Free Republic

The concept of free markets is being violated by the cable companies every day.

In a free market, a seller - especially a monopoly such as the typical cable company- is not permitted to use market power to compel a purchaser to buy desired goods and services together with other unwanted goods and services. This is an unlawful tie-in and is a direct violation of antitrust laws.

One doesn't need a new FCC regulation to outlaw the practice. Any viewer can go to a state or federal court and get a court order stopping the sale of cable TV services in packages or tiers.

Appointment of Bill Clinton to head UN Tsunami relief announced earlier today can be seen as first step toward Secretary General post.

A month after Lindsay lost in the Wisconsin primary and withdrew from the presidential campaign, Mr. Carson decamped for California.

Does anyone know the real reason why NBC moved the Tonight Show from 30 Rock to Burbank?

When was the last time you heard a "Central Park mugging" joke?

Last week on Letterman.

Loser Pays Costs: The Alternate to Tort Law Reform

If courts rule that losing litigants must pay costs of winning party as is done in England, it can reasonably be expected that the number of lawsuits will drop precipitously. This would eliminate the need to proceed with tort law reform.

If Sulzberger carries through on his idea, he will likley be in for a rude awakening. Few can be expected to pay for access to the Times biased news reports.

The fact is that the Times 's Internet service is supported by advertising with little additional cost. Any subscription income would be an attempt to skim off additional revenues. However, as non-paying users drop so will ad revenues, causing a net loss to Sulzberger & Co.

Rather than dealing with observations based upon probable or likely effects on shipping, the first approach should be to assess how ships at sea actually reacted to the recent Tsunami.

With regard to shipping lanes, the coverage is broad and well-positioned using the following:

AFRICAN TRADE LANES
Africa to Asia
Africa to Australia
Africa to Europe
Africa to Far East
Africa to Mediterranean
Africa to Middle East

ASIA/PACIFIC TRADE LANES
Asia to Africa
Asia to Australia
Asia to Central America
Asia to Europe
Asia to Mediterranean
Asia to Middle East
Asia to South America

AUSTRALIA/NEW ZEALAND TRADE LANES
Australia to Africa
Australia to Far East
Australia to Mediterranean
Australia to New Zealand
Australia/New Zealand to Europe
New Zealand to Australia
CARIBBEAN TRADE LANES
Caribbean to Europe
Caribbean to Mediterranean
Caribbean to South America

CENTRAL AMERICAN TRADE LANES
Central America to Asia
Central America to Europe
Central America to Mediterranean
Central America to South America

EUROPEAN TRADE LANES
Europe to Africa
Europe to Asia
Europe to Australia/New Zealand
Europe to Caribbean
Europe to Central America
Europe to Far East
Europe to Mediterranean
Europe to Middle East
Europe to South America
Iceland to Europe

MEDITERRANEAN TRADE LANES
Mediterranean to Africa
Mediterranean to Asia
Mediterranean to Australia
Mediterranean to Caribbean
Mediterranean to Central America
Mediterranean to Europe
Mediterranean to Far East
Mediterranean to Middle East
Mediterranean to South America

MIDDLE EAST TRADE LANES
Middle East to Africa
Middle East to Europe
Middle East to Far East
Middle East to Mediterranean

SOUTH AMERICAN TRADE LANES
South America to Asia
South America to Caribbean
South America to Central America

Advisory to Senator Lieberman-

The basic elements for a worldwide ocean warning system already exist without spending $30+ MM in US tax dollars.

In 1979, the UN led the way for the launching of the Inmarsat satellite system to link ships at sea with instant communications. Now, with the addition of global positioning satellites, all ships can be tracked throughout the globe.

To establish an effective warning system, ships can simply be required to report unusual ocean activities. These reports when linked to the ships' positions can be quickly analyzed to provide the basic information to instantly assess the need to issue advisories to regions that may be impacted.

This martime (ship based) warning system can be established immediately without the expenditure of $30 MM in US tax payer funds.

An Alternative Proposal:

AUTOMATED PAYMENT TRANSACTION (APT) TAX Taxation technology for the 21st century

Dr. Edgar L. Feige, Professor Emeritus of Economics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the originator of the APT Tax concept, has just produced new estimates suggesting that a broad-based transaction tax as low as six tenths of one percent could replace the entire Federal and State 2005 budget revenue requirements of the United States of America.

