More than 8,000 people of every political persuasion recently came to the Carolina Coliseum to make a point.
Posted on 06/29/2007 5:17:36 PM PDT by Man50D
More than 8,000 people of every political persuasion recently came to the Carolina Coliseum to make a point.
They wanted America and every GOP presidential candidate at the debate to know that there is a better way to collect federal revenues for the common good.
It is called the FairTax, and it is an extensively researched proposal and legislation to replace the dysfunctional income tax system with a progressive national retail consumption tax.
The FairTax is gaining national attention and widespread grassroots support because, unlike every other tax debate over the past fifty years, it does not pit one income group or political view against another.
At the same time that all federal taxes on the poor are eliminated under the FairTax (through a universal rebate), capital gains taxes, corporate taxes, and “inheritance taxes” are eliminated as well as all payroll taxes and federal withholding. Elimination of federal withholding and payroll taxes means, of course, that every wage earner takes home their entire “gross” pay.
As well, the FairTax gives the middle class a tremendous tax improvement, reducing effective lifetime tax rates dramatically. Every income level can be benefited because the FairTax creates a far broader base for taxation consumption than the current ineffective, loophole-ridden, and costly system of taxation of earnings. The “underground” economy totaling trillions of dollars contributes to the federal government for the first time, and 12 to 20 million illegal immigrants become taxpayers as consumers.
There is a “catch,” however, and that is why so many people were inspired to travel to Columbia from all over the country for a Tuesday evening FairTax rally. The “catch” is that enactment of the FairTax eliminates Congress’s ability to grant favors in the income tax system. Taking power away from Congress is, of course, a huge political challenge requiring overwhelming grassroots pressure and an abiding belief that public policy can be made to simply favor the public, despite the self-interest of Congress.
While the FairTax has the potential to unite a divided country against the self-dealing of Congress, the growing popularity of the FairTax has also inspired bipartisan distortions of the proposal by Washington, D.C.-based political operatives threatened by the very idea of a tax system free from congressional mischief.
Most commonly, the proposal is derided from the left as being unfair to the poor despite the fact that, unlike every other sales tax, the FairTax is not regressive and actually untaxes the poor entirely. From the right (and sometimes the left), D.C. operatives like to claim that the FairTax represents a tax increase on everyday goods, conveniently ignoring the fact that every respected economist who has studied the FairTax has concluded that retail prices will actually drop as huge “embedded” income tax costs are eliminated from the cost of producing everything from a loaf of bread to a gallon of gasoline.
FairTaxers, passionate in their desire to see the broken income tax system jettisoned, take such criticism in stride as the cost of advancing an issue that did not start in Washington, D.C. They are less understanding of why national media sources have been so ill-tuned to the growing national movement that has won 60 congressional co-sponsors and at least one fervent presidential candidate (Mike Huckabee).
In the last 11 months, FairTax rallies in Columbia, Atlanta, and Orlando have seen thousands of citizens, bedecked in FairTax shirts and hats and waving placards, wildly cheer advocates like talk show host Neal Boortz, Fox News pundit Sean Hannity, and ABC News reporter John Stossel. But more than celebrating their celebrity, FairTax supporters have welcomed these men as fellow citizens embarked on a democratic journey to force the public will on a largely unresponsive representative government.
Even if the fact that the current income tax system is killing the “Made in America” label, from textiles in South Carolina to automobiles in Michigan to steel in Pennsylvania, and is driving trillions of American dollars offshore, Congress will only be moved on this issue by direct grassroots advocacy that threatens the tenure of elected officials. In this, the FairTax grassroots army largely sees our campaign as a test of whether our Founding Fathers’ promise of a government “of, by, and for the people…” can still be made to come true.
The irony that a nation first conceived in the midst of a tax protest should, hundreds of years later, have citizens struggling again to overturn a universally despised tax system primarily supported by tax lobbyists and elected representatives jealously guarding their own power to manipulate taxes has not been lost on the growing FairTax army. While sometimes indignant, increasingly this citizen army has simply adopted the attitude that “the world is what we make it.”
