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 ...
That's right. Let's keep this on an adult level by posting to your favorite pal about what someone is saying on another thread.
I believe you still have about 10 questions about the topic at hand that have been asked of you and have been unanswered. When are you going to get to those?
I'm the thread disruptor because I respond to underhanded posts like this?:
The hairy arm of the sock puppets is still having his hissy-fit-fest over on that old thread
Tell us x, you seem to disdain the FairTax. Why do you believe that keeping the income tax would be better for America than adopting the FairTax?
Exactly right, and the best reason not to jump at this "plan." But beyond that the fact is, every quirky twist and turn in the tax code was put there at the behest of some lobby. Those interest groups haven't gone away, and won't. That's why this revision, so attractive in the abstract, has zero chance of getting off the ground. Huckster knows this damn well. He is being dishonest and cynical using it to suck in naive supporters. Think Bill Clinton's (now Hillary's) "Middle Class tax cut." Fat chance.
This is THE calculator I used. Anyone (and I do mean anyone
) who can write off a huge percentage (particularly those in the transportation industry) of their income will get screwed.
Having said that, for the other ninety-plus percent, you are correct.
"Why do you believe that keeping the income tax would be better for America than adopting the FairTax?"
Anyone care to give him a clue?
But if you already have money saved (today), you get taxed on it again (under the FairTax when you spend it).
Yes but YOU decide when you pay the tax, not the government. Under the existing system, the government gets the money before you even see it.
And you said it, so it must be true. LOL!
IOW no change in price ... but you’d have more income with which to buy things. That amounts to increased purchasing power.
Prices stay the same, no income tax and a prebate? Sign me up. LOL!
Not only that, a politician once told me that the key to a successful tax policy is to somehow tax the poor. That’s where the money is. That’s also a reason why politicians love “sin” taxes.
So I'm not taxed again on money that I've already been taxed on 2 or 3 times, unless I spend it? Wow, great deal!!
Under the existing system, the government gets the money before you even see it.
Yeah, they got their cut of my money already. Under the FairTax, that saved money gets taxed again, but it's only 30% and I won't get taxed if I never spend it. ROFLMAO!
Unless you live in a state that doesn’t have sales taxes, it gets taxed anyway. Ever noticed that?
So I shouldn't mind adding 30% to the price I pay, because I already pay a state sales tax?
Ever noticed that?
30% is higher than 0%, ever notice that?
Maybe you should use 99% for your argument. Its higher than 30%
Oh you already pay it. It’s embedded in the price of everything you buy.
Maybe you can tell me what the FairTax will be on a $100 purchase?
23% is above the historic levels of taxation over the last 20 years..... Can you say tax increase?
Mike Huckabee, one of the most conservative Republicans in the 2008 presidential race????????????????????
HR 25 contains languages which says it becomes law only after the repeal of the 16th amendment.
So you don't spend the money. You spend the money that it makes.
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