The APT concept is elegant in its simplicity - potentially replacing the entire federal and state tax system - including income, corporate profits, excise and estate taxes - in favor of a tiny tax on all transactions. The tax would be automatically deducted from special taxpayer accounts, linked by software to all accounts at financial institutions capable of making final payments to the government seamlessly in real-time. The APT tax therefore eliminates the need for individuals and firms to file income and information tax returns. This is estimated to save citizens and the government roughly $200 billion per year in administration, enforcement, evasion and compliance costs, roughly seven times the amount currently being spent on homeland security.

The APT tax seeks to maximize the goals of both the government and the people - collecting necessary revenue with the lowest possible tax rate. The difference between the APT tax and our current income tax, as well as the proposed consumption taxes, is simplicity, progressivity, and breadth-the APT tax allows for significantly lower rates spread more equally throughout the world of economic activity. The APT is a transaction tax, and as such, taxes every single transaction that occurs in the economy including fund transfers between accounts and transactions involving the exchange of bonds, securities and foreign exchange. Because the wealthy conduct a disproportionate share of these financial transactions, the tax is highly progressive despite its flat rate. Progressivity is achieved through the skewness of tax base itself rather than through the progressive income tax rate structure of the current system. The very small tax is "sliced" off each side of every transaction as it moves electronically through banks and all other qualifying financial institutions. The tax collection is orderly and transparent, the rules are simple and universal and apolitical. The APT system eliminates the entire present tax code. No more exemptions, no more deductions, no more special interest loopholes and no more tax returns.

Feige's 2005 projections of total debits of $881 Tril., and total transactions of $832 Tril. (based on the most recent 2002 Bank for International Settlements data) update the figures he used in his original paper, published in Economic Policy in 2000. Taking the average of these two estimates ($856 Tril.), he conservatively assumes that the replacement of the current tax system with a revenue neutral APT tax will reduce total transactions by 50%. The projected potential APT tax base for 2005 would then be $428 Tril., permitting a revenue neutral flat tax of .57 percent on all transactions or .28 percent on each (buyer and seller) transactor to replace projected 2005 Federal and State tax revenues.

The tax rates required for a "revenue neutral" tax are divided into three phases which are the result of a suggested implementation plan that would gradually replace virtually all Federal and State taxes. The projected tax rates are calculated conservatively, assuming that only 50% of the potential 2005 APT tax base is available, since the volume of total transactions is expected to fall with the introduction of the APT tax. To the extent that transactions decline less than is assumed in the current calculations, an even lower tax rate would be able to raise the requisite revenues. As individuals and businesses use their new found economic freedom, transactions naturally grow over time, suggesting that future tax rates could be even lower.

Utilizing 50% of the projected APT tax base for 2005 of $856 Tril., that is, $428 Tril, the estimated tax rates required to raise the revenues projected for 2005 budgets are as follows:

Phase I (Eliminate all Federal taxes other than SS and Medicare) Required revenue neutral target=$1.242 Tril: Required tax rate = 0.29% per transaction or 0.15% per transactor.

Phase II (Eliminate all Federal taxes including Social Security and Medicare "payroll" taxes) Required revenue neutral target = $2.036 Tril. Required tax rate = 0.48 % per transaction or 0.24% per transactor.

Phase III (Eliminate all Federal taxes including Social Security and Medicare "payroll" taxes and all State personal income; corporate profits and sales taxes) Required revenue neutral target = $2.436 Tril. Required tax rate = 0.57% per transaction or 0.28% per transactor.

The estimates above are based on 2005 revenue and transaction projections. Implementing the three phases will require several years and careful government management, especially the third phase. However, Dr. Feige has built in a safeguard for the APT Tax by calculating the required tax rate based on only half of the transactions that are actually observed.

Examples: Assuming full implementation of Phase three: 1. $100 restaurant bill would have a tax to the customer estimated to be 28 cents and the restaurant would pay 28 cents. 2. $50,000 family income deposited and spent or moved to savings results in $100,000 of transactions paying a total tax of $280 distributed over all the individual transactions as they occurred through the year. These amounts would be doubled if businesses fully shifted their tax burden to the consumer, but nowhere near the $15,000 to $20,000 the family would pay under the current federal and state systems.

