OLSON: Hardworking American taxpayers deserve better

America’s national debt sits above a staggering $19 trillion. That’s math we literally can’t even begin to comprehend, yet it’s not hard to understand why we should worry. Many of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle think the solution to our debt crisis is to raise taxes. According to the Joint Committee on Taxation, President Obama’s final budget calls for a $2.1 trillion tax increase on the American people. As we know, liberals’ solution to most problems is to take more money away from hard working Americans to spend as they see fit. I strongly disagree.

Americans are already taxed too much at every level because government has grown too large. We must cut spending and make government more efficient. We have a bloated Internal Revenue Service that has stooped to targeting citizens for their political beliefs instead of helping them navigate the maze of tax regulations forced upon them. The best solution is to eliminate the tax code altogether and replace it with a simple and fair tax rate.

That’s why I co-sponsored H.R. 25, the Fair Tax Act. This bill would establish a national sales tax that would scrap the entire tax code and replace it with a tax paid up front at the point of purchase. Under the Fair Tax Act, Americans keep every dime of their paycheck. Rather than pay an income tax, we would be taxed on purchases we choose to make. This system makes it harder to game the system and avoid paying taxes through loopholes. It also provides exemptions for purchases up to the poverty level to protect those most in need. Most importantly, the Fair Tax would take power away from the government and put it back into the hands of individual Americans and make April 15th just another day of the year, not the annual nightmare we face today.

Tell Congress: Pass the Fair Tax Act of 2015! Sign the petition.