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To: heckler
I suggest you study:

The Fair Tax: A Trojan Horse For America

8 posted on 12/17/2004 5:29:34 AM PST by JOHN W K
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To: JOHN W K

I've read that piece of crap. They accuse the proponents of the Fair Tax of being deceptive and then make their case by taking every possible objection to the FT and driving it to its worst possible scenario. They use fear and deception. I guess I'm going to have to write a point by point refutation of that piece of garbage to post every time it pops up. At work now, dont have time.

No personal insult intended.


9 posted on 12/17/2004 5:42:41 AM PST by heckler (wiskey for my men, beer for my horses, rifles for sister sarah)
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To: JOHN W K
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.
22 posted on 12/17/2004 6:55:03 AM PST by untrained skeptic
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To: JOHN W K

The article you linked upthread is a total lying joke.


50 posted on 12/17/2004 10:36:11 AM PST by EternalVigilance
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