Free Republic

In a nation whose government and citizens scarcely hesitate to spend money, and whose personal debt and entitlement liabilities climb staggeringly, economic conservatives would try to encourage more saving. One proposal many back for that purpose is the national sales tax, called the "Fair Tax" by its supporters. It has gained the enthusiastic support of free-market pundits like Robert Novak and Neal Boortz and from a presidential candidate, Republican former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee. This national sales tax would aim to promote saving by shifting the federal tax take from income to consumption. But even some of the most staunchly...

Hidden [income tax] costs go well beyond the question of economic incidence versus legal incidence or the compliance burden. Every tax system distorts economic decisions, alters economic behavior, and retards economic output below that which otherwise would occur, resulting in what economists agree is the “deadweight loss” or “excess burden” of taxation. Deadweight loss is a hidden extraction cost of taxation – the machine that didn’t spin, the worker who didn’t show up – which represents a depletion in purchasing power perhaps more nefariously improvident than if the government had collected that resource. The average worker is of course completely...

Advocates of replacing the income tax with the FairTax — a consumption tax in the form of a national retail sales tax (NRST) on new goods and services — regularly point to the complexity of the tax code, the millions of hours and dollars wasted on compliance costs, the evils of the withholding tax, and the abuses of the IRS to bolster their case for the FairTax. The twin truths that taxation is theft (no matter how the money is collected) and that the US government should never be given a budget that is in the trillions (no matter how...

A Battlefield for Tax Reform There are a few significant battlefields in the war for tax reform. One of them is Free Republic. What makes the Free Republic battlefield significant is that the debate is at the cutting edge. The debate on Free Republic is the most current and most knowledgeable. It is a year ahead of other significant battlefields (radio talk shows, political town-hall meetings, conversations among neighbors and coworkers.) The trend on Free Republic with respect to tax reform is going to show up in the real world. Free Republic is a tiny segment of the world, albeit...

Hezbocrats Attack Wal-Mart By Herman Cain The Hezbocrats, a roaming band of militant guerrillas seeking their party’s 2008 nomination for president, have most recently lobbed their rhetorical bombs at Wal-Mart, that cruel capitalist occupying corporation. The most recent base of Hezbocrat activity was Iowa, the state whose January 2008 party caucuses are the nation’s first measure of presidential preference. The Hezbocrats, armed with nothing more than Katyusha-grade class warfare rhetoric, descended upon Iowa earlier this month determined to take down Wal-Mart, a company they consider the nation’s largest capitalistic oppressor of the proletariat. Leading Hezbocrats, including Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE),...

Where Congress Fumbles, the States Recover By Herman Cain August 16, 2006 "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." – 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution The inability and unwillingness of Congress this year to cut federal spending, restructure Social Security, eliminate the estate tax and protect our borders has been well documented. If the Republicans lose seats this November in one or both chambers, they will have their self-imposed legislative impotence to blame. Fortunately, many of the...

Illegal Dirty Little Secrets about Social Security By Herman CainThere are two dirty little secrets behind the debate over the illegal alien issue that even the advocates of securing the borders first have failed to discuss. The first secret is that the estimated twelve to twenty million aliens living and working illegally in the United States have to commit identity theft to secure employment. The second secret is that without illegals' payroll tax contributions, filed under stolen or fraudulent Social Security numbers, the Social Security system would collapse years earlier than estimated. Hard to believe, here are the facts. The...

One Culture, Indivisible By Herman CainNew York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said of illegal aliens last week at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, "Although they broke the law by illegally crossing our borders…our city's economy would be a shell of itself had they not, and it would collapse if they were deported. The same holds true of the nation." Bloomberg and other elected officials who value the economic impact of illegal aliens' labor over the cultural decimation wrought by our acquiescence to illegals' demands should be swiftly removed from office. Those we elect to make laws must not be allowed...

Misplaced Priorities Again in the Senate By Herman CainIt could cost more to get caught working in the world's oldest profession if a bill passed last week by the U.S. Senate Finance Committee becomes law. The Finance Committee approved legislation that would allow the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to prosecute pimps and prostitutes for tax code violations. Senate Finance Committee chairman Charles Grassley (R-IA) proposed the legislation, which would impose a 10-year prison term on pimps for each prostitute in his employ on whom he fails to file a W-2 form. What's next? Will the Senate Finance Committee require pimps...

