Score!
When the 'fair taxers' show how to reduce the cost of government they will be worth listening to. In the meantime the 'fair taxers' are like the 'free traders' all slogans and no cattle.
And just what if they can't get the 16th Amendment repealed? We'll have both taxes in not time at all.
Right. There does seem to be a willful desire to avoid talking about the ugly reality of government spending.
I believe China owns something like a 3rd of the US' foreign debt (i.e. not including what the US owes to its own treasury). No matter what someone's opinions are regarding tax cuts and the Iraq war, surely no one can disagree that it's absurd to cut taxes AND wage an expensive war. If the dollar loses value anymore, the possibility of the Euro becoming the dominant currency will move further out of the realms of pure fantasy and into the realms of all likelyhood. And the economic ramifications of that are just to wild to comprehend.
"When the 'fair taxers' show how to reduce the cost of government they will be worth listening to."
By making the cost of government visible to every US consumer at the checkout counter, the downward rate pressure will be considerable.
Score!! Game. Set. Match.