Dear President Donald Trump, Treasury Sec. Steve Mnuchin, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Speaker Paul Ryan, Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Sen. Bernie Sanders:
I can save the Treasury Department and its tax collection agency, the Internal Revenue Service, a lot of work and headaches with a slight revision to our federal tax code with your help and that of your colleagues in Congress.
I am NOT Santa Claus, but since it is Christmas and Chanukah time, I’d like to give every working American a big raise by lowering their taxes. Congress, let’s try the KISS principle: Keep It Simple, Stupid! Replace the personal income tax, which unfairly burdens and punishes working people, with my 1-percent solution: a 1 percent tax on real estate, luxuries like yachts, fancy cars, jewelry and expensive art purchases, stocks, bonds and cash deposits. Tangible assets cannot be hidden by secretive law firms on a small island in the Caribbean.
And Congress, please give us retired workers struggling to survive on Social Security a retroactive cost of living increase, equal to what you members of Congress have been giving yourselves and federal employees all these years.
At least give us enough to buy a few cups of senior coffee at McDonald’s! That coffee is nice and warm at Christmas time!
Merry Christmas and Happy Chanukah!
Your friend, Gary J. Minter (one of the “Little People” who pays taxes)
Gary J. Minter is a former vendor and artist for Street Sense Media, now living in Las Vegas.
