Marco and his crazy tax plan

Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio (R-Miami) is sticking to his guns on his proposal to eliminate nearly all property taxes for homeowners and instead raise the sales tax to the highest in America.

But, glory be, he's getting a lot of resistance, even from fellow Republicans:

But even before his tax reform proposal is formally introduced as a bill, Rubio, on the eve of his first regular legislative session as speaker, is under attack by some of his fellow Republicans as well as by some homeowners, who say they'd rather pay reasonable property taxes than go without the services that cities and counties threaten would be cut under the plan.

Gov. Charlie Crist and the Florida Senate are giving Rubio's plan a tepid reception, indicating that the package that finally passes may bear little resemblance to the House Republicans' original proposal.

"In deference to the House and to the relationship that has been established between the presiding officers, it will at least be heard in committee," said Senate Rules and Calendar Chairman Jim King, R-Jacksonville.

Indeed, as I recently surmised, there likely would be almost instantaneous challenges to the constitutionality of Rubio's proposal, were it to become law.

Because Rubio's proposed elimination of homestead property taxes also would create a new tax, it would require approval by two-thirds, not tghe usual 60 percent, of voters to be adopted. The speaker's proposal that a law rather than a constitutional amendment is sufficient to roll back local property taxes as well as cap local government spending is also problematic, said Senate Democratic Leader Steve Geller.

"It's not clear that they can mandate this. Local governments have certain constitutional rights, and charter counties have other constitutional rights. I am not completely convinced that they're correct that this can be done by statute," said Geller, a Hallandale Beach attorney.

Rubio's biggest problem is that his attitude is so superior, and he seems to have forgotten his roots:

[Said Rubio,] "My dad was a bartender. My mom was a casino maid. I was raised on other people's leftover money. People that now mow their own homes will hire someone to do it. People who now clean their own pools will hire someone to do that. That helps the working class.

"Disposable income is what the working class lives off of. They depend on other people's leftover money," Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants, said last week on a Miami talk radio show .

Insulted callers deluged the show, saying Rubio implied that the working poor rely on the wealthy's "leftovers."

"I never said people live off the handouts. The working class depends disproportionately on the discretionary income of others. Those aren't leftovers. Those aren't handouts. That's disposable income," the House speaker said.

"If someone doesn't like this plan, that's perfectly valid. They either need to defend the status quo or they need to offer an alternative."

No, Marco, the wealthy (who will actually be the beneficiaries of your proposal, not the working class ... but you already know that) will not hire others to mow their lawns or clean their pools. Indeed, chances are they already do so. And the people who already do those jobs for themselves will continue to do them, while spending any alleged windfall elsewhere. Fact is, every time there's a tax cut that's supposed to infuse the economy with more spending, it fails. This will be just another example.

And I especially like your logic with, basically, "if you don't like it, come up with something better." It's the same logic used by your heroes in Washington, like Drunky McStagger, regarding the war, pointing to the Democrats and saying, "they don't have an answer!" Well, the war isn't the Democrats' mess, and the tax structure in Florida doesn't need fixing ... unless you're trying to appease your wealthy Republican voters.

Maybe property taxes are too high in many places, but eliminating them and thereby destroying many of the services Florida citizens expect from their government, well, that's no way to address the situation.