CD3 Forum Part 3: Income tax and unconstitutional executive orders or Supreme Court decisions
BY JENNIFER CABRERA
Third in a series. Previously: Conflicts with the party and whether to move to a gold standard and Big government programs and impeaching Supreme Court justices.
A candidate forum for Congressional District 3 was held in Newberry on July 18, with the following candidates present: Bill Engelbrecht, Joe Dallas Millado, Judson Sapp, Kat Cammack, Ryan Chamberlin, Amy Pope Wells, and Gavin Rollins.
The forum was moderated by Tim Marden and Jennifer Cabrera.
The format allowed the first respondent to the question a minute to answer; the remaining candidates had 40 seconds to either add to or disagree with the first answer.
Question #5: What are your thoughts on the 16th amendment, the federal tax code, and personal income tax?
Chamberlin: “I would like to replace today’s income tax system… with a flat tax or a national sales tax, and let’s just keep this thing simple, and let’s move on… I don’t know how many tens of thousands of pages that thing is now, but it needs to be done away with.”
Wells: “I completely agree with what Ryan said, and just a few weeks ago, I actually signed the Flat Tax Pledge, and I think the simpler the better for predicting and, actually, corruption measures as well because it’s not fair across the board.”
Rollins: “I absolutely support the repeal of the 16th amendment, part of the Progressive Era and a big problem, and I was the first to sign the Fair Tax Pledge, to support the Fair Tax… really our tax code right now is of the lawyers, by the lawyers, for the lawyers. We need to change that and simplify it, cross-government.”
Engelbrecht: “My son actually just graduated law school last year as a tax attorney. So now, he says, ‘It’s too much, I don’t want to do it, to deal with these taxes.’ I think it should be a flat tax, everybody buys a product… it’s the same tax, whether you’re a legal citizen or an illegal citizen, everybody pays the same thing.”
Millado: “I signed the Fair Tax Pledge as well. I was also a staff assistant back then in 2008. Representative John Linder from Georgia headed up that bill. And it’s been there, like many other bills that sound so good and great, that will never ever see the light of day… Little half-steps, resolutions, little press releases… I could write that [bill] from scratch again.”
Sapp: “I also like the Fair Tax, it’s my favorite tax, but like I told them, I’ll support any tax cut I can. That’s why I also signed Grover Norquist’s tax pledge, because that’s what it’s about. Let’s try to get rid of the IRS. It’s wasteful—really out to get most of us.”
Cammack: “Like everyone else on the stage here, I’m in favor of repealing the 16th amendment. I support the Fair Tax; it gets rid of the IRS, it gets rid of income tax, and it’s a consumption-based tax. It’s well past time that we enact a simplified tax code, and I’d be proud to advance that in the House of Representatives.”
Question #6: Article I Section 8 stipulates, “All laws begin in the House.” All laws. Not the Supreme Court via opinions or the president via executive orders. What is a representative’s role when things like this happen, and how do you think you’ll handle it?
Wells: “You just don’t let it happen. Period. Point-blank. The only way that you can have a government that’s represented by the people, for the people, is to use the process the way our founding fathers and everybody else intended it to work… At the stroke of a pen, a president can change things; executive orders happen; and we have to stop that.”
Rollins: “So here’s the problem—I talk to my students about this—we’ve got three branches of government, and they’re supposed to fight with each other, that’s the way the system’s set up. Obamacare was illegal because it violated the Origination Clause… Congress right now is giving up their part because they’re too lazy and they don’t want to take a stand. They’re unwilling to take a stand and vote on issues, and Congress has to reassert their authority and start checking the power of the other branches, specifically the Supreme Court. So if the Supreme Court does a ruling, Congress needs to pass something to clarify or to push back on those rulings—the same with unconstitutional executive orders.”
Engelbrecht: “I believe every Congressperson should take into account what the constituents ask for, what they need, and what is best for our country. But then to go outside of those means and only do it for themselves is not a good thing to do. When our Supreme Court makes a ruling, I believe at some point we have to identify that.”
Millado: “Separation of powers… the Supreme Court is the law of the land, and we can’t just talk about these things whenever it goes against our narrative as Republicans … but [go fight that when it doesn’t go our way, like same-sex marriage]… we can’t keep moving the line back and forth… We’ve got to find who we are today in 2020. Who we want to be as Americans. Who we want to be as a party, and believe me, it’s got to be a two-party system, not two parties clashing, but two ideas putting together, and that’s what we’ve got to fight for.”
Sapp: “As a legislator, you’ve got to have the fortitude to pass legislation, and that’s the biggest problem, is you have a bunch of cowards up there… If judges are legislating from the bench, that’s what goes back to the previous question: let’s impeach them, get them out of there.”
Cammack: “Article I Section 8 is more about abuse of executive authority, and that’s where we see a lot of the travesties of justice such as the DACA program that happened under the Obama administration. That was an abuse of executive authority, and we now have the mess today with the Dreamers and the DACA kids because of an uncertainty that existed from one administration to the next. So whether it is the DACA program or an AUMF, which is Authorization of Military Force, there’s too much confusion because Congress has abdicated their role in Constitutional origination of legislation.”
Chamberlin: “Americans just don’t trust their government any more. The real question here is—we’re being hired by you. When we go to Washington, are we gonna surrender to the left mindset that’s pushing that Socialist agenda? You’re electing someone that’s gonna stand up for what they believe. I’m not going there for the convenience of it. We’re going there because we know that we have to make some inconvenient stances… it may wear us out in the process, but we’ve got to stand for the right things.”
A Flat tax may sound good, but, I went to England many
Many years ago and purchased a can of CocaCola…
Ouch!!’, while the purchase of a Coke here in the United
States was just .25 then, the can of coke over there was like $1.25.
Why? Because they had what is called a “value added tax” or
VAT. This made everything you purchased a lot more
Expensive. What would this mean here? Would our food
Be “tax exempt” or will it have this flat tax imposed on it?
This would definitely mean the cost of goods increasing
To meet up with government spending. Our current
Tax code is complex, but it works. What will be the % rate
Of the flat tax? And , will this be on top of state and local sales tax too?
Not one question about the fake pandemic?… The most important issue is totally ignored.
QAnon UN Blue Helmets Agenda 21 Area 51the sky is falling Black UN helicopters conspiracy theories Covid is a hoax Donald Trump is God all news is fake news Rico Suave blame the Marxists
That’s not even half the question. More to come.
For question 6, were you referring to Article 1, Section 7, Clause 1: “All Bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives; but the Senate may propose or concur with Amendments as on other Bills,”?
I’m not sure it is correct to say that all laws have to originate with the House, but as Rollins mentioned, all laws raising revenue, i.e. taxing people, have to originate in the House.