U.s. Federal Government Reform - 1886 Words

Introduction As the United States enters another presidential election year in 2016, the subject of tax reform has taken central stage to many of the issues being discussed. Today, many Democratic lawmakers continue to support rising tax rates under the current progressive tax system, while Republican lawmakers are making a push for a flat-tax system. As concerns over slow economic growth, high unemployment rates, and large government spending deficits grow among millions of Americans, the idea of a Eastern European modeled flat-tax system has grown. Some presidents, including Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush, have experimented with the flat-tax system, but Eastern Europe has provided the essential model of success for this type of†¦show more content†¦Historically, the flat-rate tax system has been popular throughout many Eastern European countries, and has recently become a topic of discussion in the United States. The growing popularity of a Flat-Tax System Stanford Professors Robert Hall and Alvin Rabushka initially established the concept of the flat tax system in December of 1981, under what they called a â€Å"postcard† tax in an article for The Wall Street Journal. In 1985, both Hall and Rabushka wrote The Flat Tax that was regarded as â€Å"The Flat-Tax Bible† by billionaire Steve Forbes. According to Andrei Grecu, â€Å"the proposal achieves simplicity, economic efficiency, and fairness- the traditional measures of effective taxation- while also collecting the revenues required to finance the government† (Grecu, 2004, pg. 10). The support for the flat-tax rate system grew amongst Republican lawmakers throughout the 1980s under the office of President Ronald Reagan, and continues to be supported by Republicans as an alternative to the current progressive tax system in place today. In addition, multiple Eastern European countries began adapting the concept in the late 20th/early 21st century. The flat rate tax system initially gained support in Eastern Europe at the end of the Cold War