"On second thought, since the house and senate bills are identical there will be no need for committee reconciliation. Those who are for it and will vote for it are for it as it is. Either it will pass or it won't."
There will be attempts to add amendments to the bill - there always are. However, those who back the FairTax will have to beat back attempts to compromise the basic principles (one of which is simplicity).
There will almost certainly be political decisions to be made that have to do with compromises that might attract additional votes. That is the way that the legislative process works. However, Congressman Linder has been relatively inflexible to this point and I expect that to continue. If we can get the number of co-sponsors up to 100, Congressman Linder will probably control at least that number of votes. IOW, there will probably be some who vote for the bill on the floor who aren't co-sponsors, and who would be influenced by the bill's primary sponsor. For that reason, I think anyone offering up an amendment that Congressman Linder opposes (or Senator Chambliss in the senate) would have an uphill battle getting it voted in.
Amendments are often offerred up to bills which look like they will pass to thwart the intent of the bill. The opponents are in essence saying, they may pass the bill, but it won't do what they intend it to do. Such tactics are seldom successful, for the simple reason that if a bill has enough votes to pass, those voting for it (who are in the majority) are unlikely to vote for amendments that compromise the its intent.
One of the goals of the FairTax is simplicity. If you accept simplicity as a goal of the tax system, then you support the FairTax. If you don't accept that goal, then you may not vote for it.
Hopefully ya'll will stick with your time-tested tactics, and begin referring to any Senator or Representative who asks a question about the Bill or who doesn't immediately sign on as "Senator Squirrel" and loudly question their motives on the cable news shows.
It is a great way to get these people on board. You could even give them cute nicknames and lump them all into a big group of nefarious legislators who are obviously both stupid and cunningly evil at the same time.
Thanks for your comments. I am aware of the normal process but I think that due to the time and effort that has been spent to hammer out the details of this bill to make it actually work as intended, there will be nothng of consequence, if anything at all, that will change from what it is now. It will either sink or swim.
If any negotiating is done I expect it to be of the nature, "OK, I will vote for this but when my bill about ???? comes up I expect your support on that."