Host Neal Asbury opened his nationally syndicated “Neal Asbury’s Made in America” show on Radio America (now on 70 stations) by wondering how IRS commissioner Lois Lerner could continue to ignore subpoenas from the Congressional Oversight Committee dealing with the IRS’s partisan scandal of unfairly targeting conservative groups for political reasons. Neal also wondered how there can be no repercussions for Harry Reid after lying about whether Mitt Romney correctly filed his tax returns.
Made in America welcomed back Peter Morici, Jr., an American economist and Professor of International Business at the R.H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland, College Park.
Morici contends that the IRS is deeply flawed, especially when tax filers cannot get anyone from the IRS to even answer their tax questions over the phone because many IRS managers have been assigned to investigate conservative tax returns.
“The IRS won’t change unless there is enough national outrage. Other industrialized countries limit tax problems by relying more on consumption taxes than income taxes. The most efficient solution would junk income taxes altogether in favor of a simple national sales tax—a valued added tax similar to one applied in much of Europe. It could ask companies and people to answer three simple questions: What was your revenue? What were your costs? Now pay 12 percent on the difference. It could be printed on the back of an envelope,” contends Morici.
He suggests that this 12 percent sales tax could exceed the $1.7 trillion collected by the revenue department.
Neal and co-host Dr. Rich Roffman agreed with the consumption tax concept.
“It’s fair and it makes sense. The more you make and the more you spend, the more you pay in taxes. Everybody saves money, including small businesses,” noted Neal.
Dr. Roffman added that a consumption tax crosses across all socio-economic classes. It also would result in the many people who don’t pay income taxes to pay their fair share.
Joining the Made in America discussion was return guest Hughey Newsome from Project 21, who agreed with Neal’s contention that estate taxes are punishing minorities just as they are starting to accumulate wealth; and these taxes should be eliminated.
“The U.S. has the 4th highest estate taxes in the world. And if Obama has his way in modifying these taxes, the U.S. will take over the number one spot when it comes to estate taxes,” said Neal.
Newsome proposed that as inter-generational wealth increases – wealth passed from one generation to the next – it severely impacts black estates that are 10 times more likely to lose their wealth than white estates.
“As much as I’d like to see estate taxes disappear, it’s not practical to see them voted out in the near future but they need to be studied in the hopes that the Left can be convinced to end these taxes,” concluded Newsome.
In introducing the final guest on Made in America, Patrick Michaels, an energy expert with the Cato Institute, Neal revealed that the EPA is planning to change the carbon emission standards for coal-fired plants in West Virginia that will kill 38,000 jobs and cause a 25 percent increase in electricity rates.
“I think the 25 percent figure is probably too low. The EPA is making it impossible to run a coal-fired plant. The number of coal-fired plants has already been reduced by 28 percent. People in West Virginia are naturally livid, and made their feelings known when they voted out a long-time congressman who endorsed cap-and-trade,” suggested Michaels.
Michaels maintains that scientists have skewed the argument about energy. As a an example, despite the dire warning by scientists over climate change connected to the Keystone XL Pipeline, evidence suggests that it would result in a rise of 1/100th of a degree, even if the pipeline ran full bore 24/7 over the next 100 years.
As part of his ongoing segment on the rise in robots and cronyism, Dr. Roffman revealed that Australian sheep dogs, known for their skill in herding sheep, are being replaced in Ireland by mechanized drones that can meet sheep herding standards.
On the cronyism front, Dr. Roffman marveled at the open door provided to Google officials who on more than 200 occasions were granted unprecedented access to top White House officials and members of the FTC who were looking at anti-trust violations to be filed against Google.
“These must have been really great meetings because all charges were eventually dropped against Google. Did I mention that Google is the largest contributor to the Obama campaign? Not a coincidence I suspect,” suggested Dr. Roffman.
Neal summed it up: “Yes, it is possible to buy justice if you know the right people.”
Each week Neal Asbury’ Made in America provides Neal’s insights into the week’s top news stories and their impact on the worlds of entrepreneurship, small business ownership and the overall economy. Neal’s analysis, together with co-host Dr. Richard Roffman, a veteran 30-year publisher with extensive domestic and international experience, takes a non-biased approach based on real life experience in business as an American manufacturer and exporter. Made in America airs nationally each Saturday from 7-8:00 PM on Radio America. Link to Made in America at http://www.nealasburysmadeinamerica.com.
APR
