[robertpaulsen]

"FairTax legislation would shift taxation from production to consumption!"

Given that I spend everything I make -- and that ain't gonna change -- all we're doing is rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. Taking 50% of my income or 50% of what I spend amounts to the same thing.

Call me with a proposal that drops the number to 10%.

[xcamel]

You're going to see a ton of these "agendatorials" posted as news between now and the 15th. 17% flat tax is the right answer, 10-5-2 (local, state, federal). It's truly fair, and non-regressive. All other domestic taxation goes. Any "play money" the government needs would have to come from taxes on foreign goods and services. I believe you would see the deficit gone in about 3 years, and general/retirement savings go up by a factor of ten. Unemployment would drop to around 2.7-3%.

[det dweller too]

"Taking 50% of my income or 50% of what I spend amounts to the same thing"

You miss the big picture. you are sitting here where income taxes are imbedded in the cost of everything made HERE but nothing made elsewhere. You get frustrated that the finished imported products sold in Walmart cost less that what it would cost to buy the raw materials here. There are two partys in the global market that supplies Walmart, domestic that pays all the taxes and imports that don't. You will slowly die of starvation unless that imbalance can be changed.