#2 Senator Barry Goldwater Series: The Income Tax

Writer: Abolish the graduated income tax? No practical person experienced in government and its operation could suggest it — least of all Senator Barry Goldwater. But the nation’s income tax structure urgently calls for serious study and reform to make it equitable and to keep it from becoming a means for penalizing individual success.

“We must stop the steady engulfment of our economy by government , particularly at the national level. We want a government of compassion, leadership And Restraint. This means reforming a tax structure that steadily collects and increasing share of the nation’s product and stifles the private sector.

I share the opinion with virtually every other American that our present tax burden is onerous, often inequitable, and in need of reform. But abolition is the answer to nothing. Such precipitous action would create very serious and damaging results to the whole business of running the government. It takes money – great amounts of it—to carry on the legitimate functions of the Federal system.

I believe an intense study of our entire tax structure would disclose better and more equitable ways of raising money for the Legitimate Needs of Government. The steep rate of progressivity in our individual income taxes is damaging to our nation as a whole. Rather than stimulating economic growth, it often acts as a brake on that growth, dampening individual initiative rather than stimulating it. The impact of sharply rising tax rates in the middle income areas–on which we must depend for so much of our economic well-being—is particularly disturbing.

I reject completely the Administration position that the income tax is most useful as a means to redistribute wealth according to politically conceived blueprints. I hold, firmly and unequivocally, to the position that Federal taxes should be used simply and solely to discharge Federal obligations. They must be accounted for honestly and voted on openly, in that light alone.

As President, one of my first priority tasks would be to secure a complete overhaul of our present Federal tax codes, so that we might quickly achieve the reforms which are so long overdue.”