Our nation has wondered long enough about the complex and destructive patchwork quilt of political favors called the income tax system and asked “why?” It is high time, in Bobby Kennedy’s words, to instead ask “why not?” about a fairer, simpler, and more effective means of collecting federal taxes.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
Don’t forget that under FairTax math that 23% “sales tax” equals about a 31% tax rate the way sales tax is currently figured.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
Sorry, this just doesn't make a lot of sense to me.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
This implies great trust in politicians. If we give them the power to impose a national sales tax, what prevents them from also reimposing just a tiny, wee, little income tax to cover some “essentials not covered by revenues”?? I can see a situation like the UK with a high VAT and a high Income Tax and an intrusive Inland Revenue. Also, the idea of “give them your money so they can determine the amount you get back” is fraught with multiple possibilities for abuse. I much prefer a flat tax on income with details to be quibbled about set. somehow, as an Amendment to the Constitution. Sorry, Fair Taxers.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
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Good stuff. Thanks for posting.
Additionally, how do you handle state, county and city taxes? What about Special District taxes?The Fairtax taxes them. The Fairtax is "23% of the gross payments for taxable property or services"(including itself).
Are you willing to have 23% added to your healthcare premiums? Are you willing to have that $20K car cost you an additional $4600.00 up front?
it's actually 30% added. 23% is a clever lie. The tax on a $20,000 car would be $6,000 (rounded). The gross payment for the car would be $26,000...$6,000 is 23% of the gross payment.
Here's how it would really work:
Sticker = $20,000
State sales tax (7%)= $1400
State license fee = $500
Insurance = $1200
Sub-Total = $23,100
Federal Fairtax @ 29.87% = $6,900
Total out the door price of your new $20,000 car = $30,000 (gross payment)
.23 X(of) $30,000 (gross payment) = $6,900 (Fairtax)
For how long did you want to finance your tax?
Speaking of that, if the interest rate on your new car is above the fed fund rate (rarely are they not) you would pay 30% tax on the rate over the fed fund rate...the rate would be determined every month.
Oh, you decided to lease instead? There's a 30% tax on that as well.
When a retail business's costs go down due to the elimination of its income tax burdens, what's to stop it from lowering its prices in order to grab a larger market share from its competitors?Following that logic prices should be down across the board since the Bush tax cuts...Are they?
You are, of course, entitled to your hopes and beliefs. I trust politicians as far as I can throw an M1 Abrams tank and legitimizing the “fair” tax, merely gives them another venue in which to work their creative mischief to the detriment of nearly each and every one of us. It won’t eliminate the taxing bureaucracy and, I’m pretty certain that the “government” (or any good hacker, for that matter) already knows much more about you than you’re aware of or would want them to know. I’m afraid that the privacy genie is already out of the bottle and has been for a long time.
If you haven’t read it already, post #31 is very interesting.
Be well.
Additionally, the “ifs” “ands” and “wherefores” are mind numbing. Read the examples given on page 9 of the proposed legislation. Read the rest of it. It’s more Play Doh for politicians. Hardly an improvement over the convoluted mess we have now.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
THE REBATE
every consumer will receive a check
from the federal government every single month
equal to the sales tax that person would be expected to pay
on the purchase of the basic necessities of life for that month.
married couple with two children $24,240.
The government will rebate this amount in 12 monthly installments of $465.
single woman with one child?
Her monthly rebate in 2003 would have been $232.
single person with no dependents.
That person would receive $172 per month.
It is paid to everyone, rich and poor alike.
The purpose here is to make sure that no American has to
pay the Fair Tax sales tax on the basic necessities of life.
Just don’t tax ‘basic necessities of life’.
“receive a check from the federal government every month”
Is trouble.
“poverty is largely a behavioral disorder”
“Under the Fair Tax the poor won’t only survive, they’ll positively thrive!”
Yes, example; my brother’s property would become a junkyard from auction stuff,
he’s an ‘auction addict’, and lives in poverty because he owes,
but he’s willing to collect/vote every kind of welfare and
charity to pay for his family needs,
while he continues to spend.
Point being, pay your share of Government you vote for, and not shift the burden so one can collect more.
I have to think about the elderly also. Those insurance premiums suddenly get larger and that $500.00 a month for medications gets a real big boost in cost.
I recently took over two of the family's multimillion dollar businesses due to the death of my Dad. At the age of 18 I'm trying to learn and absorb as much as I can on the tax side of operations. A lot of this is overwhelming but the "FairTax" doesn't sound like a viable alternative to our present system.
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