From: AdmrlLocke@aol.com Sent: Friday, August 13, 1999 2:07 AM To: undisclosed-recipients: ; Subject: GrammNet: Online Polls; My Column #2 GrammNet Issue 8/13/99.1 Dear Friend, Please take a moment or two to vote for Steve Forbes in online polls located at www.msnbc.com/modules/surveys/iowastrawpoll.asp www.primaryscoop.com/strawpoll/ Below is the second of my unpublished columns on Forbes. I thought somebody should have a chance to read it before the Iowa Straw poll--someone other than a couple of liberal editors, that is! Sincerely, David B. Levenstam, CPA, MT, MA GrammNet is an independent newsletter, not affiliated with Senator Gramm. To subscribe to GrammNet, email me at AdmrlLocke@aol.com, with a message to the effect that you'd like to subscribe. GrammNet back issues available at http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/3390/ ------------------------- Forbes Can Beat Gore By David B. Levenstam, CPA, MT, MA When I ask people who they support for president, I often hear that it's too early to decide. Ironically, I also often hear that it's too late to decide, because "the Establishment has already chosen the Republican nominee." The truth lies in between: if you don't make up your mind in time for the Iowa Straw Poll in Ames on Saturday, August 14th, the Republican establishment combined with a bandwagon effect probably WILL make the choice for you. That's why I've chosen Steve Forbes. Forbes has bold ideas for revitalizing America and restoring the federal government to its proper role of protecting your rights to life, liberty and property. To start with, Forbes will scrap the current federal income tax, which punishes hard work, saving, and investment through a complex system of rates, deductions and special-interest provisions. In its place Forbes will put a simple, single-rate income tax popularly known as "the flat tax." Forbes' flat tax would remove the working poor--and even some working lower-middle-income folks--from the federal income tax rolls through the use of generous exemptions of $13,000 per taxpayer and $5000 per child. Under the current system, a single person with no children who earns $13,000 pays about $1000 in federal income tax. Under Forbes' flat tax, the person will pay nothing. A single mom with two kids will earn her first $23,000 tax-free, while a married couple with three children won't pay federal income tax on their first $41,000. Income above the exemptions will be taxed at the flat rate of 17 percent, as opposed to the current system's top rate of 39.6 percent. The Forbes tax plan will even stop punishing you for trying to get ahead by saving: it makes all of your income from savings and investment tax-free. To ensure that you can save enough to for your retirement, Forbes will transform Social Security from the current pyramid scheme, which taxes you to pay for some stranger's benefits, into a real, private retirement account for you. Under the Forbes plan, adopted from the libertarian Cato Institute, you'll stop sending your Social Security payments to the kindly bureaucrats in Washington, and start putting them in your own private account. The Forbes plan even offers an alternative for people who really do believe that government knows best: they can keep sending their Social Security payments to the bureaucrats. Meanwhile, the Forbes plan lets the rest of us actually save for our retirement. You can't beat that. Privately, even staffers for some other conservative candidates will admit that Forbes has the best ideas, but for various reasons they think he can't win a general election. Mostly I hear that he can't win because "he's a rich guy." Leaving aside the fact that several other Republican candidates are rich, there's the fact that Al Gore's rich too. The difference is that while the Forbes family makes its money selling financial advice to middle-income folks like my parents, Gore's family made its money collecting tobacco subsidies from Uncle Sam. Some folks object that "Forbes isn't a politician!" Exactly. Here's a shy man who, to enact the his bold ideas, is willing to endure the public spotlight and silly name-calling from envious politicians. His one alleged flaw--aside from being too successful--is that he's so honest that liberals label him as "negative." After seven years of charming lies, Americans are ready for some "negative" honesty and a president who's not a politician. Some Republicans claim that Forbes can't win the general election because, well, "he just can't win!" They seem to keep thinking that in 2000 we'll be facing Bill Clinton for a third time, so that we need our own version of Bill Clinton to beat him. But as Al Gore demonstrates by claiming such ludicrous things as having invented the Internet and having grown up in poverty, he may be another liar, but at least he's a BAD liar. A too-honest, non-politician armed with bold conservative ideas like Steve Forbes will beat a badly-lying, professional politician armed with liberal nonsense like Al Gore any day. And that's why I support Steve Forbes.