1) they cost the taxpayers much more than $20 Million (and AFFT got far more bang for its buck in the way of genuine economic studies) and
2) I didn't know the tax Panel was "going after labor unions" but that would figure since the Dems figure that's where their lib base resides and
3) You're the joke with your continual aspersions of falsification and wrongdoing on the part of any who supports the FairTax - in fact most now recognize you as the "aspersion artiste" and realize that almost anything you throw out is incorrect or misleading at best..
Linbeck: So we are devoting more of our time and attention to labor unions. I have personally met with a number of local labor unions as well as several of the international level labor unions and I have come to believe that, like the effort in general, moving those types of organizations to a position of support is best done through a bottom-up approach rather than top down.
I know we’re all seeking a silver bullet by which, in one transformational act, we can get a huge amount of money or bodies – members behind the FairTax – by persuading someone at the national level to endorse it. Our view is that that’s most likely to occur if they hear from their own constituents, their own membership, local members of the United Auto Workers, local unions of the machinists – your local members of the machinist’s union – local unions of the carpenters, the ironworkers, the bricklayers. When they hear from the people that pay dues to them that they are interested in and are seeking the support of their local, their regional, their state unions it is much more likely that those unions will come to see the value of being involved with us in the passage of the FairTax. We’ve had some indication of support in that regard. We’re encouraged by it.
We’ve had meetings with local unions of the United Auto Workers in the Kansas/Missouri area, district councils of the building trades unions in a number of states, and we’ve had a very, very good reception in every one of those instances by the people with whom we met and from that good reception we’re encouraged that the outcome will be positive.
As to trade associations, the same approach applies. They all have members. They are relying on their membership to pay the dues that support the staff that they maintain in Washington. We’re persuaded that you’re not going to change the staff in Washington in an ex parte manner. They will only change, they will only support the FairTax when they hear from their membership that it is something their membership expects. We’re working from the bottom up with people like home builders, with realtors, other trade association members in order to use the grassroots concept in building the support from the bottom up with those kinds of organizations.
what did the AFFT get for their $20 million? A discredited plan that has been dismissed out of hand by the people who investigated tax reform options. And it was dismissed with a smackdown that the numbers were cooked. They could've bought similar results for much less.