Posted on 02/25/2008 12:51:24 PM PST by Man50D
SUPPOSE A presidential candidate proposed taxing wealth and using the proceeds to reduce taxes on workers and provide a rebate large enough to cover taxes paid by poor workers. Such a candidate would be hailed by the left and reviled by the right.
Thus, it's remarkable that so many Democrats, with the exception of presidential candidate Mike Gravel, oppose the FairTax and so many Republicans, particularly presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, support it. In fact, the FairTax, which replaces all federal taxes with a federal retail sales tax and provides a rebate, represents a way to tax wealth, reduce taxes on wages, and disproportionately redistribute money to the poor.
A sales tax effectively taxes wealth?
It does. When we buy goods and services in a sales tax world, part of the payment goes to sales taxes. So we end up with fewer real goods and services.
Take Mr. Megabucks, who is sitting on $65 million and wants to buy a jet like Oprah Winfrey's - a 10-passenger, $50 million Global Express XRS. Under the FairTax, the jet costs him an extra $15 million because of the 30 percent sales tax. Mr. Megabucks gets the jet, but the extra $15 million, which he had budgeted for Beluga caviar, Dom Pérignon, and other flight snacks, goes to Uncle Sam.
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
Fair Tax ping!
it costs him $50 million...fair tax or no fair tax...*sigh*
an advocate of the fair tax, but still needs to get his information correct...
The author does not know the FairTax very well. After the embedded taxes are removed, the final cost of the jet after the FairTax is added will still be about $50 million.
Listen, any time a liberal see the word “tax” they get a tingly feeling that runs up their leg.
Why don’t democrats like the fair tax, even though it does everything they say they support?
Simple answer for this guy - they are about control - they could care less whether they “tax the rich” or “redistribute to the poor”, it’s about them being in control of the distribution.
no, when you feel that tingle going up your leg, it’s officially an “Obamingle”..heh
Not exactly so. The jet will have embedded taxes other than fed taxes, and there are “fees” that the fed will still have.
As this guy points out, the fair tax is anything BUT fair.
In its zeal to extract a pound of flesh from that dastardly “rich guy”, it screws savers, retirees, and anyone who prizes productivity and thrift over consumption. Those folks pay twice.
Of course, this explains why a class warfare populist nut like Huckabee likes it.
Professor Kotlikoff appears to be operating under the notion that Democrats actually want a tax system that operates fairly. That is the last thing they actually desire.
Democrats will oppose the Fair Tax for one simple reason... they can not use it to manipulate social policy, reward friends, or punish opponents as they can currently do with the Income Tax.
There’s also this little matter of the tremendous incentive it will give to a cash-only, barter, underground economy.
Or does Huck think human beings will simply roll over and do what is expected of them?
I could never understand the ginned-up enthusiasm for this untried measure when the Flat Tax has a long and successful history in a whole slew of countries.
Step away from the propaganda, go down to any small business, ask them what their gross sales were, and what their tax liability was. The embedded tax myth has to end sometime.
Second, the man pays no sales tax on his fifty million dollar plane because he's buying it used - extremely large private jets are purchased new.
I am SURE liberals LOVE the ‘fair tax’ right down to the nice Orwellian name.
Watch the comments here from pro- fair tax people. We can’t even get them to drop the ‘tax inclusive’ scheme. (because it shows that a 23% ‘tax-inclusive’ rate is really more like 30% the way you normally consider sales tax)
>> I could never understand the ginned-up enthusiasm for this untried measure when the Flat Tax has a long and successful history in a whole slew of countries.
Yep. The funny thing is.. the flat tax IS the “fair” tax!
FairTax bump!
HA HA HA HA HA HA HA ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ... you really believe that, don’t you.
Mr. Megabucks would simply purchase the Jet in a more tax friendly country and avoid paying the tax completely and the US government would get $0 in tax revenue exactly what they did when we put a tax on luxury yachts.
Why would a conservative support "fair tax" if it does everything claimed here, i.e. tax the rich and redistribute wealth?
For the opposite reason -
because it removes the control from the central government.
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