Rubio Pushes Again For Sales Tax Increase

Marco Rubio will once again get to push his horrible sales tax increase. The Florida House Speaker believes in trickle down economics.

"I was raised on other people's leftover money," Rubio, 35, said on the Jim DeFede Show, whose station WINZ-AM 940 identifies itself as the "resource for progressive talk radio." "When people spent their money, they spent it in the places where my parents worked."

He went on: "And I'm telling you that this property tax cut will create $6-billion in disposable income. And what that means in real terms is that people who now mow their lawns will hire someone to do it. ... People who now maintain their own pools will hire someone to do it. ... And that helps the working class. ...

Rubio's comments angered listeners of the Jim Defede Show. One caller destroyed Rubio's bogus economic rhetoric.

"Most working-class people are just struggling to survive and their solution is the most regressive form of tax there is? This is unbelievable. Trickle-down economics was disproven. ... I work my tail off every day just to make ends meet, and if they raise the sales tax, that's going to be coming directly out of every little bit that I earn. It's just going to make it even more expensive to live here, not less."

The previous and current sales tax increase plan is to make up for the loss in property tax revenue. The new proposal would cut property taxes by an estimated 25 percent. The downside is there will be a loss in $6 billion of revenue. Not that Rubio is worried about that.

“If there’s something that’s ridiculous that’s on there we should look at it and talk about it. I just don’t think we should be obsessed with constantly looking for revenue sources, when in fact we have a structural spending problem in government and many of the sources they out line really wouldn’t generate enough money.”

Rubio argues once again that the property taxcut will send people into a retail shopping frenzy. Incoming House Speaker Ray Sansom will inherit Florida's deficit. Fortunately, he appears to be aware that many sales tax exemptions need to be discontinued.

“They shouldn’t be off limits. Some of the tax exemptions have been there for years and years and we need to continually go out and measure the public benefit of these tax exemptions.”

Stadium skyboxes, Superbowl tickets, and limousines are tax exempt. These exemptions make the GOP base happy. There has been zero serious discussion from Charlie Crist about tax reform. These exemptions cost the state an estimated $12.3 billion. I don't know anyone that felt the trickle down effect from these tax loopholes.