(NewsInsights.org) – Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, seeking the GOP nomination to run for president this November, participated in a Town Hall meeting sponsored by CNN on January 4 in Des Moines, Iowa. It was one of two back-to-back town halls the media outlet hosted, moderated by CNN’s Kaitlan Collins. In response to a question from Collins, DeSantis touched on a policy he’s talked about before — eliminating the IRS and implementing a flat tax.
On Thursday, he told Collins he wanted to push for a single flat-rate tax with no exemptions to lower everyone’s taxes and eliminate the IRS. He expressed his opinion that lowering tax rates, as he has done in Florida, would stimulate investment in manufacturing and industry, creating more jobs and growth and broadening the overall tax base.
If elected, Gov. DeSantis says he supports a “flat tax” — a single national income tax rate, with no deductions or exemptions — and would abolish the Internal Revenue Service. pic.twitter.com/tR5EbvkXUT
— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) January 5, 2024
Previously, in late spring 2023, DeSantis told Fox interviewer Martha MacCallum that he would seek to eliminate four federal agencies with congressional assistance. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) was at the top of his list, followed by the Departments of Education, Energy, and Commerce. In a follow-up interview with Dana Loesch on “The Dana Show,” he told his host he would replace the current system with a single-rate or flat-rate tax system.
DeSantis: “Yes,” I would defund the IRS. pic.twitter.com/jL3IWTmAAa
— DeSantis War Room 🐊 (@DeSantisWarRoom) May 27, 2023
Regarding the governor’s interview on Thursday, critics pointed out that for everyone to save money on taxes, Congress would need to set the flat-rate tax at or below 10%, which most critics claim would severely underfund the nation. Other pundits, allowing for the fact that DeSantis didn’t actually name what rate he might target, pointed out the political contender didn’t seem to have fleshed out his proposal in nearly a year since he first rolled it out.
Additionally, it’s not the first time DeSantis has supported tax reform. As a Congressional representative for Florida in 2015, he co-sponsored the Fair Tax Act of 2015, which proposed to replace the federal income tax rate system and the IRS with a 23% national sales tax by 2019. Rep. Buddy Carter (R-GA) introduced a similar measure in the House last year. He also proposed replacing federal income, payroll, estate, and gift taxes with a 23% national sales tax and eliminating the IRS by 2027.
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