Posted on 09/12/2007 4:17:22 AM PDT by Man50D
TEXT OF COMMENTARY
Scott Jagow: The mother of all hearings wraps up today. That's how Congressman Charles Rangel described his four-day hearing on taxation. It covered the gamut from middle-class taxes to taxing private equity. But commentator Stephen Moore says Congress should really consider what he calls the "fair tax."
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Stephen Moore: We could abolish the income tax and the payroll tax, too, and replace them with a 23 percent national sales tax. All taxes would be paid at the cash register when you buy a grape slurpee or a Honda Civic.
This "fair tax" would instantly banish 8 billion pages of paperwork, and the more than 12,000 IRS agents who snoop on all our financial transactions. Economists from Harvard and MIT have verified that this plan wouldn't swell the budget deficit and would increase American jobs.
The United States would instantly become a global magnet for new investment and businesses, and those Benedict Arnold companies that have fled America in search of lower taxes would be back on the next 747. Under the fair tax, we'd finally do what other nations do: we'd tax imports, but not our exports.
We would no longer tax Americans on what they earn and save, only on what they consume. So, for the average worker, every penny they earn, they would get to keep. Take-home pay would increase by more than 20 percent under the fair tax. Seniors would still get their Social Security checks, now paid for out of sales tax collections.
Oh, but wouldn't a national sales tax be regressive and hurt the poor? Nope -- under the fair tax, every American family of four would be able to purchase the first $20,000 of goods and services every year tax-free.
What better way to clean up the swamp of corruption and sweetheart deals in Washington than by terminating the IRS tax code? This is supposed to be a government of, by and for the people -- not the tax lobbyists and special interest groups in Washington. So let's promote growth with equity through the fair tax.
Jagow: Stephen Moore is a member of the editorial board at the Wall Street Journal. In Los Angeles, I'm Scott Jagow. Thanks for listening, hope you enjoy your day.
Fair Tax ping!
No more IRS 1040 forms.... nice.
So - how would the government determine your “first $20k” in spending to be tax free???
We already have that "Know Your customer" Bank Thing.
Deposits vs. Debits= You Spent It on goods or services.
Mild sarcasm, of course. I never trusted an "Open Book" policy at a bank.
What about medical biils? I guess they are services. What about mortgages? It looks like a lot of people are not paying them anyway. What isn't a good or service?
Let's ask our Brit friends how the VAT is doing!
Unfortunately, it will never happen. The rats won’t vote for it because then they couldn’t continually incite class warfare against the evil rich. (Even though it would help their constituency - the shiftless and unproductive losers of society, i.e. the poor). The republicans had control of congress but never got it passed because they are 99% eunuchs. Literally every republican in congress is deathly afraid of the enemedia as they believe that to offend them will result in loss of their job during the next election cycle. I have said many times that Ann Coulter has bigger balls than all the republicans in congress combined. The only possible solution would be to have term limits then maybe the wimps wouldn’t be so afraid of taking decisive action. But then again maybe some of them would because they would want to run for another position. Term limits is another good idea that will never happen.
The issue of the fair tax is nothing more than the typical example of our do nothing government. I recall back in the 70’s we were still talking about all the problems that we are still talking about (and doing nothing about) today. We couldn’t even get the very modest change in social security to be able to invest 2% OF OUR OWN MONEY that we could invest the way we wanted.
Remember the energy crisis that started in the mid 70’s with the OPEC oil embargo? 40 years later we have done nothing about it! We have talked about it for 40 (insert your favorite obscenity here) years and done absolutely nothing! We have not even built a single refinery in that time. We can’t tap the huge sources of oil in ANWAR because we might hurt the feelings of some caribou. Most Americans are frankly too stupid to participate in the radical change that is needed to solve these problems. They don’t know or care about any of it because it hasn’t appeared on American Idol or been in People or In Touch magazines.
The one slimmest of chances that there would be movement to pass the fair tax came when the President formed that tax panel in the last year or so. They didn’t recommend it. Only one republican presidential candidate is talking about the fair tax and he is not one of the front runners. I’m afraid that the status quo will continue in terms of our ridiculous income tax system.
You will soon learn that the FairTax is nothing at all like the European style VAT.
Seven should be six.
It wouldn’t.
EVERYONE would get a monthly check, totalling for the year to .23 X 20k ($4600).
If you don’t spend 20k in a year, well, you’re getting money, a negative sales tax, so to speak.
And, since (with the simultaneous repeal of the 16th) the gov’t no longer can demand that you disclose your income, they can’t give differing rebates to different income levels.
I’d much prefer this to the intrusiveness of the present system and the EITC (which makes for a NEGATIVE income tax on some).
I think it’s great, but the prebate really worries me. I can easily see the Dems increasing this prebate up and up and up.... ‘fer der poor’
Look for the replays on the Frank Beckmann show, it was talked about for over 1 hr. last week.
There is a grass roots effort to get the Fair Tax on a ballot of some sorts here in Michigan to replace the maze of taxes that are killing this state from a competitive standpoint.
Maybe if the Fair Tax National Organization picks ONE STATE, and proves it out, will they then have momentum at the national level.
Boy do we need it in Michigan.....
Actually, that’s something that’s kinda cool about it -
they CAN’T “target” it (ie, class warfare).
EVERYONE gets the same amount, simply based on number of dependents.
So, if they raise it fer de puuur, “the Rich” get it too, and I don’t think they could stomach that.
hmmm... “rent a bimbo”
“Maybe if the Fair Tax National Organization picks ONE STATE, and proves it out, will they then have momentum at the national level.”
Actually, there are already about 6 states (including Texas, Wyoming and Florida) that have replaced theuir state income tax with a sales tax. They don’t have a prebate, but the basic concept is already being used.
The "bimbo" in the middle runs her own FairTax website and is no doubt a lot smarter than you are.
That's where the "prebate" comes in...
Mark
This isn't a VAT tax. It's a retail sales tax, which is only paid at the point of new retail sale. Unlike a VAT, which is paid at every point "value is added." Which means that you pay tax on the taxes already paid.
Mark
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