Gov. Bobby Jindal (La.) proposed Wednesday to force all households to pay a few income tax, taking the opposite approach of candidates ahead of him in the GOP presidential race.
Advertisement
In a written statement, Jindal repeated a familiar far-right talking point: “We simply must require that every American has a few skin in this game”. Jindal would also move to a “territorial taxation system” in dealing with coprorations, which would include “a one-time 8 percent forever tax rate [that] would be imposed on income earned overseas”. Currently, around 45 percent of American citizens don’t pay federal income taxes, either because they don’t make enough money or because they qualify for federal income tax deductions and exemptions.
Jindal will announce his plan in Iowa, the Journal reported. Lower income people who don’t now pay federal income tax would be more likely to pay something under the governor’s tax proposal. ObamaCare tax increases would be eliminated as well.
Jindal’s eggs are all in the Iowa basket, so he has to be competitive there.
He would scrap itemized deductions, except for a few of the biggest and politically sensitive, such as those for charitable contributions and mortgage interest, the newspaper said. “Jindal is going the other way”.
Jindal also seeks to overhaul the earned income tax credit, which would be transferred to the payroll tax, and the exclusion for employee health insurance, which would become a deduction for insurance costs whether provided by an employer or not. On its own, the Louisiana governor’s plan would add $9 trillion to the deficit over a decade, according to projections included with the proposal.
If nothing else, his plan will help Jindal draw an important distinction between his platform and his rivals’.
Jindal estimates his changes would reduce federal tax revenue by 22 percent over 10 years, the Journal reported.
Advertisement
“On Sunday, as I was driving in Des Moines, I actually saw my very first “Jindal ’16” bumper sticker on a vehicle parked outside of a Catholic church”, said Henderson.