We Need a New Independence By Herman Cain "That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed." When our Founding Fathers signed the Declaration of Independence, they envisioned a governing body comprised of citizen legislators who served at the consent of the public. Today, too many of our elected officials have become independent kings concerned more with power, party and their political careers. The people who elect them and common sense policy solutions are no longer priorities. The inability of the men and women who represent us to secure...

Democrats' New Direction: Same as the Old Direction By Herman CainHouse and Senate Democratic leaders held a press conference on June 16 to announce their bold, new policy initiatives in a plan called New Direction. Their accompanying press statement promises, "Democrats are ready with a New Direction, with policies to address the real challenges Americans face every day." Their idea of the "real challenges Americans face every day" does not include fighting and winning the global war on terrorism, restructuring the Social Security and Medicare programs, rewriting the income tax code or cutting federal spending, because none of those issues...

It’s Time To Go RINO Hunting By Herman Cain June 7, 2006 The split in the majority party between conservatives and RINOs – Republicans in Name Only – first became apparent during last year’s debate over proposals to restructure the Social Security program. The chasm has only deepened this session in debates and votes in Congress on immigration, tax policy, spending and judicial nominees. Whether we agree or not with all aspects of President Bush’s agenda, we at least know his positions. Conversely, Congressional Republicans are like a lost ship adrift at sea with no captain or compass. President Bush’s...

We Need More Big Potatoes By Herman CainMy grandfather was a farmer. Though he was the grandson of slaves, he was able to own his small farm in rural Douglas County, Georgia and earn a modest return as the fruits of his labor. Many times as a little boy when I would visit my grandparents, Granddad had to take a load of potatoes into the local farmer's market. When he finished loading the wagon Granddad would announce to all the grandchildren running around in the yard, "Them that's goin', get on the wagon! Them that ain't, get outta the way!"...

Social Security Scam Keeps On Ticking May 17, 2006 By Herman Cain The Social Security Trustees issued their annual report earlier this month, and the program's fiscal outlook is even worse than estimated last year. Yet, as predictably as May brings rain showers from Heaven and bloated supplemental spending bills from Congress, liberals in the media, the House and the Senate continue to deny that the Social Security program faces a fiscal crisis. The 2006 Social Security Trustees Report found that the estimated year in which the program will pay out more in benefits than it receives in payroll tax...

Americans for Fair Taxation Educational and Networking Conferences It was my pleasure to attend an AFFT Educational and Networking Conference in Jacksonville, Florida on Saturday, January 21st, along with about 300 enthusiastic FairTax supporters. The cost was $10.00 per person to cover lunch and handout materials, which included a nicely done FairTax Volunteer Manual and a Florida Congressional Contact sp;readsheet. Hosted by David Allen, a local talk show host and ardent FairTax supporter, the meeting was focused on grassroots organizing and creating effective citizen action teams to move the FairTax issue forward in Jacksonville and the state of Florida. Following...

Stop Lying About Tax Cuts March 29, 2006 By Herman Cain Every good liberal will tell you that low tax rates cause tax revenues to drop, hurt the economy, benefit only the wealthy and cause skyrocketing budget deficits. A Wall Street Journal article last week blew a hole in those liberal lies. The Journal reported that federal tax revenues for the first five months of fiscal year 2006 are up 10.3 percent from the same period a year ago. The 2006 revenue growth adds to a 15 percent tax revenue increase from 2004 to 2005. This good fortune for U.S....

Gross Congressional Negligence March 15, 2006 By Herman Cain When corporate executives commit fraud and negligence against their customers and employees, they get fired or go to jail. Every year that members of Congress delay in restructuring the Medicare and Medicaid programs to avoid facing a coming economic disaster, they are committing gross negligence against the citizens of the United States. Unfortunately, many of them get re-elected. In 2004, 99 percent of House incumbents were reelected, as were 96 percent of their colleagues in the Senate. For over 40 years Congress has attempted to socialize health care delivery through excessive...

Liberal goal for America: Gutless socialism by Herman Cain Feb 21, 2006 The United States of America is drifting away from capitalism and its free-market foundations toward a gutless brand of socialism. Yet unlike the tyrannical dictators who ruled communist nations in the 20th Century, congressional liberals lack the guts to tell the public their true intentions. Those intentions are motivated by the Marxist philosophy of “From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs.” Instead of conducting a deadly revolution, liberals are waging their war on capitalism through public policy, assaults on our free-market system and...

Effective leadership in business and politics requires going to W.A.R. to achieve successful solutions: Working on the right problem. Asking the right questions. Removing barriers that impede progress toward the ultimate goal. Sometimes that W.A.R. must start with your own management team. It might seem obvious that President Bush is in charge of what goes on in the White House, but it is more obvious that he has some crippling weaknesses in his management team. The negative outcry over the sale of management of six U.S. ports by a British firm to Dubai Ports World, owned by the United Arab...

