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OH boy! Where do I sign up for a temporaray rate reduction (40% instead of 43%) by paying a NEW tax on the (arbitrary) rental VALUE of my own home?

The poster negative.

Those who stand to lose under the FairTax:

Tax shelter hucksters.

130,000 IRS employees, more than the total employment of the FBI.

The life insurance and annuity industry. They mistakenly think that without the tax-deferral their products will be harder to sell. If their products were any good they would NOT be harder to sell.

K-Street lawyers. If you have ever been to D.C. you have seen the multiple square miles of towering office buildings full of attorneys and lobbyists. Here's how it works: Some F. CAT invents a new hot water heater. He goes to his congresscrook and explains that the device will save energy AND, he will give the congresscrook SOMETHING (cash, a deal, a favor, another congresscrook's okay on something else, a block of votes, a pile of gold). The congresscrook introduces a bill that will allow everyone who buys the new water heater a tax credit. WOW!! Do you think that will help sales?

Municipal Bond Industry. These guys have a dubious past anyway.

Tax lawyers, CPA's, small time street corner instant tax jobbers who make hundreds of thousand of dollars getting people their "check".

I could go on and you can probably create a few of your own.

TAX ME WHEN I SPEND IT, NOT WHILE I'M TRYING TO MAKE IT. LET ME ACCUMULATE WEALTH. PLEASE!!!

What does any of that have to do with me, exactly?

Is any of that supposed to make sense to anyone but you?

LET ME ACCUMULATE WEALTH. PLEASE!!!

Let you? Who's stopping you? If you're a loser and don't know how to accumulate wealth without an act of Congress that's your fault. The opportunities for wealth are endless. If you're waiting for Congress to act, you lose.

K-Street lawyers. If you have ever been to D.C. you have seen the multiple square miles of towering office buildings full of attorneys and lobbyists. Here's how it works: Some F. CAT invents a new hot water heater. He goes to his congresscrook and explains that the device will save energy AND, he will give the congresscrook SOMETHING (cash, a deal, a favor, another congresscrook's okay on something else, a block of votes, a pile of gold). The congresscrook introduces a bill that will allow everyone who buys the new water heater a tax credit. WOW!! Do you think that will help sales?

The FairTax was the brainchild of three very wealthy businessmen who got tired of tax planning so they thought and talked and figured the best plan was one that exempted all their business activity and profits from taxation.

They each throw some money in the pot ($1.5 million) to hire economists to do studies proving that exempting the source of their wealth from taxation would be good for the common folk too.

They tried out their ideas on focus groups, discovering the best words to use when selling their plan - and the "FairTax" was born.

They hired K-Street lobbyists (those bribing and bribable guys working for the "F. CAT" businessmen for tax favors against the interests of the common folk) to pitch their plan to Washington politicians. (not that the FairTaxers are looking for tax favors by exempting their wealth and profits from taxation - you understand)

Then they planted seed, watered and fertilized, nurturing - until they grew a gen-u-wine grass roots movement.

You forgot the category of people who have after tax savings. In my case, nearing retirement, I have considerable after tax savings that would suffer an immediate haircut in value due to the change in tax on income vs. tax on spending.