You know why many quack products are sold by independent MLMers (like HerbalLife)? It's so the salespeople can make crazy unsubstantiated claims about what the product will do, and the core business can say "we told them not to say that".
The same thing happens with fairTax supporters selling their plan, but when John Linder put his name on that book, he became part of the "snake-oil sales" job. Whether he realizes it yet or not, he is accountable in a way that ya'll bunch of groupies aren't. He must correct the record on the full paycheck and 25% increased purchasing power claims made in the book.
The same thing happens with fairTax supporters selling their plan, but when John Linder put his name on that book, he became part of the "snake-oil sales" job. Whether he realizes it yet or not, he is accountable in a way that ya'll bunch of groupies aren't. He must correct the record on the full paycheck and 25% increased purchasing power claims made in the book.
Unless of course a claim turns out to just happen to be true. Or that such a claim is not made in the book.
The claims I see are that
1) People end up with their full paycheck (no withholding), an understandable one predicated on the fact that folks are not going to renegotiate there contracted wages downward in a strongly rising economy (10% GDP) relative to baseline of the 1996 tax code/economy of the Jorgenson studies.
2)As a consequence of revenue neutrality the American people will be paying the same amount of taxes as under current law; explicitly, under the FairTax as they do today implicitly through the combination of individual taxes paid directly and taxes paid indirectly through their purchases via businesses.
3) That businesses will be able to operate more efficiently and productively without the income/payroll tax system to burden them.
The net consequence of which would be an overall increase in personal standard of living of 15% or more under the FairTax even if its tax rate were 30%(tax inclusive) and not 23%. (per Kotlikoff testimony W&M committee, 2000)
Seems to me that the claims are based on more than just one economist's study, and is in fact supportable from many sources and means.
I am quite sure however, that even more will be forthcoming as newer economic studies of all taxreform proposals are produced over the coming months from many sources. As the real political fight heats up the campaigns to establish the direction of tax reform can only become more intense providing more information for all sides of the issues.