The Fair Tax plan is a great idea, except for the rebate.
Here's why.
Look at the 4th para of your excerpt.
First sentence - a plea for wealth redistribution. If the gov't wants to help the poor - fine - but don't hang this booger on the nose of the Fair Tax.
2nd & 3rd sentences - the gov't is gonna send EVERY family in the US a check EVERY month! Does ANYONE else see the gigantic bureaucratic mess this will be. Need I remind you how long it takes to get an income tax refund.
2nd, 4th & 5th sentences - implied here is there will be "entitlements" to certain families based on marriage status & number of dependents. That seems reasonable. But how about more rebate if a family member is disabled, has health problems, or any of a million other reasons the pols will give for manipulating who gets what.
Sending monthly checks to everyone which are of different amounts based on entitlements is exactly the same thing as taking less money in income taxes based on exemptions, but instead of answering to the gov't once a year, with the rebate it is virtually every month.
Based on this paragraph, EVERY family in the US is gonna have to file a change of info report to the gov't virtually EVERY month.
Examples:
Grandma moved in with us.
New Baby.
Grandma died.
Johnny Jr. finished school & moved out.
Johnny Jr. couldn't find a job & moved back in.
Johnny's girl got preg. & moved in.
We all had to move to a new house.
....................
And to keep those checks coming to the right address, in the right amount, you had better notify the Internal Rebate System of your changes - pronto. Then just hope your paperwork is not processed on Monday or Friday!
A fairer system would be to exempt food, shelter, utilities, & medical from sales & use taxes. This system has been used sucessfully in some states with sales tax. Today's cash registers automatically apply the tax as required & note this on the receipt.
Please see my post # 72 for more on all this.
I respectfully disagree with your assessment of the prebate aspect of the Fair Tax. The primary line of resistance of the Left to any reform of the income tax system is that any such reform in the nature of a consumption is "regressive," meaning lower income people would spend a greater percentage of income and thus would pay a higher proportion of revenues. The prebate overcomes that objection by relieving those at or below the poverty line of any payment of the Fair Tax at all. This is accomplished without requiring any household to prove their income. Therefore, I believe the prebate is a very well conceived aspect of the Fair Tax. Without it, the Fair Tax would have less prospect of every being adopted.