[ex-snook]

If it was ‘fair’, it wouldn’t need rebates. Fair is in the eye of the begetter.

[Digital Sniper]

Add to the mix that the IRS will still exist under the "fair tax" system...and it will have the power to audit all your receipts to make sure that you didn't buy your new plasma TV on the tax-free black market.

Add to that mix the assured increase of the "fair tax" percentages as black markets grow and increasingly deny the government the revenue it thinks it deserves.

The "fair tax" system doesn't eliminate the IRS; it pours Miracle Gro on it and gives it powers that would make the Secret Service blush.