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Interesting article.

They mention a few good points, but a lot of the good points are mired in paranoid fears of what the government might do that they could already do now without a national sales tax.

A national sales tax would result in double taxation of people's current after tax money they've saved.

The way the percentage amount of the tax is being presented is misleading.

The method of taxing all goods and the government sending a check to every household as a refund for necessities is a very bad idea.

A number of the other things they mention are more questionable. They claim that inflation will hurt you worse. They say that inflation used to hurt because as you're income went up you would enter a higher tax bracket. The tax brackets were tied to the inflation rate to fix this problem.

The national sales tax does not charge you at a higher rate when you make more money. You always pay the same percentage. You pay more money in taxes, but you also do under the current system. The flat tax as well as the current income tax both tax you at the same percentage rate, regardless of inflation.

"The national sales tax is subject to manipulation in even more direct ways than the income tax has been. Let's say that Congress or some powerful regulatory agency decides that fatty foods or sugar or potato chips are bad for you – wham! Suddenly there might a 200 percent tax on those items."

The federal government already can and does impose taxes on individual items. They usually call these luxury taxes or similar names. They tax alcohol and cigarettes this way as two examples. The national sales tax is no more subject to manipulation than our current system.

"Government won't have to ban firearms; they'll just place a 500 percent sales tax on them. Or a 1,000 percent sales tax on ammunition. Cigarettes?"

They've been trying to do that for a very long time now. We must be vigilant to prevent them from doing so, but a national sales tax doesn't increase that threat in any way.

"The tax will be used to track your entire financial life. While H.R. 25 does not contain any requirement that every purchase be linked to an individual's ID, the trend toward tracking every purchase is growing. We expect that eventually, your “national ID cash card” will be required when you buy anything."

There is nothing in the proposed law that requires retailers to track who is buying what items, or for retailers that do track such data to provide that data to the government.

It is something we should be concerned about, but this law wouldn't do it, or even make it easier to do than it is now.

"A national sales tax will create a huge black market."

Possibly. I'm not sure it will create a larger black market than there already is. There already is lots of tax evasion, and a market for items like cigarettes that don't have the federal tax stamp. The nature of tax evasion will change. In some ways it will be easier to combat, in other was harder.

The national sales tax would create a huge market for individuals selling used goods. If this looks like it might go through, it might be good to buy stock in Ebay.

"The national sales tax will give government another reason to make cash purchases illegal."

Not really. They're pretty much the same reasons they have now.

"You'll pay a higher sum for your new home."

There is a serious problem involved here, but I'm not sure it's with new homes. Builders wouldn't be paying the withholding taxes for their employees anymore. Their profits also wouldn't be taxed.

Therefore the cost of building a house goes way down.

The problem is that drastically depreciates the value of current homes. That means for people like me, for whom their house is their largest investment, we take a HUGE hit.

Because of the major upheaval to our economy and the very significant harm to people who have saved money for much of their lives, I'm definitely against the national sales tax.

What are your views on the founding father’s original tax plan as outlined in EXPOSING THE FAIR TAX HOAX? ___ scroll down and start reading at:

American Constitutional Research Service Before the

Committee on Ways and Means

United States House of Representatives

June 1995

"The problem is that drastically depreciates the value of current homes. That means for people like me, for whom their house is their largest investment, we take a HUGE hit."

Not true. If you bought a house jus before the FairTax and paid $250K for it, and your friend bought one across the street after the FairTax was implemented, he woul pay about $250K after tax. EIther house would sell for about the same several years later, probably $250K + appreciation.

"Because of the major upheaval to our economy....."

According to Dr. Dale Jorgenson, former chairman of Harvard's economics department, first year GDP growth would exceed 10%. If that is your idea of "economic upheaval", the we can use all we can get! LOL