The battle between "South Park""South Park" creators Trey ParkerTrey Parker and Matt StoneMatt Stone and Scientology is escalating. The dust-up gained steam last week when Isaac Hayes, a practicing Scientologist who has long been the voice of the character Chef, quit after objecting to a "South Park" episode called "Trapped in the Closet," which lampooned both the religion and Tom CruiseTom Cruise. The skirmish continued this week, when Comedy CentralComedy Central abruptly pulled a repeat of that episode that was scheduled to air Wednesday evening...

End the $100 Billion Witch Hunt by Herman Cain The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) claims in a February 2006 report that for every dollar spent chasing unpaid taxes, they can recover about $4 for federal coffers. To close the expected 2005 “tax gap,” the IRS would have to spend $100 billion in an attempt to recover $400 billion. That’s $100 billion of our tax dollars spent to hunt us down for unavoidable errors trying to comply with the tax code. It’s not enough that many of us have to write checks to the IRS this time of year. Congress wants...

It is that time of year again. President Bush will journey tonight to Capitol Hill to do a ritual called the State of the Union address before a joint session of Congress. That is, for members who decide to show up. The President will outline what he wants Congress to do. He will get huge media coverage, those members of Congress who love getting their faces on television will arrive early to get an aisle seat so they can be seen shaking hands with the president and then they will converge in Capitol Hill’s Statuary Hall afterward and do interviews...

-1- An Open Letter to the President, the Congress, and the American people Concerning Reform of the Federal Tax Code Dear Mr. President, Members of Congress, and Fellow Americans, We, the undersigned business and university economists, welcome and applaud the ongoing initiative to reform the federal tax code. We urge the President and the Congress to work together in good faith to pass and sign into federal law H.R. 25 and S. 25, which together call for: • Eliminating all federal income taxes for individuals and corporations, • Eliminating all federal payroll withholding taxes, • Abolishing estate and capital gains...

A "thanks" from John Linder ...

Tax Reform Group Blasts Presidential Tax Panel 10/18/2005 3:50:00 PM To: National Desk Contact: Tom Wright, 800-FAIRTAX, Leo Linbeck, 713-966-5846, or Ken Hoagland, 713-667-3331, all of FairTax.org HOUSTON, Oct. 18 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Americans for Fair Taxation today blasted the Presidential Panel tasked with proposing fundamental changes to the tax system as engaging in, "Fraudulent political theater designed to protect the corrupt tax code and those who profit from its manipulation," said Leo Linbeck, chairman of the national grassroots organization. "When a Presidential Panel engages in such activities it does a great disservice to the American people." "Far from making...

TAX REFORM COMMISSION? YEAH ... RIGHT. The president's so-called tax reform commission telegraphed its intentions several months ago when members stated that they were not going to recommend a full reform of our federal tax system, rather they were going to recommend some incremental reforms. The The FairTax Book hit the book stores and debuted at No. 1 on the New York Times Bestseller's list. Politicians and other Beltway denizens told co-author Congressman John Linder that the success of The FairTax Book was a certain indication that the people of this country were in the mood for wholesale reform. Who...

Jharkhand, the latest state to announce its decision to switch to the State VAT, must be commended. Despite being a BJP-ruled state at a time when the BJP leadership is preventing its states from joining the Vat regime, Jharkhand has chosen to do the sensible thing. It indicates either a change in the stance of BJP’s leaders, or some creditable independence on the part of Jharkhand’s leaders. This leaves six major states out of the system — Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and UP. Talks have been taking place with political leaders to get them to join in....

A good quick read...

A change in a tax affects that area of the economy . . . and beyond. Taxes hurt whatever is taxed. Income taxes hurt income (production). Sales taxes hurt sales (consumption). Higher rates have higher effects. After having read "The FairTax Book: Saying Goodbye to the Income Tax and the IRS" by Neal Boortz and Congressman John Linder, I realized that the 'FairTax' proposed by Boortz and Linder would change EVERYTHING. The 'FairTax' is not tax reform, it is tax upheaval. Since it taxes consumption instead of income, consumption WILL fall, and incomes WILL rise. All of the incentives (and...

