Rep. Aaron Schock, who may run for governor for next year, but will certainly run for something more than congressman from Peoria someday -- is in favor of a flat tax. Sort of. Actually, he’s in favor of two flat taxes: one for the rich, and one for the rest of us.
Appearing Sunday night on Fox News’s Huckabee, Schock was asked whether it is fair that President Obama paid an 18.4 percent tax rate on the $608,611 he earned in 2012. (This was, however, more than the 14.1 that Mitt Romney paid on a much higher income in 2011.)
No, Schock said, it is not fair:
I think you and I agree it’d be a lot easier if we just had a flat tax -- if everybody just paid the same percent on all their earnings, and we didn’t need to hire a bunch of accountants and tax attorneys to comb through what is now 70,000 pages of tax code to try and take advantage of all kinds of loophole deductions and credits, which allow people like President Obama to pay a lot lower than the top rate of what is now 43 percent…What the Ways and Means Committee would like to do is make it fair: get rid of all the loopholes, get rid of all the fancy code, simplify the tax code, and create two rates -- a top rate of 25 percent, and a bottom rate of 10 percent, and that way, people can fill out their taxes on a postcard.
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Generally, flat taxes are regressive, but in Illinois, Schock’s plan would be a progressive move. Illinois is one of only six states requiring all residents to pay the same tax rate. It’s in our constitution. So when the General Assembly raise taxes from 3 percent to 5 percent, it raised taxes on everyone.
If Schock wants to run for governor on a platform of instituting a two-tier income tax for Illinois -- say, 7.5 percent and 2.5 percent -- that something voters might actually like.
