Here's a missive from our AJC colleague Nicholas Fouriezos in Marietta:
In the race for U.S. Senate, both Democrat Michelle Nunn and Republican David Perdue have said they would push for tax reform, including a reduction of the federal corporate tax rate to make American companies more competitive globally.
Libertarian Amanda Swafford agrees with her traditional party opponents, but with a twist – she wants to eliminate the corporate tax altogether. Oh, and go ahead and throw out income, sales and estate taxes as well.
“If we bring that rate down to zero, it makes the United States the most competitive country in the world,” Swafford said.
“We should get rid of all funding of the federal government through taxation like that, because we got along perfectly well in this country without taxing income, sales or consumption, because we had a constitutionally limited government and the spending was in line with our actual budget.”
The 38-year-old paralegal outlined her socially liberal, fiscally conservative platform to an audience at the Madison Forum in Marietta, a nonpartisan civic organization. Swafford pulled 6 percent in the latest Atlanta Journal-Constitution poll, an amount that could force a runoff.
Neither Perdue, a businessman, nor Nunn, a nonprofit executive, have prior governing roles. Swafford says her time as a Flowery Branch city councilwoman informs her anti-establishment views.
“From being in local government, it became clear that government wasn’t the answer,” Swafford said. “It was the realization that it didn’t matter which party you were coming from, there are certain entrenched processes involved that have always been a part of growing government.”
Swafford said the federal government’s budget needs to be cut drastically, only providing the essential duties mandated by the Constitution. Those duties would include managing interstate highway systems, the military and the elections process, among others. Even if federal taxes were removed, Swafford said, those areas would remain funded through other means.
“The federal government takes in a lot of revenue that is independent of the income and sales tax,” Swafford said. “If we streamline the spending and reduce it, we can get it to a place where that (revenue) would match.”
Swafford did not reveal specifics on where that revenue would come from, if not from taxes
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