Posted on 04/20/2009 3:15:05 PM PDT by pissant
This is a new book that I have co-authored with Hank Adler, a professor at Chapman University's business school, a post he took up after retirement from a long and successful career as a partner with Deloitte.
Hank and I undertook this project because we had --independent of each other and for different reasons-- arrived at the same conclusion: That the "Fair Tax" proposal put forward by my radio tal show host Neal Boortz and Congressman John Linder is a disastrous mirage that far too many Republicans have been drawn too, and for all the wrong reasons. "The Fair Tax" is a hopelessly flawed fantasy, but one with a surface appeal of simplicity that attracts especially politicians in need of energetic volunteers and quick headlines. But if the "Fair Tax" becomes the "Kemp-Roth" of the next few years, the GOP will be rightly punished at the polls as the details of the plan make it to the desks of serious political and economic analysts and from there to large numbers of voters who will examine the plan carefully and reject it almost immediately upon doing so. In short, not only should Republicans and conservatives not endorse the Fair Tax, they ought to affirmatively disavow the plan and press instead for serious and thoroughgoing tax reform, including lower and flatter tax rates.
Fair Tax enthusiasts often call my show and demand that I "read the book," by which they mean one or both of Neal's books. We have, and they do nothing to persuade serious readers of the plans merits, but much to camouflage the scheme's many deeply embedded flaws. Henceforth I'll be able to respond "Yes, but have you read the book that exposes the Fair tax as a destructive fantasy it is?"
(Excerpt) Read more at hughhewitt.townhall.com ...
That is your response...lol. So glad you actually take a moment to even try to help this country.
Have you even read about the Fair Tax? What exactly do you suggest as an alternative?
ego?...you don’t know anything about me.
You are the one that is acting arrogant and you sound very much like a raging left loon when they are called on something, have nothing to back up their position so they deflect. It is very helpful indeed.
SecAmndmt...so you don’t think we should change the current tax system.
What you don’t realize is that we will have no choice but to move to a consumption based tax system. Even Russia had to face this inevitability.
Our economic system will not flourish under an unfair, imbalanced tax system and we are heading for an economic disaster never seen before in this country.
Of course the spending is insane and of course the Fed should be opened up, audited and dismantled if necessary and of course our current tax system is completely out of control.
The Fair Tax isn’t perfect but it is the best that has been put forward so far.
And we can’t just change the Fed or somehow reign in their spending and expect it to fix everything.
Our government needs a comprehensive overhaul to bring our country back to free-markets and the leader of the free world which is basically just our country at this point.
What alternative do you have for a tax system?
You want to be helpful? Go try the FT somewhere - anywhere - but not here. Prove it works with real data and real results. Otherwise it is a fantasy, and a bad one at that.
What do you even know about FR?
“The income tax code is espoused in the Communist Manifesto in order to prevent the people from achieving any wealth and ensure the select few who are in power take the people’s money and spend it in order to control and punish the people.”
The Fair Tax does not dispense with the income tax. It gives Congress 7 years to find a reason why the income tax is needed for continued socialism, fascism, communism, sustainable development (etc, etc). I’ll bet they find a reason within 3 months.
Hey, didn’t Congress pass a bill abolishing the IRS in the late 1990’s? How did that turn out?
Isn’t centralization of credit and banking also in the communist manifesto? So isn’t it just as important to abolish the private Fed? The Fed is also responsible for the inflation tax, which is soon to be FAR more destructive than the federal income tax.
The Fair Tax is a complete scam, a ruse intended to distract real conservative and real constitutionalists from dedicating the time and resources to educating the public about Constitutional government and the rule of law, without which the Republic as we know it is finished.
“What exactly do you suggest as an alternative?”
The only one: the Constitution.
“What alternative do you have for a tax system?”
At the federal level, tariffs, excises, duties, imposts, the federal corporate income tax (not too high), such as is sufficient to fund the federal government within Constitutional limits (military, foreign affairs etc).
Aparently much more than you know about the FT.
That was sloppy of me. I don’t care for that term because I find it misleading. I assume then, that all you know about land rent taxation is my “garbled” exposition. Fair enough.
How is that any different than we are doing now? The liberals just believe the Constitution is an old piece of paper that just gets in the way of their ideology.
The nice part of the Fair Tax is that it is based on consumption that would force all the corrupt politicians to make decisions that ultimately improve our economy and GDP. Until that prosperity is restored we will continue down this path of massive government control and spending.
I look at the Fair Tax as a significant step in eliminating power that it is in the hands of the corrupt politician.
To sit there and dream about our Constitution actually being the end-all just isn’t realistic today with the corruption in all branches of our government.
We need to be as creative as the enemy is in winning this long-term war. At the end of day when we have removed the obstacles that have been put in place to subvert the Constitution we can get it back to its pristine standing it deserves and we deserve as Americans.
I think you're on to something there. :) Boortz was ripping Hugh this morning. It was pretty good.
We moved this to the backroom so everyone will be far less taxing on the mods as no side is innocent.. please try to keep it civil and act like adults. If we pulled all the posts that we are getting reports on, there would be no thread left.
