this one is just that. No American legislator can get away with suggesting taxes ought to be raised, even when they should be. Such is the victory of the troglodyte right in fiscal policy. However, American citizens are still responsible to the US government for their taxes, and they have trouble organizing when they don't live at home. Moreover, there is a part of the American body politic that views these folks as traitors, so by all means tax them.
The trouble is, of course, that there are very few billionaires in the world and very few of them are Americans who live outside the US. Confiscatory levels of taxation, which probably would pass Congress in its current mood, might then allow for a hefty tax cut for the rest.
As an alternative, Kensington would like to amend the suggestion. Perhaps if all non-Americans living abroad were taxed, America would be able to do all it wished. Keeping Iraq's oil wealth is the next idea.