[goldstategop]

I'm in favor of abolishing the income tax and moving back to the excise tax system in place for most of our country's history. We only need a 30% sales tax if we want to continue to support Big Government. That seems to be the assumption behind those who oppose the tax on the ground we need to keep it "revenue neutral." But why? If we slashed the effective tax rate to say, 15%, much of the bloated welfare state would disappear right along with it. Its hard to believe any one would want to pay less in taxes to government. And yet amusingly enough, among the opponents, we should pay more to keep the status quo intact. For me, the Fair Tax is means to saw off Big Government's principal economic pillars and shrink government drastically. Freedom is one reason to get rid of the income tax but to remove the burden of expensive government programs on the American people is another fundamental objective. Now - why would any conservative favor retaining a system that allow government revenues and spending to increase year after year? That's happened all the years I've been alive. I think its time for a change that favors freedom and small government.

"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

[RobFromGa]

Maybe you haven’t looked at the FairTax bill which automatically ratchets up the required FairTax rate each year to generate the income required. In the case of Social Security/Medicare spending this is achieved automatically without a vote. The payroll information is still sent into the government and at the end of the year they total how much payroll taxes would have been paid under the present system, and they look at what the taxable base is expected to be for the next year, and they use that to determine that component of the FairTax rate each year.

I agree with you BTW that the bloated government is the main problem we face. It is the FairTax people who wrote the bill to be tax revenue neutral. Actually, the tax collected needs to be substantially more than that collected now, to pay for the huge socialist prebate scheme which puts a fresh government check into the hands of every American man, woman and child at the start of each month. Sort of an “allowance” from Mommy Sam.

[robertpaulsen]

"If we slashed the effective tax rate to say, 15%, much of the bloated welfare state would disappear right along with it."<>That, of course, is the key.

The Fair Taxers are simply giving us an alternative and easier way to pay the same amount of money to the federal government -- what I call "rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic".

Cut current spending in half and who cares how the government collects it? Constitutionally fix the Fair Tax at 10% (and eliminate all other forms of federal taxation) and even I will vote for it.