Posted on 01/20/2008 6:29:07 AM PST by Man50D
During an election season, one of the first losers is the truth. The current misinformation campaign against the FairTax has been particularly virulent. Last month the FairTax was being panned by some columnists as a "crackpot scheme," even though it could be collected exactly the same way as its close cousin, the value-added tax, which is the most successful tax in the world. This month the FairTax is being vilified by various columnists as a tax increase for the middle class, even though it would provide a substantial tax cut for two-parent middle class families. Specifically, in a recent column, George Will asked, "Do you want a president (Mike Huckabee, proponent of a national sales tax of at least 30 percent) pledged to radically increase the proportion of federal taxes paid by the middle class?" Similarly, Time magazine's business and economics columnist Justin Fox wrote a blog piece entitled, "The FairTax and its big break for the $200,000-plus crowd."
The FairTax is a national sales tax that would replace the income taxes, the payroll taxes, and the gift and inheritance taxes. It would be a 30 percent sales tax on retail purchases. Since 30 cents is 23 percent of $1.30 (the amount you would pay on a $1 item), a 30 percent FairTax would cost you about 23 percent of your consumption. To help you pay the tax, you would get a prebate check or a debit card credit at the beginning of each month equivalent to the amount you would pay when buying necessities. In 2007, that amount would have been based upon $10,210 spending per adult and $3,480 spending per child.
(Excerpt) Read more at worldnetdaily.com ...
Fair Tax ping!
” FairTax cut for 2-parent families “
Ummmmm....
Let’s see — using the tax code for social engineering...
Where have I heard that before??
Oh, yeah — every Democrat since the New Deal....
We never learn, do we??
Is it inclusive of the pot?
At least it isn’t the Marxist federal income tax.
A graduated system of income confiscation.
The Fair Tax is now the equivalent of the VAT? The Fair Tax cult shifts like the wind.
That would make a great ad:
The Fair Tax - A little better than the Marxist federal income tax system
Sheesh.
Lets just get the talking points out in front here.
It's 30% not 23%!
I already paid taxes on my savings!
It will just cause a black market!
The Prebate is just stupid! (I agree with this one).
The IRS will never go away!
Please feel free to add your own. ;-)
With a monthly welfare stipend for everyone!
People who are against change are like those who P*ss against the wind....
These folks are either reliant on the feds for thier income or are actually retired and are afraid of their own shadow.
Know what I would like to have happen?
Give people a choice to either select to stay in the present tax system, or, select to pay under the fair tax system. At the cash register you could have a tax number, much like the farmers do now, and then give them your tax number and those that do pay under a fair tax system. If you select to stay under the marxist system like a lot of these so called “Conservatives” on here do, then, you do not get a tax number and you pay under the present system.
I wonder how long before they’d start whinning that we who pay under the fair tax system dont pay our fair share. You see..thay actually are rinos and are not freemen.
This is the main problem with the Fair Tax--the ability to explain it and sell it to the Average Joe. The Fair Tax "user interface" is a debacle. Boortz et.al. should have tested their idea on focus groups and refined it to make is easier to understand. As it is, they're now flailing about trying to thwart an onslaught of criticism that just creates a cloud of confusion in an already confusing concept.
That will just keep the size of government growing as we would have more red tape. You have to remember that there is a fair size of this population who not only pay no federal taxes but actually get money for nothing. Where do you think they will prefer to stay? I want to see every person living in America pay their fair share.
The short of it: do you really think the imposition of a national sales tax will be accompanied by the removal of the income tax? I tend to doubt it. Where has a VAT actually replaced an income tax, rather than add to the tax burden?
Best I can see, eliminating the FICA/MedCare payroll tax and replacing it with a sales tax may make sense, especially as retirement benefits start to exceed payroll tax revenues.
But I bet you’ll never get rid of the income tax.
And we’re supposed to trust Huckabee on this one? Please.
I just love the professional tax people who show up here to defend the indefensible. They are parasites and would have to get real jobs if the income tax went away.
If the fair tax is so great, why do I need to buy a book to understand it?
Flat tax.....I understand that.
When you add to the trajectory the energy that comes from the current tax system being an excellent source of power for elected officials, plus the social engineering that it makes possible, it’s going to take an awful lot of energy to turn this boat around and set it on a new course.
There’s plenty of the needed energy available when you consider the number of people who want change, but unless that energy gets channeled it’s just going to waste.
And that waste of lots of energy by lots of people is nothing more than part of the plan to make certain the status quo is safe.
Look at President Reagan to see how difficult the task is going to be to bring about change, any change, in government at this point in our history. No one has gone to Washington in my lifetime with a more earnest desire to reign in the federal government than The Gipper. One of his campaign assurances was that he would oversee the job of getting a handle on the size and grasp of the federal government. Despite his best efforts government was bigger when he left office than when he entered.
A large part of the problem is that the average person is so busy trying to earn a living and take care of his or her family that they are completely unaware of the extent to which government has grown and the grasp it has on every level of our lives. Not just taxes, which have finally gotten high enough that they are impossible to ignore any more, but the thousands of little things that government has assumed responsibility for over the years, one small step at a time.
We are probably at the point where the only thing that’s going to bring about significant change is when the whole system collapses under its own weight. And that time might not be that far away. The surest way to have a system suffer a catastrophic failure is to run it too long at too near its capacity. It’s like tripping, if you walking along slowly you might be able to regain your balance and avoid a bad fall, but if you’re running as fast as you can then a fall is a sure thing.
Please add me to your Fair Tax Ping.
Sure. According to the article, it's collected "exactly the same way"!
"the value-added tax, which is the most successful tax in the world"
Yeah. Because it's NOT collected "exactly the same way" as the Fair Tax. Plus, the VAT is in addition to an income tax.
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