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Mississippi Speaker Philip Gunn on Hugh Hewitt Show: No Downside to Letting People Keep More of their Hard Earned Money

If you let people keep more of their hard earned money they have a better ability to provide for themselves, improve their quality of life, take care of their children, support their church. 

Nationally syndicated radio host Hugh Hewitt broadcast live from the ALEC 49th Annual Meeting in Atlanta and highlighted Mississippi’s recently adopted flat tax, eliminating about one-quarter of the state’s personal income tax. Mississippi House Speaker Philip Gunn spoke with Hewitt to explain how Mississippi achieved this historic tax reduction and share insights into how other states can similarly reduce the tax burden on their citizens.  Below are highlights from the conversation between Hewitt and Gunn:

Hugh Hewitt: Welcome, Speaker Gunn. Tell us about this new tax cut in Mississippi.

Philip Gunn: We started with the premise that putting money back into the pockets of the taxpayers is a good thing. I don’t see how anybody who is a conservative can disagree with that. If you let people keep more of their hard earned money they have a better ability to provide for themselves, improve their quality of life, take care of their children, support their church.  Those dollars turnover, community and families and businesses prosper. There’s just no downside politically. And so I had this passion to eliminate our income tax. We started on this plan to eliminate the income tax and we got a flat tax. You get the best you can and live to fight another day.

Hugh Hewitt: This is why red states are getting businesses and states like California are losing out to low tax states such as Tennessee, Florida, Texas and Arizona. It is the future of the country. People do not want to give more of their money to the government.

Philip Gunn: I was disappointed to find that my struggle wasn’t from necessarily the other party, but it was from within my own party. Some were nervous about relinquishing dollars tax dollars because we needed to spend on stuff.  Now taxpayers get to keep more of their money in their pocket. And for some, it’s going to mean another pair of shoes for the kids.

Hugh Hewitt: As someone with five grandchildren I know how fast that money goes.  I think voters should be able to count on conservatives to adopt tax cut agenda s. That is we trust them to do. That’s because we think government is too big. I mean everywhere, at every level. People need to remember that not every problem requires government intervention. But there are those who want to keep every tax dollar and sadly they spend it.

Philip Gunn: Next up in Mississippi, we will be looking at how we can free our kids from public schools.

Read more about the Flat Tax Revolution here.