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Huckabee campaigning for 23% sales tax
The Los Angeles Times ^ | December 24, 2007 | Janet Hook

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 ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 2008; fairtax; huckabee; regressivetax; taxes; vat
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To: Toddsterpatriot

Nope ... check post #282 - and we’re still speaking of the effective tax rate, not marginal rate.


661 posted on 12/30/2007 3:11:53 PM PST by baybabe
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To: Toddsterpatriot

Give me your name, SSN, and address and I’ll see what can be done ... but just remember - you asked for it.


662 posted on 12/30/2007 3:13:15 PM PST by baybabe
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To: baybabe
Source? walkingwallsreet.

People already pay less than the FT rate, and no one is left off the chart - all quintiles are represented. There is no rational comparison to the current effective rate, and that which is part of a fantasy dreamed up by the fairtaxers.

663 posted on 12/30/2007 3:15:06 PM PST by xcamel (FDT/2008)
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To: xcamel

That’s no ocean if you’re a swimmer, no hill if you’re a climber; but I guess you’ve never lurked.


664 posted on 12/30/2007 3:15:45 PM PST by baybabe
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To: baybabe

... and that’s no message if you’re a typist...


665 posted on 12/30/2007 3:17:56 PM PST by baybabe
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To: baybabe
Nope ... check post #282 - and we’re still speaking of the effective tax rate, not marginal rate.

Nope. We're talking about money I've already paid tax on several times being taxed again. No thanks.

666 posted on 12/30/2007 3:18:28 PM PST by Toddsterpatriot (What came first, the bad math or the goldbuggery?)
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To: baybabe
Great, give me your name, address and phone number. I’ll mail it to you.
667 posted on 12/30/2007 3:19:19 PM PST by Toddsterpatriot (What came first, the bad math or the goldbuggery?)
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To: xcamel
You’d better walk several more blocks or miles.

Most people do not pay less than the effective FT rate and, yes, there are 20 or more million left off of the chart in the form of those in the underground economy who will now pay a reasonable amount of tax in the form of the effective FairTax rate.

If they’re non-citizens, they’ll also pay a higher rate than the rest of us spending the same amount of money since they are not eligible for the prebate.

Why in the world do you walk wall street? I thought everyone there traveled by cab or limo (or bicycle in some cases)?

668 posted on 12/30/2007 3:24:19 PM PST by baybabe
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To: baybabe
They pay 100% of your fictitious “embedded rate” every time they “consume” anything - do you’re dead wrong.
669 posted on 12/30/2007 3:26:39 PM PST by xcamel (FDT/2008)
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To: Toddsterpatriot
Nope, we’re talking about tax rates and you’re the one who originated the rate talk - and incorrectly so since many expenditures are not taxed under the FairTax and the effective tax rate there is much less than even the 23% ti rate (that’s the marginal rate).
670 posted on 12/30/2007 3:30:59 PM PST by baybabe
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To: Toddsterpatriot

Gee ... really??? Whattaguy! I’ll look for it within the hour.


671 posted on 12/30/2007 3:32:51 PM PST by baybabe
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To: baybabe
Nope, we’re talking about tax rates and you’re the one who originated the rate talk

If I spend $1,000,000 of my already taxed savings, do I get a larger prebate than if I spend $10 of my savings?

672 posted on 12/30/2007 3:34:05 PM PST by Toddsterpatriot (What came first, the bad math or the goldbuggery?)
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To: baybabe
and incorrectly so since many expenditures are not taxed under the FairTax

Which ones?

What about services? I don't pay a tax on my doctor visits. Will I under the FairTax?

673 posted on 12/30/2007 3:35:29 PM PST by Toddsterpatriot (What came first, the bad math or the goldbuggery?)
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To: xcamel
The amount they pay presently in embedded taxes on purchases is dramatically less than the rate they’d pay under the FT.

That has been calculated and presented time and again on these threads in the past and it’s a relatively paltry amount - especially so if the payer is a non-citizen since it’s the full 23% marginal rate for him.

674 posted on 12/30/2007 3:37:48 PM PST by baybabe
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To: baybabe

Nice spin, no banana for you though.


675 posted on 12/30/2007 3:39:34 PM PST by xcamel (FDT/2008)
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To: Toddsterpatriot
I’m sure you know that the prebate is not linked to any expenditure of saving nor does it tax additional income from that savings.

So, you see, it depends upon how you consume - not how much. Spread it out more and you’ll pay less in taxes (and still get the same prebate).

676 posted on 12/30/2007 3:41:40 PM PST by baybabe
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To: Toddsterpatriot
I just plugged in the numbers for my wife and I after we do our planned early retirement into the "FairTax Calculator"(http://www.fairtaxcalculator.org), and the "FairTax" would result in an increase of about 19% in Federal taxes over the system we have now.  No thanks!!
677 posted on 12/30/2007 3:46:04 PM PST by Drago
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To: baybabe
I’m sure you know that the prebate is not linked to any expenditure of saving nor does it tax additional income from that savings

I know.

So, you see, it depends upon how you consume - not how much.

If I spend savings, I'd pay 30% more after the FairTax.

678 posted on 12/30/2007 3:49:09 PM PST by Toddsterpatriot (What came first, the bad math or the goldbuggery?)
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To: Toddsterpatriot
I don't pay a tax on my doctor visits.
You certainly do, but I agree that you seem blissfully unaware of that. You've paid taxes on everything you spend there in the form of income tax.

For every $100 you pay the doctor, you actually had to earn a bit over $130 at the 28% income tax rate and pay the income tax thereon to have the $100 to fork over to Dr. Kildare.

679 posted on 12/30/2007 3:49:24 PM PST by baybabe
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To: xcamel
That’s no “spin” - and I don’t eat bananas.
680 posted on 12/30/2007 3:50:48 PM PST by baybabe
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