Jack Kemp Sees Flat Tax as `Progressive'

Aired April 15, 1996

JUDY WOODRUFF, Anchor: Now, a man who knows tax reform and politics, a fitting guest for this program on this IRS deadline day. Joining us, Jack Kemp, co-chairman of the conservative advocacy group, Empower America. Among his many other titles, also head of the Republican Congressional Leader's National Commission on Growth and Tax Reform. Jack Kemp, thank you for being with us.

JACK KEMP, Empower America: Thank you, Judy. Pleasure.

WOODRUFF: You're in town today, among other things, you're here most of the time, but what you were doing today was testifying before a congressional committee on this proposed constitutional amendment to require a two-thirds majority to raise taxes.

KEMP: Right.

WOODRUFF: Isn't this a gimmick on the part of Republicans who know this doesn't have a realistic chance of passing?

KEMP: Well, irrespective of whether it has a chance to pass or not, I think it does have a chance by the way. But, it is not a gimmick any more than the president of the United States going to Houston and saying, `woops, I raised your taxes by mistake' a few months ago. It's a legitimate effort to recognize that we ought to put in concrete some stable tax system that the American people can plan on and look forward too into the next century. And in my opinion, a low single flat, fair, progressive, proportional, pro-family, pro-grow tax code would be essential for where this country here, after the Cold War is over and we look forward to the millennium. So-

WOODRUFF: But-

KEMP: It's not a gimmick. It's a very serious idea.

WOODRUFF: But what do you say to the critics who say this is bad policy, it hems in future Congresses and permits- it doesn't permit them to deal with national security crises that come along, economic crises that may come along.

KEMP: Well, the Kyl amendment, Senator Kyl of Arizona is the major author in the Senate- He's suggested that there be a constitutional majority, a two-thirds majority, except in war time and accept in terms of a crisis. There are always ways a legislative body can escape. But what he suggested and what I agree with John Kyl about is that it ought to be tougher to raise taxes than to cut them and right now, it's very easy to raise taxes. We've had 27 tax increases in about the last 25 or 30 years. They've been done at the dark of night. They've been done circuitously and surreptitiously and we're just simply saying bring it out in the open, make people debate it, slow down the process and as the Wall Street Journal said today, put a speed bump in the way of a Congress which has a proclivity to raise taxes at the first sign of a budget deficit.

WOODRUFF: Senator- let me interrupt. Senator Dole, out on the campaign trail in Pennsylvania today said, as he has before, he wants a fairer, flatter tax. He said, he is working on a single rate. But then he want to hedge and said that a flat tax has problems if it hurts the middle class. What is Bob Dole's position on a single tax rate?

KEMP: Well, it ought to be pretty clear to you, Judy, that I don't speak for Bob Dole. But, having chaired his commission and that of Newt Gingrich on tax reform, we came to the unanimous conclusion that there should be one rate. It should be generous to the poor by having an exemption. It should be helpful to the working middle class by allowing payroll taxes to be deducted, the FICA tax, the Social Security and Medicare tax. Bob Dole, assuming he read the report, should understand that it is essential to getting the country to stop taxing income from labor and income from capital two, three and four times. And in my opinion, I don't think the Republican Party has a ghost of a chance, particularly after watching William Schneider's statistics, polling data on the anxieties of the American electorate here. With a slow economy and rising inflation, albeit rising, not run away, this is going to be the issue in 96 and we don't grab this issue, frankly, I think the Republican Party- I'm not apocalyptic, but if we can't see this issue from the high moral stance of growth, jobs, the family, capital formation and the formation of new jobs, we're gonna go the way the Whigs went in 1856.

WOODRUFF: Is Bob Dole going to do that? By the way, do you think he read your report?

KEMP: Yeah, I think he read the report. I certainly hope so. I believe his staff read it. It was impeccable. It gave him a chance, in my opinion, to take the high moral ground away from the Democratic Party on growth and jobs and helping the family, helping the poor.

We said-

WOODRUFF: But how- does he have to endorse a flat tax of the nature that Steve Forbes was pushing?

KEMP: Well, a flat tax-

WOODRUFF: Is that what you're saying?

KEMP: A flat tax can still be progressive. Incidentally, today, in the United States Congress, Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, an African-American, a liberal Democrat, a dear friend of mine, introduced a progressive, flat tax for the city of Washington, D.C. to try to restore economic growth. A 15 percent income tax with a zero capital gain tax. If she can do it, certainly Republicans ought to be able to do it.

WOODRUFF: All right, Jack Kemp, we thank you very much for being with us. Thanks.

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