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I am nearing 60 and close to retirement.

Congratulations! :)

Because of that, I will be in a lower income tax bracket, and benefit from a Georgia law that exempts much of my retirement income from state income tax.

Not all of us will have that advantage. California taxes retirees and I’m personally hoping to have enough saved that my retirement will be spent at a higher income level than I earned leading up to it. . . :)

However, I like the FairTax. If it is good for the country, I will support it.

I like it in concept, but not in implementation. Again, with the few tweaks I’ve mentioned I’d be a proponent.

Call me selfish, but I don’t want to pay my taxes twice and I don’t want the government to have the chance to add new taxes later. If the 16th isn’t repealed and replaced with an unimpeachable ban on future income taxes then we’ll be just like Europe with an income tax and a VAT within a decade or less. Count on it.

Think of it in another way. What more do you have to buy in your golden years. I may buy another car, perhaps two, but aside from food, utilities, I won’t be paying out bigtime on the FairTax. Also, my retirement, and accounts (IRA, 401K) will be tax free with no income tax.

Maybe yes and maybe no. But the point isn’t about you and your retirement it is about everyone in the system and what they are doing as well. Yes your 401K is pre-tax which means that you’ll be on par with that regardless of the tax system. Your IRA, however, was funded with taxed money. You’ve already been taxed on that with the expectation that you wouldn’t be re-taxed upon withdrawal. That won’t be the case if the Fair Tax passes. The same holds true of any investment accounts, savings accounts, bonds, cash in the mattress and the like. If you created the wealth with after-tax money before the Fair Tax was implemented then you’ll be taxed again when you spend it. That double taxation is a flaw that absolutely must be addressed.

Call me selfish, but I don’t want to pay my taxes twice and I don’t want the government to have the chance to add new taxes later.

You already do, and the government always has the chance to add new taxes later. You argument seems to be that unless the government and politicans, and what they do every day can be eliminated for all of the future, I can't support anything.

If the 16th isn’t repealed and replaced with an unimpeachable ban on future income taxes

Impossible. The 16th can be repealed. But a ban on a future income tax is impossible. All it would take is a constitutional amendment and bam, its back.

we’ll be just like Europe with an income tax and a VAT within a decade or less.

The NRST and a VAT are two wholly seperate and entirely different things. Worse than apples and oranges in comparrison.

You’ve already been taxed on that with the expectation that you wouldn’t be re-taxed upon withdrawal. That won’t be the case if the Fair Tax passes. The same holds true of any investment accounts, savings accounts, bonds, cash in the mattress and the like. If you created the wealth with after-tax money before the Fair Tax was implemented then you’ll be taxed again when you spend it. That double taxation is a flaw that absolutely must be addressed.

Already the case because of embedded taxes. So at the end of the day, there is no difference. One is replaced with the other.

Call me selfish, but I don’t want to pay my taxes twice

If you are referring to taxing your savings again when you spend them then you should know we've heard that tired AARP scare tactic many times before and it won't work. If you bothered to study the issue you would know that you are paying embedded federal taxes on every retail purchase so there is no way to get around paying federal taxes on purchases whether under the Income tax or the FairTax.

and I don’t want the government to have the chance to add new taxes later. If the 16th isn’t repealed and replaced with an unimpeachable ban on future income taxes then we’ll be just like Europe with an income tax and a VAT within a decade or less. Count on it.

And the FairTax movement will immediately move to repeal the 16th Amendment just as they point out on their website http://www.fairtax.org , and they are correct in pointing out that once Americans are free of the Income tax, they will never allow it to return. And this will be done with a bill to repeal the 16th Amendment. As soon as the FairTax is enacted the IRS is abolished and the Income tax is repealed. And the very same day of FairTax enactment the bill to repeal the 16th Amendment will be introduced.