Posted on 08/28/2007 4:39:18 PM PDT by Bigun
The People Must Demand The Fair Tax
By Doug Patton
August 28, 2007
Last year, during the United States Senate race in Nebraska, Republican challenger Pete Ricketts suggested that every option must be considered when looking at ways to reform our federal tax system. Among the list of alternatives Ricketts said should be on the table was a national sales tax known simply as the "Fair Tax."
The Democrat incumbent, U.S. Sen. Ben Nelson, launched an attack on his opponent that was, at best, distorted and condescending, at worst, irrational demagoguery. One would have thought that Ricketts had suggested stealing all the assets of the poor and handing them over to Warren Buffet and Bill Gates.
Recently, the panel of pundits on ABC's "This Week with George Stephanopoulos," discussing the apparent rise in popularity of former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee's presidential campaign message, scoffed at Huckabee's unabashed promotion of the Fair Tax.
George Will, the token "conservative" on the panel, brushed it aside with the disbelief of an elitist who cannot understand the burden of the average worker who would love to take home his or her entire paycheck, as the Fair Tax would allow him or her to do. Will opined that Huckabee's second place showing in the Iowa straw poll was even more amazing given the fact that "he supported a national sales tax of thirty percent, which means that if you buy a one million dollar house, you'll be writing a check to the government for three hundred thousand dollars." Of course, the others on the panel readily agreed.
The elites of this country, who buy those million-dollar homes, are not enamored with the Fair Tax. They would be if they took the time to understand its appeal.
The Fair Tax would replace all federal income taxes. No more federal withholding. No more Social Security withholding. No more Medicare withholding. No more stealing from the paychecks of American workers before they even see it and then pretending to give them a refund, without interest, at the end of the year. No more saving receipts for tax deductions. No more IRS audits. No more April 15th.
Instead, the Fair Tax would put us in control. All consumer items would be taxed. Business purchases would not. By allowing us to make the determination about what we buy and when we buy it, the ability of our legislators to manipulate our behavior is eliminated. That is why the elites don't like it. They can't control the public's spending habits under such a system.
The current federal tax system is broken. It cannot be fixed. Since the inception of the federal income tax with the passage of the 16th Amendment in 1913, federal corruption and control have turned it into a Frankenstein monster that torments the people and serves the special interests. A tax on a person's income is a tax on production, and as Ronald Reagan once said, "Whatever you tax, you get less of."
Because the poor are forced to spend a disproportionate percentage of their resources to cover the tax on necessities, the Fair Tax hits them the hardest. That issue can be addressed by simply issuing a "prebate" check each month to every household in the country. Unlike disingenuous tax credits, deductions, exemptions and other loopholes in the current income tax code, a prebate check is a clean, honest method of covering the sales tax on food, clothing and shelter - up to the poverty level.
Of course, removing the income tax on corporations will reduce the cost of everything we buy, since corporations don't pay taxes. They simply pass them along to consumers. The Fair Tax plan calculates that removing the corporate income tax will result in a reduction in the cost of virtually every consumer item on the market. In fact, it will just about offset the tax on those products. Imagine paying the same price for something but having your entire paycheck to buy it.
And then there are the billions of dollars that flow untaxed through our economy today: drug dealers, prostitutes, pornographers, foreign tourists. Imagine how much revenue could be raised simply by taxing the things those people consume.
There would be no more audits, no more justifying deductions, and April 15th would become just another spring day. But only if the people stand up to the elites and demand it.
Wasn’t being rude. It’s early and I don’t understand.
Aren't those taxes already "built in" to the products today? The Fair Tax simply makes them visible.
So we're already collecting those taxes.
And if Mr. Will defaults? How does the bank recoup the $300,000 already paid to the IRS?
Sorry but what we have today started as a “flat” tax and, besides that, anything that involves the word “income” is unacceptable as it taxes the exact WRONG end of the spectrum!
So, the Fair Tax is going to pass on tax savings to the employee and increase his take-home pay.
"and those new homes will be built with materials that cost less because the manufacturers will no longer need to pass on federal taxes into the cost structure"
And you're also going to use the tax savings to reduce the price of the house? Nice try.
