Louie Gohmert: Raise taxes on poor people because they can pay with welfare

Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert (R) has proposed raising taxes on the poorest Americans even if the only money they have to pay is money that they get from government programs like welfare.

At a Tea Party Patriots event in South Carolina earlier this month, Gohmert said that he had his own plan to address income inequality.

"There's not a blessed thing this president has proposed that will change the situation of his buddy, Warren Buffet, paying a lower percentage than his secretary," Gohmert told the crowd. "I know that folks that are big on the fair tax, I just want a simple tax. I think it would be easier to get to a flat tax. And then, maybe a fair tax someday."

The Texas Republican recalled that he had enlisted his friend, publisher Steve Forbes, to convince the Republican Party that "fair share" really meant "flat tax."

"You make more, you pay more; you make less, you pay less," he said. "And everybody needs to have skin in the game, don't they? Everybody does. You need to own a piece of this government so you'll do something about it. Everybody should."

Gohmert said that he had "wrestled" with what to do with people who were so poor that they barely got by on government assistance.

"What if you're so poor the only money you have is what the government gives you? And I've wondered, you know, isn't that wasted money, you give it and you take it back? No, it gives you an investment in the country. And we need that."

Watch this video from Tea Party Patriots, broadcast Jan. 20, 2014.

(h/t: Right Wing Watch)