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Under the current system there is NO FEDERAL SALES TAX, so my income is taxed by the Feds when earned but NOT when spent. Don't try to convince me that I'm not harmed by the new system in my hypothetical.

My hypothetical was not my personal facts, but INTENDED to be the worst case. There are many retired folks who are close to those facts, and those folks vote.

My own personal view is that a federal sales tax (to replace ALL income and payroll taxes) is not a bad idea if the transition problems are dealt with in a sensible way. But I assure you that retirees whose facts approach my hypothetical will be up in arms, and if you don't have any better answer than to denounce their "lousy attitude" you can't sell your idea.

You are no more harmed by the Fair-Tax than you were when Bush passed his tax-cut. The dollars you earned prior to said tax cut were taxed at a higher rate then the dollars of the worker who started earning dollars after said tax cut.

Under the current system there is NO FEDERAL SALES TAX, so my income is taxed by the Feds when earned but NOT when spent. Don't try to convince me that I'm not harmed by the new system in my hypothetical.

That's what the politicians love about the income tax. So much of it comes in the form of hidden taxes on every good or service that it looks much smaller than it really is. The truth is that you're paying 20-40% more than you have to for everything you buy because of the effect of income taxes. You've got corporate income taxes, accounting costs, human resources costs for administering tax-deferred or pre-tax programs, employer's share of FICA taxes on payroll, and so on and so on. Most of these taxes pile up through the stages of production.

No, there is no federal sales tax. But the income tax acts like a VAT -- all the NRST will do is replace the hidden taxes with explicit taxes. Final prices should remain roughly neutral after factoring in both the actual tax savings plus administrative savings.