Posted on 09/02/2007 6:42:46 AM PDT by Man50D
When Republican Mike Huckabee met supporters at Knights Stadium last week, more than two dozen showed up wearing the uniform of a group trying to flex its muscle in the presidential primaries.
Dressed in white shirts with "Fair Tax" logos, they're part of a growing movement in South Carolina and around the country pushing for drastic overhaul of the nation's tax laws.
Their group, Americans for Fair Taxation, would abolish the federal income tax and Internal Revenue Service and repeal the 16th Amendment that authorizes them. They would replace it all with a 23 percent national sales tax.
Thousands of Fair Tax supporters rallied in May outside the Republican presidential debate in Columbia. A month later, more than 100 waved signs as would-be candidate Fred Thompson arrived there for a speech.
"We really think that the winner of the South Carolina presidential primary will be a Fair Tax supporter," said John Steinberger, a Charleston teacher and the group's state director.
A handful of wealthy Houston businessmen started the group more than a decade ago. The idea was popularized in a 2005 book co-authored by Neal Boortz, whose syndicated radio show airs on WBT.
Congressional proponents include Charlotte Republican Rep. Sue Myrick. She's among 63 co-sponsors of a House bill that would enact those changes.
Supporters argue that by closing loopholes and taxing what people spend, not what they earn, the sales tax would be more fair. They acknowledge that a sales tax is regressive, falling most heavily on the poor who spend a greater share of income. They say the government would make payments to the poor to help them pay the new tax.
Critics say the change is unrealistic and unworkable, and would create an accounting nightmare that would fall heavily on state governments ill-prepared to handle it.
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(Excerpt) Read more at charlotte.com ...
The prebate is there to keep politicians from exempting food from the tax. The idea is to keep the tax pure with no exemptions. I believe, however, that in order for it to pass at least 3 exemptions would have to be added; exemptions for: primary residence, medical expenses and religions.
A new car is actually quite doable. With about 25% more takehome pay (i.e. FICA, medicare & income taxes) a person making $50,000 should be able to save the tax amount on a new car in less than a year. However, a new house with say $35,000 tax paid up front would simply be out of the question for the average person.
An exemption for medical expenses is a no-brainer, since nobody wants the government to profit from somebody’s misfortune.
And, the religious exemption is a requirement to keep a clean separation between church and state.
There you go, comrade. Phase II. Increase the prebate to not only cover the tax on basics but the basics themselves. Simply change it to, "Nobody, not even Bill Gates, should have to pay taxes on for the basics of life".
Given that we'll eventually see the Fair Tax equal to the cost of the good itself, Phase II won't really cost that much more.
That leaves the employer with about 9% to reduce his prices -- if he choses to do so. Add the Fair tax, and prices rise 18% for domestic goods. 30% for imports.
Assuming your purchases are 50-50, that is a 24% average price increase.
The exemptions you list make sense, and they may be necessary to get the votes to pass this abortion. But the rate can't stay at 23%. Health care alone represents 16% of GDP.
Would the states implement the FairTax. I think so. The fed. govt. would pay the states to do the implementation. And it’s likely that most states would change their taxes to mirror the FairTax. That would make the auditing much simpler.
In that spirit, I predict the rich (those people the FairTaxers both hate and love - ie don't punish 'em because they're rich, and our tax nails 'em because they spend more) will be more than happy to do business in the US and choose to live elsewhere.
It was based on a lie. The American people were told that only the wealthiest 1% would ever pay. Kinda like, "23% is revenue neutral".
Our products cost more for reasons other than simply taxes. OSHA requirements, unions, the FDA, EPA, and our litigation-happy culture all add to the cost of domestically produced products and the Fair Tax doesn't affect them one iota.
"The tresult is American businesses must either layoff employees to cut costs, go out of business or relocate to a foreign country."
Or produce products that justify the cost of American labor and all the rest.
Simply, why exactly are you against the Fair Tax ?
Do you favor another type of tax system , the current tax system , or do you think we will pay more under the Fair Tax ?
Other than the fact that it will destroy the economy? That 23% isn't even close to revenue neutral? That people will cheat in droves? And that it does nothing to address the real problem -- out of control government spending?
Other than that, I can't think of one good reason.
"Do you favor another type of tax system"
If I were King? Cut spending to the point where government could be financed by tariffs and excise taxes. That way this country was funded for 150 years.
When the income tax was started, the Americans were told that the highest rate would be 4%. Now, the highest rate is 36%, nine times the original rate, because the federal government spends about nine times what they should spend.
I support Governor Huckabee because he’s pro-fairtax, anti-illegal alien, pro-life, and pro-gun rights.
You can’t even make one single post without a personal attack, can you?
go back and read the links at post #3
Sometimes I ask people why the FT should not replace the current immoral system. I have never received a response as to why the FT is less bad than the income tax. You have had several opportunities to answer.
Most anti-FT posters remind me of militant atheists who screech blindly against Christianity without ever having learned or even read the bible.
Wealthy do not stash, they or their parents got wealthy by investing. Businesses go offshore to avoid high US corporate income taxes. Under the FT, taxes on income, corporations, capital gains, social security, medicare, self employment and estates disappear.
Without the assorted taxes on capital and income, investment will flow in volumes unimaginable even in the 19th century. Business will fire most of their corporate attorneys whose only job was to figure out ways around the current byzantine system. The business of business will once again be to make money and not how to avoid taxes.
You still havent read the links in post #3, have you.
“Pres Huckabee” 4 years later...
FT 45% - spending out of control..
5 million more illegals - exempt from the NRST
National photo/skin chip firearm & owner ID system
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