It is now important to begin the process of planning the economic, legal, technical and administrative requirements necessary for a smooth and transparent transition from the current tax system to an APT system. The proposed, new collection system will be tested by computer simulation to capture all potential errors and omissions (new job for the IRS). Then, it will take several years to rollout, especially Phase III involving central collection and distribution to the States. A national commitment to this revolutionary, fair, automatic and lowest cost tax system is needed NOW!

For more details, please visit www.apttax.com

William J Hermann, Jr. MD, Director APT Tax Project Contact: administrator@apttax.com , 713-932-3773

Confusion started with Dave Letterman who referred to "John W. Kerry" in his monologues throughout the campaign.

An Alternative Approach:

AUTOMATED PAYMENT TRANSACTION (APT) TAX
Taxation technology for the 21st century

Dr. Edgar L. Feige, Professor Emeritus of Economics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the originator of the APT Tax concept, has just produced new estimates suggesting that a broad-based transaction tax as low as six tenths of one percent could replace the entire Federal and State 2005 budget revenue requirements of the United States of America.

The APT concept is elegant in its simplicity - potentially replacing the entire federal and state tax system - including income, corporate profits, excise and estate taxes - in favor of a tiny tax on all transactions. The tax would be automatically deducted from special taxpayer accounts, linked by software to all accounts at financial institutions capable of making final payments to the government seamlessly in real-time. The APT tax therefore eliminates the need for individuals and firms to file income and information tax returns. This is estimated to save citizens and the government roughly $200 billion per year in administration, enforcement, evasion and compliance costs, roughly seven times the amount currently being spent on homeland security.

The APT tax seeks to maximize the goals of both the government and the people - collecting necessary revenue with the lowest possible tax rate. The difference between the APT tax and our current income tax, as well as the proposed consumption taxes, is simplicity, progressivity, and breadth-the APT tax allows for significantly lower rates spread more equally throughout the world of economic activity. The APT is a transaction tax, and as such, taxes every single transaction that occurs in the economy including fund transfers between accounts and transactions involving the exchange of bonds, securities and foreign exchange. Because the wealthy conduct a disproportionate share of these financial transactions, the tax is highly progressive despite its flat rate. Progressivity is achieved through the skewness of tax base itself rather than through the progressive income tax rate structure of the current system. The very small tax is "sliced" off each side of every transaction as it moves electronically through banks and all other qualifying financial institutions. The tax collection is orderly and transparent, the rules are simple and universal and apolitical. The APT system eliminates the entire present tax code. No more exemptions, no more deductions, no more special interest loopholes and no more tax returns.

Feige's 2005 projections of total debits of $881 Tril., and total transactions of $832 Tril. (based on the most recent 2002 Bank for International Settlements data) update the figures he used in his original paper, published in Economic Policy in 2000. Taking the average of these two estimates ($856 Tril.), he conservatively assumes that the replacement of the current tax system with a revenue neutral APT tax will reduce total transactions by 50%. The projected potential APT tax base for 2005 would then be $428 Tril., permitting a revenue neutral flat tax of .57 percent on all transactions or .28 percent on each (buyer and seller) transactor to replace projected 2005 Federal and State tax revenues.

The tax rates required for a "revenue neutral" tax are divided into three phases which are the result of a suggested implementation plan that would gradually replace virtually all Federal and State taxes. The projected tax rates are calculated conservatively, assuming that only 50% of the potential 2005 APT tax base is available, since the volume of total transactions is expected to fall with the introduction of the APT tax. To the extent that transactions decline less than is assumed in the current calculations, an even lower tax rate would be able to raise the requisite revenues. As individuals and businesses use their new found economic freedom, transactions naturally grow over time, suggesting that future tax rates could be even lower.

Utilizing 50% of the projected APT tax base for 2005 of $856 Tril., that is, $428 Tril, the estimated tax rates required to raise the revenues projected for 2005 budgets are as follows:

Phase I (Eliminate all Federal taxes other than SS and Medicare)
Required revenue neutral target=$1.242 Tril:
Required tax rate = 0.29% per transaction or 0.15% per transactor.