A taxing idea Tom Wright envisions a world with no IRS, where Wal-Mart, Target, Macy's and the rest of the nation's shopkeepers are the federal tax collectors. And he says close to 600,000 Americans agree with him, including political leaders with the clout to make it happen.Wright is the executive director of Americans for Fair Taxation (www.fairtax.org), a group backing legislation to replace all federal income, payroll and corporate taxes with a 30 percent national sales tax on all new goods and services. Supporters say the tax would free Americans from mountains of paperwork, eliminate loopholes and tax fraud, encourage...

I know you're tempted not to read this article. I know this because there is nothing (except maybe an all-night marathon of Al Gore documentaries) more mind-numbingly boring than reading an article about taxes. Since my column on taxes is not competing as an alternative to "The Internet, Al Gore, & You," I must instead resort to begging each of you to indulge me for a brief moment of your time. I always thought that only grumpy old men cared about taxes. I vividly remember many days during my childhood, watching my Dad—normally as cool as a cucumber—emerge red-faced from...

IT'S YOUR PAYCHECK - KEEP IT ALL FAIRTAX CALCULATOR HR25/S25 Now that April 15 is past, it's time to tally up the tax score. Go to the FairTax calculator, http://www.pafairtax.org/calc.php and using 2004 figures, figure out (anonymously) what you would have spent in 2004 in taxes if we had the FairTax, the simple, honest, and progressive national retail sales tax, instead of our current complex income tax/FICA tax system. TOTAL INCOME TAX + TOTAL FICA = TOTAL FAIRTAX : For your household, please remember to make an honest and accurate comparison. FairTax will fund social security and medicare with 1/3...

I have a few questions for the FairTax experts to answer! Beyond section 1 of HR25, where it repeals the existing Income Tax legislation, after reading further into the bill...

August 24, 2005 U.S. Representative John Linder 1026 Longworth House Office Building Washington, DC 20515 Phone: 770-232-3005 Fax: 770-232-2909 Copy: Neal Boortz, WSB Radio, Dr. Dale Jorgenson, Harvard University Dear Representative Linder: I wrote to you two days ago regarding what I consider to be serious misrepresentations of the Fair Tax plan contained in your book, “The FairTax Book”. On page 2, you state “Let’s agree up front that this book is about honesty” and I intend to hold you at your word. Since that time, I have been in contact with Dr. Jorgenson in an attempt to clarify his...

FAIRTAX UPDATE There is no doubt that the story of H.R. 25, the FairTax, has been pushed into the background by the Katrina disaster, and perhaps that is as it should be. When hundreds of thousands of people are suffering as they are in the aftermath of Katrina, that is the story. The FairTax is, however, still on the minds of the political class in Washington DC. Congressman Linder tells me that the Republican leadership is more than impressed with the success of The FairTax Book. They have been receiving a steady stream of phone calls, emails, faxes ... and...

bureau's take on: The Fair Tax Bill, Newt in 2008? More....

Dear Editor, I've just read a new best-seller, which I highly recommend to you and your readers: "The Fair Tax Book, Saying Goodbye to the Income Tax and the IRS." The co-authors are "reformed lawyer" and syndicated talk show host Neal Boortz, and Congressman John Linder, R-Ga. Linder is also the principal author/sponsor of The Fair Tax Bill (H.R. 25), currently before Congress. In the interest of brevity (the book is only 180 pages, by the way), I'll quote from the back of the dust jacket. "What the Fair Tax will do for America: eliminate the income tax and the...

NEW YORK (Money magazine) - If you don't care much for talk radio, or you don't live in the South, the name Neal Boortz might not ring a bell. But pay attention: Around 4 million people nationwide catch his radio show. It's No. 1 in Boortz's home market of Atlanta and ranks first or second in numerous smaller cities in red states. His 180-page polemic for radical tax reform, The FairTax Book, made its debut at No. 1 on the New York Times' bestseller list in August. When Boortz came to Jacksonville for a book signing at a downtown hotel...

THE FAIRTAX --- STRAIGHTENING OUT SOME CONFUSION When Congressman Linder and I were busy researching and writing The FairTax Book we knew full well that it would one day become the focal point for those opposed to this tax reform idea. We tried, therefore, to make sure that our numbers and claims were correct and consistent with the research that went into the drafting of HR 25. On review, and after reading the critiques of opponents to the FairTax plan, we have concluded that there is one element of the FairTax that could have been present with more clarity in...

President Bush says he wants to reform the tax system and has appointed a tax reform commission that will issue a report in September. It was originally supposed have finished by July 31, but the White House asked the commission to delay its report so that it would not interfere with the Social Security reform effort, which needs a few more months before it can be declared legally dead. When this whole effort started, I said on numerous occasions in columns and interviews that the White House had made a very serious error in attempting to do both Social Security...

