Posted on 12/24/2007 7:55:05 AM PST by Alex Murphy
WASHINGTON — Mike Huckabee, one of the most conservative Republicans in the 2008 presidential race, has embraced one of the most radical ideas on the campaign trail: a plan to abolish all federal income and payroll taxes and replace them with a single 23% national sales tax.
The idea -- dubbed the "fair tax" by proponents -- has been a political asset for Huckabee; its well-organized backers have helped catapult him from the back of the presidential pack to its top tier.
Sales tax proponents have tapped into seething voter hostility toward the Internal Revenue Service to become a below-the-radar political force, popping up at campaign events and candidate forums in Iowa and elsewhere.
The efforts on Huckabee's behalf by sales tax advocates helped spur his surprise second-place showing in an August Iowa straw poll -- the breakthrough that marked the beginning of his rise in the state and nationwide.
He is the only major presidential candidate to make the idea central to his campaign. "The first thing I'd love to do as president: Put a 'going out of business' sign on the Internal Revenue Service," he said at one debate.
Some wonder, however, whether his embrace of the plan eventually could turn into a liability.
The sales tax proposal has been around for years but languished on the fringes of practical politics and policy. Tax professionals generally regard the idea as impractical, regressive and even "crackpot," as one critic puts it.
It has gone nowhere in Congress. The 2005 Presidential Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform soundly rejected the idea. And many politicians shy away from it because it is easy for opponents to portray it as a huge tax increase -- as Democrats did in a 2006 Senate race in South Carolina.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
23%? That would more than double what I pay now. As a senior citizen, I couldn’t do it. I don’t pay sales tax on food now, my clothing purchases are minimal, as are my gasoline purchases. Besides, does anyone think states and cities are going to forgo their sales tax? Or that the FICA taxes would really be included in this 23%? I doubt it.
read # 17
"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
NO Sir! Quite the contrary! Once freed of the communist inspired progressive income tax the economy would boom like no one alive today has ever seen and furthermore, all the manufacturing operations which have been run out of the country by the income tax system over the years would return virtually overnight!
SUUURRRE they will ... maybe for a little while ... but just as sure asthe sun rises the fed will eventually bring back fed taxes ... a little at a time until we have them completely back ... with the "fair tax" too. If you don't believe it .... I have a bridge for sale
Do you drive your car?
This is the problem with people..they are so ignorant/uneducated that they have no idea of what they are talking about. You pay taxes at ever level. Gas, Phone, even when you S)*T you pay a tax. FED TAX!
The fair tax would abolish all these taxes and this nation would go into the greatest economic boom ever seen in the history of mankind.
Its to bad that a creep like Huckabee is the one who is putting it out.
"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
So you dont pay sales taxes on food?
How does that food get to the store? Does it get up out of the fields and walk to the store?
You pay sales tax on your food and dont forget it! You just dont know it. THINK!
Remember, it’s supposed to replace both the income tax and SS taxes which are 15% of your gross. That would make the income tax portion only 8%.
The reason I as well as a bunch of other well to do folks don’t like it is that I would have to pay tax again on funds that I have already paid taxes on...
The year after the Fair tax is law, the VAT tax will become law and my state will have a sales tax, which it does not have now. The Fair Tax is pure horse dung.
I love the way people get so outraged by the 23% tax.. (which,BTW, is really a 30% tax)... yet, no one seems to be equally outraged at the SAME AMOUNT OF MONEY being taken from us in the form of confiscatory income taxes.
People seem to think we can live in a country where ONLY rich people pay taxes. We’re almost there.... and, we’re almost broke.
There are many possible solutions, and I don't claim to possess the best answer. But the present system is rotten to the core, fomenting government excess, corruption and the destruction of wealth. But whichever one we ultimately choose, I would prefer it be overseen by someone other than Mr. Huckabee.
Something along this line works for me.
No need for conjecture as you, or anyone else for that matter, can, from the privacy of your own home, use the Fairtax calculator to plug in your own numbers and see for yourself how much better off YOU would be under the FairTax!
You mean it screws you on your savings?
Of course tax professionals hate it. It puts them out of business!
No complex IRS code - NO NEED TO GO TO TAX PROFESSIONALS!
The sales tax is rung up automatically at the cash register and paid on the spot.
Simple!
You are taxed on consumption - not earnings.
"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
“You mean it screws you on your savings?”
Yes, I would get taxed again when I spent them...
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