Phase II (Eliminate all Federal taxes including Social Security and Medicare "payroll" taxes)
Required revenue neutral target = $2.036 Tril.
Required tax rate = 0.48 % per transaction or 0.24% per transactor.

Phase III (Eliminate all Federal taxes including Social Security and Medicare "payroll" taxes and all State personal income; corporate profits and sales taxes)
Required revenue neutral target = $2.436 Tril.
Required tax rate = 0.57% per transaction or 0.28% per transactor.

The estimates above are based on 2005 revenue and transaction projections. Implementing the three phases will require several years and careful government management, especially the third phase. However, Dr. Feige has built in a safeguard for the APT Tax by calculating the required tax rate based on only half of the transactions that are actually observed.

Examples: Assuming full implementation of Phase three:
1. $100 restaurant bill would have a tax to the customer estimated to be 28 cents and the restaurant would pay 28 cents.
2. $50,000 family income deposited and spent or moved to savings results in $100,000 of transactions paying a total tax of $280 distributed over all the individual transactions as they occurred through the year. These amounts would be doubled if businesses fully shifted their tax burden to the consumer, but nowhere near the $15,000 to $20,000 the family would pay under the current federal and state systems.

It is now important to begin the process of planning the economic, legal, technical and administrative requirements necessary for a smooth and transparent transition from the current tax system to an APT system. The proposed, new collection system will be tested by computer simulation to capture all potential errors and omissions (new job for the IRS). Then, it will take several years to rollout, especially Phase III involving central collection and distribution to the States. A national commitment to this revolutionary, fair, automatic and lowest cost tax system is needed NOW!

For more details, please visit www.apttax.com

William J Hermann, Jr. MD, Director APT Tax Project Contact: administrator@apttax.com , 713-932-3773

Another Alternative:

AUTOMATED PAYMENT TRANSACTION (APT) TAX Taxation technology for the 21st century

Dr. Edgar L. Feige, Professor Emeritus of Economics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the originator of the APT Tax concept, has just produced new estimates suggesting that a broad-based transaction tax as low as six tenths of one percent could replace the entire Federal and State 2005 budget revenue requirements of the United States of America.

The APT concept is elegant in its simplicity - potentially replacing the entire federal and state tax system - including income, corporate profits, excise and estate taxes - in favor of a tiny tax on all transactions. The tax would be automatically deducted from special taxpayer accounts, linked by software to all accounts at financial institutions capable of making final payments to the government seamlessly in real-time. The APT tax therefore eliminates the need for individuals and firms to file income and information tax returns. This is estimated to save citizens and the government roughly $200 billion per year in administration, enforcement, evasion and compliance costs, roughly seven times the amount currently being spent on homeland security.

The APT tax seeks to maximize the goals of both the government and the people - collecting necessary revenue with the lowest possible tax rate. The difference between the APT tax and our current income tax, as well as the proposed consumption taxes, is simplicity, progressivity, and breadth-the APT tax allows for significantly lower rates spread more equally throughout the world of economic activity. The APT is a transaction tax, and as such, taxes every single transaction that occurs in the economy including fund transfers between accounts and transactions involving the exchange of bonds, securities and foreign exchange. Because the wealthy conduct a disproportionate share of these financial transactions, the tax is highly progressive despite its flat rate. Progressivity is achieved through the skewness of tax base itself rather than through the progressive income tax rate structure of the current system. The very small tax is "sliced" off each side of every transaction as it moves electronically through banks and all other qualifying financial institutions. The tax collection is orderly and transparent, the rules are simple and universal and apolitical. The APT system eliminates the entire present tax code. No more exemptions, no more deductions, no more special interest loopholes and no more tax returns.

Feige's 2005 projections of total debits of $881 Tril., and total transactions of $832 Tril. (based on the most recent 2002 Bank for International Settlements data) update the figures he used in his original paper, published in Economic Policy in 2000. Taking the average of these two estimates ($856 Tril.), he conservatively assumes that the replacement of the current tax system with a revenue neutral APT tax will reduce total transactions by 50%. The projected potential APT tax base for 2005 would then be $428 Tril., permitting a revenue neutral flat tax of .57 percent on all transactions or .28 percent on each (buyer and seller) transactor to replace projected 2005 Federal and State tax revenues.

