National Retail Sales Tax - You gotta be kidding!

GOPNATION.COM ^ | January 31, 2005 | Steve Pudlo

[Phantom Lord]

It makes that $6,000 tax on a car a bit easier to accept.

And never mind that @ 25% of a price of a new car is imbedded taxes already. Which would disappear. And that if you buy a used car, you pay ZERO sales tax.

[kevkrom]

By the way, food, clothing and medicine are excluded from the NRST that is being preposed.

Not true. Every new item is taxed under the NRST, but the Family Consumption Allowance (as mentioned above), allows people to decide for themselves what their necessities are.

[mike182d]

To quote Alexander Hamilton in The Federalist Papers

"The amount to be contributed by each citizen will in a degree be at his own option, and can be regulated by an attention to his resources. The rich may be extravagant, the poor can be frugal; and private oppression may always be avoided by a judicious selection of objects proper for such impositions. If inequalities should arise in some States from duties on particular objects, these will, in all probability, be counterbalanced by proportional inequalities in other States, from the duties on other objects. In the course of time and things, an equilibrium, as far as it is attainable in so complicated a subject, will be established everywhere. Or, if inequalities should still exist, they would neither be so great in their degree, so uniform in their operation, nor so odious in their appearance, as those which would necessarily spring from quotas, upon any scale that can possibly be devised."

[PeterPhilly]

Correct. The only caveat I would add to the plan for a national sales tax is that it must also include a repeal of the 16th Amendment, otherwise we will end up with both. The other benefit to this plan is that people will be constantly reminded of exactly how much they pay in tax since they will have to pay it with each purchase. It would no longer be painlessly deducted before you even see it. This might have the effect of finally providing incentive to hold the line on spending, at least in the voter's mind! The cost of government programs will be transmitted directly to the consumer, both large and small.

[Judith Anne]

Sales taxes are regressive....and hurt those with lesser incomes far more than those higher up the economic scale.

Gabz, I really respect you and agree with so many of your posts it isn't funny. I have a favor to ask: please please please take a really good look at the proposed NRST--basic necessities aren't taxed, the costs of tax compliance are removed from EVERY STAGE of production and prices are lowered, the government is OUT of your pocket and doesn't need to know what you have or what you earn, and a huge politicized sick behemoth (current tax law) is given the swift death it has earned.

[Conspiracy Guy]

There are provisions for that too. The tax is not on everything. It would replace a lot of existing taxes as well rather than being lumped on top. Depends on which proposal you read.

[mike182d]

Actually, it's the opposite -- consumer spending is more predicatble than income.

Really? Then I've been gravely misinformed :-) Are there any reports that you know of off-hand that you could direct me to for further consideration?

[Gabz]

As far as I know, they do........thus my being able to see both sides of this.

Who makes the arbitrary decision of what is a necessity? Fertilzer is a necessity for a farmer, but not for a Wall Street executive. An automobile is a necessity for someone in a rural area with no mass transit, but not for a city dweller.

[eyespysomething]

What a torturous read.

Who's gonna police the collectors to make sure they collect the right taxes from the right goods?

Who does now?

[Thermalseeker]

How someone can be so misinformed about the topic they're writing about and expect to be taken seriously is beyond comprehension.

EXACTLY! The same can be said for those who say "A NRST would hurt the poor" or "A NRST would hurt retirees".

Nothing could be further from the truth and anytime you hear folks arguing against the NRST based on this sort of logic it is proof they either don't understand the concept or they don't want to understand the concept.

Taxes are power. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

[BoBToMatoE]

I can understand the idea to a degree, but it would kill small businesses like mine to a degree. At least with the figures I have heard being provide to how much the tax would be.

[robertpaulsen]

I agree. He is misinformed. It's more like 50%.

[kevkrom]

Fertilzer is a necessity for a farmer

Nit-pick -- that's not a retail expense, assuming the farmer is actually growing food commercially, and so would not be taxed. The NRST is not a VAT, it only applies to retail sales. (Of course, a home gardener would pay tax on his/her fertilizer, since that's for personal, not business, use.)

[Gabz]

Again, I can see both sides of the issue.

If I had my druthers, the first way I would like to see taxes fairly dealt with is to get rid of most government bureaucracy.....but alas, I'm not in charge.

[Paul C. Jesup]

By the way, food, clothing and medicine are excluded from the NRST that is being preposed.

Not true. Every new item is taxed under the NRST, but the Family Consumption Allowance (as mentioned above), allows people to decide for themselves what their necessities are.

A.G., kevkrom is under the false belief that food, clothing and medicine will be taxed under the NRST preposed in the House and Senate.

A.G. since you know more about this subject, could you point out the error in his thinking.

[Final Authority]

With respect to #7, Lenin and Marx had a plan as well. You know what is said about plans and opinions, they are like a......s, everybody has one and they all stink.

If this piece is and indication of the acceptance of the so called fair tax then stick a fork in it, it is all done. There will be a national sales tax however, it will be levied on top of the income tax and will be earmarked for things like prescription drugs or social security.

I may be wrong, but I am dead set against any sales tax as it is the easiest way for the government to confiscate property against our will.

[hopespringseternal]

Yes, he is ignoring the fact that the NRST is meant to replace the income tax, and that he is already ponying up that 40%.

And then he turns around and brings up spending, which makes the point of the NRST right there. Spending will never go down as long as politicians can hide taxation by turning corporations into tax collectors.

[Le Seigneur De Porc]

The height of idiocy is to throw the bomb of a consumption tax into the middle of a consumption based economy, and then assume that all the previous economic models would remain in effect.

They wouldn't, and the idea of destroying the economy in order to try to get a tiny amount taxes out of gang bangers and pushers as well as to achieve the equality of impoverishment of the middle class is so loaded with stupid that its laughable.

[Vince Ferrer]

One thing I like about a sales tax is that it does a better job of taxing the underground economy. Illegals et al still shop in regular stores.

[kevkrom]

It's more like 50%.

You make a statement like that, you'd better be able to show me the math. So, I humbly request that you show me how you came up with that number.