(Chicago)City sales tax to hit 9 percent June 29, 2005 Chicago's sales tax-- already the second-highest in Illinois and among the loftiest of major U.S. cities-- is headed even higher. The city's sales tax rate for most goods will rise one-quarter percentage point to 9 percent starting Friday. Some city officials and retailers say they fear Chicago stores could lose business to nearby suburbs with lower tax rates-- especially retailers on the city's outskirts, where it's easy for shoppers to drive a short distance to save a few bucks. "It will have a negligible effect on mom-and-pop businesses, but the...

1. The 23% sales tax rate turns 37%. A retailer who sells an item for $100 must charge his customer an additional $30 for federal sales tax. Most people familiar with state sales tax call this a 30% tax, since the tax is 30% of the seller's price. The Sales Tax folks call this a 23% tax, since $30 is 23% of the final price ($130 including tax), which they call the 'tax-inclusive' rate. Neither way is technically incorrect, it is just important to understand what is really being discussed. Remember this 30% tax-exclusive rate is only the federal portion...

President Bush is calling for a complete overhaul of the broken U.S. tax code, and his Advisory Panel is holding hearings to make recommendations for reform. As I testified to the Panel earlier this month, instituting the flat tax is the right answer. Our current income tax system is a catalog of favors for special interests and a chamber of horrors for the rest of America. As a country, we spend more time filing taxes than we spend building every car, truck, and van produced in the United States. To put this in perspective, it takes the average taxpayer over...

The national sales taxBruce Bartlett (back to web version) | Send May 3, 2005 According to columnist Robert Novak, House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, is adamant about replacing the entire federal tax system -- payroll and income taxes -- with a 30 percent national retail sales tax (NRST) collected by the states, such as that in H.R. 25, sponsored by Rep. John Linder, R-Ga.  I have written many times before about what a dopy idea I think this is. Following is an effort to summarize the key arguments against it that appear over and over again in the scholarly...

It is a rare thing when the American people can get excited about a piece of federal legislation that involves taxes. Normally, our elected officials are trying very hard to figure out how to sugarcoat yet another tax increase so they can supplement their habit of funding things like museums for ground hogs and rodeos and tropical biospheres in the farm belt. But a bill sponsored by US Representative John Linder offers a “once in a lifetime” opportunity for our lawmakers to not only do what is right by the American people, but do something that makes them look good...

The president of Intel, Paul S. Otellini, warned a federal panel addressing tax issues that because of high tax rates in the United States, his company may build its next $3 billion semiconductor factory overseas. ... "The problem that we have and which the industry has is that it costs us $1 billion more to operate inside the U.S. than outside of the country," he said. "It's not wages and capital; its almost all attributed to tax benefits--or the lack thereof--in the United States compared to what is offered elsewhere."

WASHINGTON -- The power to tax involves, as Chief Justice John Marshall said, the power to destroy. So does the power of tax reform, which is one reason why Rep. John Linder, a Georgia Republican, has a 133-page bill to replace 55,000 pages of tax rules. His bill would abolish the IRS and the many billions of tax forms it sends out and receives. He would erase the federal income tax system -- personal and corporate income taxes, the regressive payroll tax and self-employment tax, capital gains, gift and estate taxes, the alternative minimum tax and the earned income tax...

Greenspan text: sticks to tax reforms says we need to reverse the drift to an overly complicated tax code that is burdened with too high marginal rates and special provisions. Says we can increase economic efficiencies by lowering tax rates and simplifying. US needs to boost saving and consumption tax would encourage saving.

<p>WASHINGTON -- Asked when he was near death to name things he regretted not doing, Andrew Jackson said: ``I didn't shoot Henry Clay, and I didn't hang John C. Calhoun.'' President Bush, who seems determined to leave office with nothing undone -- except, maybe, horsewhipping Harry Reid -- vows to transform not only Social Security but the hydra-headed tax code.</p>

One afternoon late last month, I paid a visit to the offices of Americans for Tax Reform, the conservative lobbying outfit headed by Grover Norquist. Though Norquist ranks among the Republican Party's leading operators, neither he nor his organization is quite yet a household name. Outside the Beltway, he is known mainly, if at all, for the cheerfully visceral quotations that regularly appear next to his name in newspaper articles. (Shortly after the G.O.P.'s Election Day victory, Norquist mused to The Washington Post that the city might become less bitter and fractious now that the Democrats had been more or...