The tax rates required for a "revenue neutral" tax are divided into three phases which are the result of a suggested implementation plan that would gradually replace virtually all Federal and State taxes. The projected tax rates are calculated conservatively, assuming that only 50% of the potential 2005 APT tax base is available, since the volume of total transactions is expected to fall with the introduction of the APT tax. To the extent that transactions decline less than is assumed in the current calculations, an even lower tax rate would be able to raise the requisite revenues. As individuals and businesses use their new found economic freedom, transactions naturally grow over time, suggesting that future tax rates could be even lower.

Utilizing 50% of the projected APT tax base for 2005 of $856 Tril., that is, $428 Tril, the estimated tax rates required to raise the revenues projected for 2005 budgets are as follows:

Phase I (Eliminate all Federal taxes other than SS and Medicare) Required revenue neutral target=$1.242 Tril: Required tax rate = 0.29% per transaction or 0.15% per transactor.

Phase II (Eliminate all Federal taxes including Social Security and Medicare "payroll" taxes) Required revenue neutral target = $2.036 Tril. Required tax rate = 0.48 % per transaction or 0.24% per transactor.

Phase III (Eliminate all Federal taxes including Social Security and Medicare "payroll" taxes and all State personal income; corporate profits and sales taxes) Required revenue neutral target = $2.436 Tril. Required tax rate = 0.57% per transaction or 0.28% per transactor.

The estimates above are based on 2005 revenue and transaction projections. Implementing the three phases will require several years and careful government management, especially the third phase. However, Dr. Feige has built in a safeguard for the APT Tax by calculating the required tax rate based on only half of the transactions that are actually observed.

Examples: Assuming full implementation of Phase three: 1. $100 restaurant bill would have a tax to the customer estimated to be 28 cents and the restaurant would pay 28 cents. 2. $50,000 family income deposited and spent or moved to savings results in $100,000 of transactions paying a total tax of $280 distributed over all the individual transactions as they occurred through the year. These amounts would be doubled if businesses fully shifted their tax burden to the consumer, but nowhere near the $15,000 to $20,000 the family would pay under the current federal and state systems.

It is now important to begin the process of planning the economic, legal, technical and administrative requirements necessary for a smooth and transparent transition from the current tax system to an APT system. The proposed, new collection system will be tested by computer simulation to capture all potential errors and omissions (new job for the IRS). Then, it will take several years to rollout, especially Phase III involving central collection and distribution to the States. A national commitment to this revolutionary, fair, automatic and lowest cost tax system is needed NOW!

For more details, please visit www.apttax.com

William J Hermann, Jr. MD, Director APT Tax Project Contact: administrator@apttax.com , 713-932-3773

Rumsfeld favors developing a plan for the Iraqi oil industry that is based on transparency allowing Iraq's oil wealth to be used for the benefit of all the Iraqi people. (see speech to Council on Foreign Relations, May 27, 2003):

IRAQI CITIZENS' OIL FUND Incorporates the goals for Iraq Outlined by Donald Rumsfeld

In 2004, Iraq's oil revenues, which have reached over $12 billion through August, are projected to total $20 billion (US) for the year, up from approximately $6 billion (US) in 2003. These revenues are expected to increase in successive years.

The Iraq Plan Organization proposes the founding of an Iraqi Citizens' Oil Fund to provide regular payments to all citizens by a new organization to be established by the Iraq Government. The new fund would be similar to the Alaska Permanent Fund funded by oil revenues and operated for the benefit of the citizens of the State of Alaska in the United States. Iraqi citizens seeing the prospect of receiving regular payments from their government - rather than paying money to it - are much more likely to be willing and enthusiastic supporters of the new government.

Fortunately, Iraq has significant oil resources, which can be used to benefit all Iraqis.

The Iraq Citizens’ Oil Fund proposal would give each Iraqi citizen a true stake in the economic foundation of their newly established government. Each citizen - man, woman, and child- would become a direct partner in Iraq’s economic and political future.