It's true that the builder of the home no longer forwards payroll deduction or employee FICA to the federal government -- he can use that money to A) lower the price of his product or B) give it to the employee.
Not both.
AND getting $500/month in a prebate! AND a chicken in every pot!
I'm sorry. But imagining "paying the same price for something but having your entire paycheck to buy it" will be all that we do. If the author will lie about something this simple, how can he (or others) be expected to be trusted on any other point?
Do any Fair Tax supporters agree ith the author's statement? Where are the cries to "READ THE FAIR TAX PROPOSAL"?
When drug dealers, prostitutes, pornographers, and foreign tourists buy something today, they pay taxes (corporate, employee withholding, FICA, etc.) that are contained and hidden in the purchase price. The Fair Tax pulls them out and makes them visible.
What an illegal, for example, doesn't pay today is income tax. BUT, if we could somehow force him to pay that, he'd simply raise the price he charges for his service, meaning those who use his service (ie., us) would end up paying his tax for him.
Under the Fair Tax, the situation is similar. Let's see a show of hands of everyone who thinks the drug dealer will add the Fair Tax to the price of cocaine and pass that money on to the IRS. Ergo, there will still be cheaters.
“It is used by Congress more as a tool to punish and control the people than to merely collect taxes. “
Not just Congress, the Clintons used it rather effectively as well.
Just another know-it-all.
You think the builder cannot return the employee’s FICA contribution to the employer and retain the employer’s FICA contribution to lower costs?
You think the federal business income tax elimination can’t be used to lower costs?
You think the builder’s suppliers won’t pass on similar savings that will lower the builder’s costs?
I can see you haven’t given the FairTax the thought that it deserves.
Just another know-it-all ready to open mouth before engaging brain.
Which means the home buyer would have more to finance, more interest to pay, and with 30% added to the cost of loan service, more tax to pay.
Second, the NRST is applied only to new homes and those new homes will be built with materials that cost less because the manufacturers will no longer need to pass on federal taxes into the cost structure.
So every US worker who is involved in the production of building materials will not get a 100% of his paycheck?
How much of our building supplies are imported?
The key point to keep in mind is the FairTax is a replacement tax, not a tax on a tax. It replaces all the federal taxes that are embedded in pricing now. The embedded taxes are hidden. But they will be eliminated and then replaced by the visible FairTax.
Are you having trouble with sentence structure again?
The FairTax does not replace all "embedded" taxes.
Oh, wait, my bad - certain "hidden" taxes like the federal gas tax are "very visible". Which reminds me, how much did your wife pay in the very visible federal gas tax last year?
The FairTax on the federal gas tax would add about 5.5 cents per gallon.
I agree. Raising the same amount of money "a more fair way" or "a better way" or "a less painful way" is not the solution.
"To some, freedom means the opportunity to do what they want to do; to most it means not to do what they do not want to do. It is perhaps true that those who can grow will feel free under any condition." Eric Hoffer
It is doubtful that the FairTax whiners will feel free under any circumstances because there will always be circumstance to be under.
“Proposing an amendment” to repeal the 16th doesn’t repeal it. What if the amendment doesn’t pass Congress? What if the States don’t ratify?
What no smart alec and smug response to Post #92?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1887973/posts?page=92#92
Figures given your schtick and arrogance that you wouldn’t respond.
Kotlikoff’s estimate was 23.82%! A difference of 0.82%!
Under Revenue ‘Neutrality’:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FairTax
Yeah, an estimate with a difference of less than one percent is something you omit from your posting because you know it is insignificant, just as your postings on the FairTax are insignificant. And that estimate was for year 2007. Any chance government budgeted revenues were increased from 2005 to 2007? You didn’t bother to mention that did you?
Why can’t you be straight with facts? Why the constant obfuscation? You hate the FairTax so much you will pull out all stops to confuse people about it.
This is not the first time you have omitted factual details to create an illusion of negatism about the FairTax.
Idiocy.....the Fair Tax would DESTROY RETAIL!! NO ONE will pay 24% tax on furniture, jewelry, etc.......a FLAT TAX is the best way to go.
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