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 ...
It wouldn’t, but Republicans have been known to control the House of Representatives from time to time. It’s easier to change existing tax rates than it is to repeal a Constitutional amendment.
Personally, I think the Fair Tax would be a good idea, but only if it was implemented such that it would gradually replace the current system over about a twenty year period. Gradually ramp down the payroll and income taxes while gradually ramping up the Fair Tax. If you don't do it gradually, you're 1) punishing everyone who played by the existing rules and 2) going to destroy the economy.
One problem that I see with you Fair Tax people is that you start calling people greedy if they don't like getting taxed twice. People that saved over their lifetime paid the tax on the money they earned and you'll tax them again when the spend the money. Another issue that I have is that you refuse to admit that there may be any problems with your proposal.
Your statement was that it "would take the teeth out our government and give us back our country". Bull. It wouldn't do anything about the encroaching nanny state, or Cap and Trade, or boosting cigarette taxes, or any number of other items. You try to fool people into thinking the government will be under control, when the Fair Tax would really do nothing to get to the underlying issues.
Yeah, you'll get people to yell "Yay! Yay!" when you say we'll get rid of the IRS. Algore gets people to yell "Yay! Yay!" when he says he'll save the polar bears. You're both either blind to the potential downsides of your proposal or you're dishonest enough that you do everything possible to hide the downsides from people.
And then changed right back when they are out of power.
I'm not saying a flat tax is wrong, but if the 16th amendment is not repealed we're p*ssing in the wind.
While we are wishing, my favorite tax would be a flat nationwide 10% on every retail sale of new items and all services. If it's not enough, that's too bad. Cut government services and spending until it is enough. No pre-bates or other gimmicks to mimic the progressive income tax we have now.
OK Your right.
I'd bet that foreclosed houses are already selling at more than 23% cheaper than new homes. You'll just make new homes be even more overpriced (on a reletive basis) and ensure that the construction industry stays down indefinitely.
Since I already pay almost 30 percent of my income in fed taxes I see no problem with the FT. For me the issue is I can decide, when I consume a product, whether the added cost of the tax makes it worth it for me to buy the item. It puts control over my money back in my hands. Furthermore, it would take huge amounts of power away from the federal government, since they wouldn’t be able to give tax breaks to those they support and increase taxes on those they don’t like. Just the savings in not having to file income taxes every year would be huge.
You are assuming the government wouldn’t be messing with it.
Of course the government would make it so the only choice for most of the useless people in this country would be to let the value slide.
We haven’t had free markets in over 30 years in this country.
You haven't considered the cumlitive burden of all of the embedded tax nested in the cost of goods or services with the current system.
A. 23% (The Fair Tax answer) B. 30% (As this book states)
You still don't want to give up lying about the Fair Tax, do you????
Is it really all that much fun being a liar? When did you ever see a Fair Tax advocate give an example anywhere ner tht twisted crap you posted obove???
ner tht = near that
Huh? What's gonna stop them from doing stuff like passing cigarette taxes and making windmills exempt from the tax?
It's about time you show up, troll. You may now sit back and play with .... well, never mind.
??????? WTF are you talking about? Go smoke some crack, maybe you will make some more sense.
That only works if employee's take home pay today equals his entire paycheck after the FairTax.
DING! DING! DING! We have a winner!
It doesn't matter how over a third of my income was taxed out from under me last year (income, sales, excise, communications, surcharge this, fee that), what matters is that is was.
Next year, they'll want more, because they have been whizzing it away as if I have been making it!
What especially distresses me is the looting of the national treasury replete with kickbacks to congressional family members (YEAH, YOU SAN FRAN NAN!) with our hard earned money. Those ratb@stards are already multimillionaires, they don't need to rip us off.
You haven't considered the cumlitive[sic] burden of all of the embedded tax nested in the cost of goods or services with the current system.It can't be considered because a "cumlitive[sic]burden doesn't exist.
That's like saying 7.65% payroll taxes on 10 employees is 76.5% of total payroll.
Only if you owe a lot of money, write off the new vehicle, etc.
If your mortgage is small or nearly paid off, and you do not take business deductions for a nearly new vehicle, you will likely end up with a standard deduction (it won't pay to itemize). You pay the full rate.
The system is geared toward rewarding debt and consumption, not frugallity.
1) You as an individual are no longer a target of the government
Tell that to DHS, the EPA, your HOA, the state highway patrol, etc. There is always someone in Government somewhere who can make a living at your expense.
2) The elimination of waste is very high - as in...more of the tax collected will actually end up in the spending budget
Waste is waste. There is no guarantee it would not continue, no matter how the money is collected. All they need to do is change one number, not the whole tax code.
3) All illegal money ends up getting taxed
Except that spent on the 'black market', which is where the illegal money is, anyway. It would just be expanded to include a wider range of goods and services.
4) 65,000,000 tourists a year will pay into our coffers
Maybe not so many, once they got bit by the tax. I know I spend less in Canada than I might in an American town, because of the GST, PST, and VAT, which substantially increase the price of almost anything.
5) We would become the #1 place in the world to do business - how many jobs would that create?
Not sure how you figure this. Businesses require supplies, which would be taxes at 30% plus state tax...
That does not begin to address the plethora of regulatory hoops one must jump through which make doing business, especially manufacturing, more difficult. 6) As an individual you would have complete control on how much you paid in taxes per year, and you wouldn’t be penalized for saving
Unless you required lifesaving surgery or medical care, unless you had to replace catastrophic losses (home vehicle, etc), unless the weather got worse and you required more heat to stay alive. You are never in complete control of anything.
7) No more double taxation through instruments like the death tax, etc...
There are no provisions to eliminate the death tax, property taxes, state sales taxes, or a host of other taxes, just the stated intent to eliminate the income tax. Federal and state excise taxes may apply. User 'fees', telecommunications charges, etc. will not just magically evaporate.
Look at the rate a cell phone bill is taxed. Then add the 'fair tax' to the total (tax on taxes!). 8) Our ability to complete on a global level would skyrocket
We're going to eliminate the EPA and institute slave labor?
9) Without a capital gains tax the amount of capital available for business expansion would literally be unlimited
Who said the capital gains tax was going away? I am sure the socialists will find a way to keep it.
The only way to reduce the tax burden on the taxpayer is to reduce the funding requirements of the Government.
This can be done by eliminating the departments and programs which the Federal Government spends money on which are outside the scope of its Constitutional authority. Until then, there will be no fairness, no matter how the money is collected, just taxes.
I could go on for quite a while about the benefits...I literally do not see the downside to it. It actually is fair if you accept we must pay some taxes...
Take another look, please.
Which will increase the demand for good quality used goods, which will result in price increases. In fact, absent the 'Fair Tax', a used item could cost as much as a new one and be siginficantly cheaper because there is no tax. Frugal will not be the same, cheap will be a thing of the past.
Food and necessities won’t be either, and since that is pretty much what I can afford to buy, I will be ok.
It has been my understanding that all goods and services, including, food, energy, medical care, medicine, etc, will be taxed under the Fair Tax. That is one of the reasons I am so adamantly opposed to it, as not everyone requires the "poverty level" amount of these to simply stay alive. So the "prebate", the 'refund' of the taxes to be paid on the average poverty level cost of such goods and services will come no where close to rebating the tax on cancer treatments, heat in a severe northern winter, air conditioning in a Texas heat wave, medication for a transplant patient (or the operation), emergency trauma care (and follow up treatment and therapy) for the mom who got hit by some drunk in a pickup truck...
In short, instead of allowing deductions from income for these items, the tax will hit those who need them harder.
That's just wrong, I don't care who you are.
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