By the establishment of the Iraqi Citizen's Oil Fund, the principle of individual ownership would become a primary hallmark of the new government. Citizens who are guaranteed economic power by the new government will naturally support the re-established system. And, with vested property rights, citizen-owners will be highly motivated to join together to devote their efforts to building their country’s future stability and prosperity and defending it from those interests that seek its destruction.

NOTE: An alternative approach could involve the placing of the Iraq's oil resources in a stock company and awarding all citizens a stock interest, which would pay regular dividends (quarterly and perhaps monthly) and increase in value over time. Restrictions could be established to prevent the re-sale of the corporation's stock to foreign interests.

The architects of the new Iraq have the power to replace the former government monopoly over natural resources with the Citizens’ Oil Fund, providing all Iraqis a direct ownership stake in their country’s most valuable resource. Such a plan is in the best interest of Iraq and all Iraqis. It also represents a practical and achievable approach to create vested property rights for all citizens in the new Iraq.

For more information: Website: www.iraqplan.8k.com Email: iranplan@email.com

Piutting Matters in Perspective--

Rumsfeld on the War:

"Iraq could conceivably become a model, proof that a moderate Muslim state could succeed in the battle against extremism taking place in the Muslim world today. The Iraqi people have a foundation on which to build the peace. At least in part because of the speed and the skill, and the execution of the war plan by General Franks and his team, some bad things did not happen. The vast majority of those oil fields were not destroyed. And the country's oil wealth is intact for the Iraqi people. An environmental disaster was prevented. Think back to what Kuwait looked like after the Gulf War."

Speech by Donald Rumsfeld before Council on Foreign Relations, May, 27, 2003

This means a government created and supervised corporation is the first guilty of vioilating the financial reporting rules set by the Sarbanes-Oxley law. There should be a full investigation of Fannie Mae, its officers and its board : Officers and Board Members: FRANKLIN D. RAINES, Chairman of the Board & Chief Executive Officer,( Raines headed OMB under Clinton) H. MUDD, Vice Chairman & Chief Operating Officer, TIMOTHY HOWARD, Vice Chairman & Chief Financial Officer, Board Members: STEPHEN B. ASHLEY, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer,The Ashley Group/ KENNETH M. DUBERSTEIN, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer,The Duberstein Group, Inc./ THOMAS P. GERRITY , Professor,The Wharton School,University of Pennsylvania/ ANN KOROLOGOS (Mrs. John McLaughlin, Host, The McLaughlin Group) ,Vice Chairman, RAND Board of Trustees/ FREDERIC V. MALEK, Chairman, Thayer Capital Partners/ DONALD B. MARRON, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer,Lightyear Capital (former Chairman, PaineWebber) / JOE K. PICKETT, Former Chairman & Chief Executive Officer, HomeSide International Inc./ LESLIE RAHLPresident & Founder Capital Market Risk Advisors, Inc./ H. PATRICK SWYGERT President,Howard University/ JOHN K. WULFF, Chairman of the Board,Hercules Incorporated.

NOTE: Recently Resigned Fannie Mae Vice Chairman JAMIE S. GORELICK, former member of Clinton Justice Department and member of 9/11 Commission

AUTOMATED PAYMENT TRANSACTION (APT) TAX
Taxation technology for the 21st century

Dr. Edgar L. Feige, Professor Emeritus of Economics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the originator of the APT Tax concept, has just produced new estimates suggesting that a broad-based transaction tax as low as six tenths of one percent could replace the entire Federal and State 2005 budget revenue requirements of the United States of America.

The APT concept is elegant in its simplicity - potentially replacing the entire federal and state tax system - including income, corporate profits, excise and estate taxes - in favor of a tiny tax on all transactions. The tax would be automatically deducted from special taxpayer accounts, linked by software to all accounts at financial institutions capable of making final payments to the government seamlessly in real-time. The APT tax therefore eliminates the need for individuals and firms to file income and information tax returns. This is estimated to save citizens and the government roughly $200 billion per year in administration, enforcement, evasion and compliance costs, roughly seven times the amount currently being spent on homeland security.

