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Posted on 09/07/2005 5:15:28 PM PDT by Man50D
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 on a sticky, sweltering Thursday night last month, close to 1,000 people turned out for a chance to meet him -- and to bask in his rage at the Internal Revenue Service.
"How many of you want the federal government out of your paycheck?" asks Boortz from the hotel's ballroom stage. Wooo-hooo! roars the crowd. Boortz's wife Donna, standing at the back of the room, looks on in amazement.
"This is for taxes," she says. "This is not sex and violence we're talking about."
No kidding. Everybody likes a tax cut, but fundamental tax reform is one of those issues that's generally as boring as it is important. Who wants to waste an evening thinking about marginal rates? But the plan Boortz is selling is disarmingly simple: Just eliminate most federal taxes -- income tax, Social Security tax, corporate tax, what's left of the estate tax -- and replace them with a big, fat national sales tax.
(Excerpt) Read more at money.cnn.com ...
Ping.
If it sounds too good to be true . . . .
People ought to pay taxes commensurate with "what they actually take out of the common pot, not what they leave in."
--Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, it is fairer to tax people on what they extract from the economy, as roughly measured by their consumption, than to tax them on what they produce for the economy, as roughly measured by their income.
"[T]he Equity of Imposition, consisteth rather in the Equality of that which is consumed, than of the riches of the persons that consume the same. For what reason is there, that he which laboureth much, and sparing the fruits of his labor, consumeth little, should be more charged, than he that living idlely, getteth little, and spendeth all he gets; seeing the one hath no more protection from the Common-wealth, than the other? "
---Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan (1651)
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John Linder in the House(HR25) & Saxby Chambliss Senate(S25) offer a comprehensive bill to kill all income and SS/Medicare payroll taxes outright and replace them with with a national retail sales tax administered by the states.
H.R.25,S.25
A bill to promote freedom, fairness, and economic opportunity by repealing the income tax and other taxes, abolishing the Internal Revenue Service, and enacting a national retail sales tax to be administered primarily by the States.Refer for additional information:
Beep. The circle takes the square. Read the book. Prices will drop, and everyone gets a prebate of all taxes spent on necessities.
Well he was doing fairly well until he got to the "You earn $80,000 cause your boss keeps $20,000 in taxes" part.
Wrong your boss feels you are worth $100,000 to him and that is what he pays you. He just has to take out the governments $20,000 before he hands you the rest.
If an hourly worker is working for $10 an hour and the Fair Tax passes do you really think a boss is going to walk up to a worker and say "Hey, the Fair Tax passed, I'm only going to pay you $7.50 and hour."
Thanks for the ping
I've said it before that what we need is a flat tax. The Fair Tax agenda is too controversial and a bigger step than most are probably willing to take.
Let's get a nice flat tax rate picked out and apply it. No complicated forms, no deductions. Exempt people below the poverty line for the first 5 years after the introduction of the flat tax. After that, no more breaks for those below the poverty line. By then, they probably won't need the break because the economy should get a real healthy boost and prices on goods might even drop.
We do away with corporate taxes and the estate tax, and 90% of the IRS.
The politcians, lawyers and their masters-in-black-robes will all be against the Fair Tax law!
Why?
Because it will force THEM to finally have to pay taxes themselves since the tax will be on purchases and not on "income".
Why would they complain there? See TAX SHELTER - Foundation - Trust Funds - etc. especially those in the Kennedy/Kerry/ and BUSH money range. None of them "earn" more than what looks minimally acceptable to the public and then "donate a portion of their petty cash to the slush fund that goes right back to them anyway in pork.
With the tax shelters, their fortunes are not "theirs" but belong to some phantom entity that won't be taxed. This corporation though is what spends the money for all the parties, the yacths, and whatever to the tune of millions/year all tax free to these politicians/lawyers.
The fair tax simply taxes money as it leaves the bank - immediately upon transfer to another entity.
They do not want to have to start paying taxes like us PEONES.
Another one who doesn't understand the first thing about fair tax but feels competant to pontificate.
Go to Fairtax.org and READ THE FAQ.
It's a VAT!
(Duck and cover for incoming!)
Not only what you stated that is correct but also..they absolutely WILL NOT consider or pass this. Why? Because the present tax system is a boondoggle for Lawyers. Matter of fact they will muck it all up some more by passing even more laws, rules and regs because its good for business. The more nobody understands it the better as it makes for longer and more expensive court cases.
The less money you make, the bigger percentage of your income you spend on sales taxable items.
You haven't spent much time looking into the actual implementation of the FairTax legislation have you?
Spend some time at the FairTax FAQ for a while before speculating and throwing out kneejerk nonsense.
FAQ items 3, and especially item 48 address the specifics of your complaint well.
Instead of opening the political and administrative rat's nest of excepting specific items or persons from paying the NRST at the cashregister, the Fair Tax Act(H.R.25) provides what amounts to a personal exemption in the form of a payment for that all legal residents will receive a payment called the Family Consumption Allowence(FCA) as a sales tax rebate equivalent to the FairTax paid at the HHS defined poverty level of expenditure. The FCA is paid in advance, in equal installments each month by check or electronic tranfer to bank account from the Social Security Administration.
The size of the monthly FCA will be determined by the government's Poverty Level for a particular family size, multiplied by the tax rate, and paid to all households regardless of income or actual expenditure. The HHS poverty llevel is a well-accepted, long-used poverty-level calculation based on the cost of a healthy diet comprising 1/3 of total family budget value. The povertylevel statistic is fixed in 1969 dollars updated annually for CPI.
When the most powerful Nation in the world goes something like the flat tax, what will be the total ramifications in the world marketplace? My guess, it would be HUGE and lead to a worldwide reform. I'd be interested in hearing more about the flat tax from this angle. How would the heavily socialist nations cope? Could they cope?
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