Naaahh. Boortz just rips anyone who won’t drink his koolaid
Wow, I guess I missed all the fun.... LOL This thread was started on Monday and it has died down now. I do get the pleasure of skimming all the way through it and getting the flavor. It looks like we have a mixture of the old opponents with a couple of new ones. Looks like the success of the tea party events has stirred the SQLs from their dormancy and they have come out swinging, as usual, with insults and half truths. That isn’t to say there aren’t some legitimate concerns, but that doesn’t seem to be what is reflected on the majority of this thread.
I am struck, as I almost always am, by the almost complete lack of focus of both Hewitt and the opponents on this thread, on the big picture. Well, I haven’t read Hewitt’s article, but I can just about guarantee that he ignores the major adverse economic trends that FairTaxers would like to see addressed. I am referring to
1. our enormous trade deficit and the ongoing deterioration of our manufacturing sector,
2. the extremely low individual savings rate, which is a matter of concern to virtually every serious economist,
3. the ongoing spiral of complexity and higher and higher compliance costs,
4. the federal budget deficit
5. the looming crisis in Social Security and Medicare
6. etc, etc
The opponents are almost universally silent on these issues for a number of reasons. Many are like most Americans and don’t realize their seriousness. Many are also like most Americans in that they do not realize how these trends are contributed to by our current highly dysfunctional tax system. Some have their own vested interest in the perpetuation of the current system and don’t really care about how it affects the nation as a whole.
Nevertheless, I am encouraged by the fact that my experience has been that once Americans have these trends pointed out to them and receive an explanation about the relationship to tax policy, then get an opportunity to have their questions and concerns answered, they support the FairTax in very strong numbers - typically 75 to 90%.
I assume then, that all you know about land rent taxation is my “garbled” expositionThen you assume I understand garble? I'm pretty sure "garbled exposition" is an oxymoron and you keep digging deeper. It's becoming apparent even you don't know what it is.
Land rent taxation sounds like a wet dream a bunch of liberals, who never will own property had, "to make it fair"...Or maybe it's just plain old property taxes.
“Hank Adler, a professor at Chapman University’s business school, a post he took up after retirement from a long and successful career as a partner with Deloitte.”
Wow ... a guy who spent much of his career profiting from the gaming of the current tax system and getting handsomely rewarded for it is opposed to the FairTax!!! What a surprise!
Not.
Deloitte, Price Waterhouse, Ernst & Young, and all the other major accounting firms bill hundreds of millions of dollars per year on the tax practice side of their business. I don’t think that you could have found anyone with a more blatant conflict of interest if you had tried.
Speaking of conflicts of interest, I just read that John Breaux and Trent Lott opened up their own lobbying firm last January (08). You may recall that Senator Breaux was vice chairman of the tax reform commission that President Bush set up a couple of years ago. That commission considered the FairTax (or their own version of the FairTax) and found it wanting. Their own recommendation, which called for minor tweaking of the current dysfunctional system, was ignored by both the WH and congress. To say that that commission was a failure and a waste of taxpayer money would be an understatement.
Had the FairTax passed into law by now, the opportunity to collect tens of millions of dollars in fees by peddling tax preferences to special interests would have escaped Breaux-Lott Leadership Group, a fact that I am sure did not escape Senator Breaux when he was serving as vice-chairman of the tax reform commission.
I personally find Boortz to be pretty independent.
“How is that any different than we are doing now?”
No federal personal income tax AND no direct federal consumption tax.
“The liberals just believe the Constitution is an old piece of paper that just gets in the way of their ideology”
Republicans don’t think too much of the Constitution, either.
“force all the corrupt politicians to make decisions that ultimately improve our economy and GDP.”
Have you ever heard of deficit spending? Have you ever heard of a country monetizing its debts to avoid turning from socialism?
“I look at the Fair Tax as a significant step in eliminating power that it is in the hands of the corrupt politician.”
ROTFL!
“To sit there and dream about our Constitution actually being the end-all just isn’t realistic today with the corruption in all branches of our government.”
Let me get this straight: you believe that the same corrupt government, which never abides by the rule of law or original intent of the Constitution, is likely to cut taxes and spending and abide by the law once the Fair Tax is passed? You can’t be serious, so you must be a troll.
“We need to be as creative as the enemy is in winning this long-term war. At the end of day when we have removed the obstacles that have been put in place to subvert the Constitution we can get it back to its pristine standing it deserves and we deserve as Americans.”
What a steaming load of BS you are peddling.
And you believe crying about the Constitution is the only way to solve the problems.
You will find no bigger supporter of our Constitution then me and my entire family. We have fought in every major conflict for this country all the way back to The Revolutionary War.
The Fair Tax is but one step in the process. No one argues about the positive impact economically of the Fair Tax...once it is working we can get the Constitutional amendment to banish the income tax.
I am not fan of the Republicans either - they are the same if you ask me. Bush proved he can spend just as much as any other liberal. Obama took the opportunity to double down and bankrupt our country to the point of costing us $50 million an hour just in debt service...and that will double this year.
I understand the issues and working to try to get behind solutions that will actually help and restore Old Glory to the pristine image she once held.
Isn’t it interesting that Michelle Obama can now finally say she is proud of her country but the majority of Americans now are not proud of where we are going.
We need to investigate and jail all corrupt politicians and get our country back on track.
We need more people that actually have signed the front of a check as opposed to just those that only know how to sign the back of a check.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.