The APT tax seeks to maximize the goals of both the government and the people - collecting necessary revenue with the lowest possible tax rate. The difference between the APT tax and our current income tax, as well as the proposed consumption taxes, is simplicity, progressivity, and breadth-the APT tax allows for significantly lower rates spread more equally throughout the world of economic activity. The APT is a transaction tax, and as such, taxes every single transaction that occurs in the economy including fund transfers between accounts and transactions involving the exchange of bonds, securities and foreign exchange. Because the wealthy conduct a disproportionate share of these financial transactions, the tax is highly progressive despite its flat rate. Progressivity is achieved through the skewness of tax base itself rather than through the progressive income tax rate structure of the current system. The very small tax is "sliced" off each side of every transaction as it moves electronically through banks and all other qualifying financial institutions. The tax collection is orderly and transparent, the rules are simple and universal and apolitical. The APT system eliminates the entire present tax code. No more exemptions, no more deductions, no more special interest loopholes and no more tax returns.

Feige's 2005 projections of total debits of $881 Tril., and total transactions of $832 Tril. (based on the most recent 2002 Bank for International Settlements data) update the figures he used in his original paper, published in Economic Policy in 2000. Taking the average of these two estimates ($856 Tril.), he conservatively assumes that the replacement of the current tax system with a revenue neutral APT tax will reduce total transactions by 50%. The projected potential APT tax base for 2005 would then be $428 Tril., permitting a revenue neutral flat tax of .57 percent on all transactions or .28 percent on each (buyer and seller) transactor to replace projected 2005 Federal and State tax revenues.

The tax rates required for a "revenue neutral" tax are divided into three phases which are the result of a suggested implementation plan that would gradually replace virtually all Federal and State taxes. The projected tax rates are calculated conservatively, assuming that only 50% of the potential 2005 APT tax base is available, since the volume of total transactions is expected to fall with the introduction of the APT tax. To the extent that transactions decline less than is assumed in the current calculations, an even lower tax rate would be able to raise the requisite revenues. As individuals and businesses use their new found economic freedom, transactions naturally grow over time, suggesting that future tax rates could be even lower.

Utilizing 50% of the projected APT tax base for 2005 of $856 Tril., that is, $428 Tril, the estimated tax rates required to raise the revenues projected for 2005 budgets are as follows:

Phase I (Eliminate all Federal taxes other than SS and Medicare)
Required revenue neutral target=$1.242 Tril:
Required tax rate = 0.29% per transaction or 0.15% per transactor.

Phase II (Eliminate all Federal taxes including Social Security and Medicare "payroll" taxes)
Required revenue neutral target = $2.036 Tril.
Required tax rate = 0.48 % per transaction or 0.24% per transactor.

Phase III (Eliminate all Federal taxes including Social Security and Medicare "payroll" taxes and all State personal income; corporate profits and sales taxes)
Required revenue neutral target = $2.436 Tril.
Required tax rate = 0.57% per transaction or 0.28% per transactor.

The estimates above are based on 2005 revenue and transaction projections. Implementing the three phases will require several years and careful government management, especially the third phase. However, Dr. Feige has built in a safeguard for the APT Tax by calculating the required tax rate based on only half of the transactions that are actually observed.

Examples: Assuming full implementation of Phase three:
1. $100 restaurant bill would have a tax to the customer estimated to be 28 cents and the restaurant would pay 28 cents.
2. $50,000 family income deposited and spent or moved to savings results in $100,000 of transactions paying a total tax of $280 distributed over all the individual transactions as they occurred through the year. These amounts would be doubled if businesses fully shifted their tax burden to the consumer, but nowhere near the $15,000 to $20,000 the family would pay under the current federal and state systems.

It is now important to begin the process of planning the economic, legal, technical and administrative requirements necessary for a smooth and transparent transition from the current tax system to an APT system. The proposed, new collection system will be tested by computer simulation to capture all potential errors and omissions (new job for the IRS). Then, it will take several years to rollout, especially Phase III involving central collection and distribution to the States. A national commitment to this revolutionary, fair, automatic and lowest cost tax system is needed NOW!

For more details, please visit www.apttax.com

William J Hermann, Jr. MD, Director APT Tax Project Contact: administrator@apttax.com , 713-932-3773