CM had to ask the same questions over and over and never got a straight answer. It almost appeared that Barber didn’t understand [anything].
Near the beginning, talking about “illegal acts”, Barber didn’t follow what the ad was talking about and went off about potential personal problems politicians have had. He didn’t even know what he was talking about.
He also couldn’t say what tax percentage rate he would add to consumer spending. CM finally got 23% out of him and Barber couldn’t put it together that on top of a national sales tax there is local\state tax.
23% + 8% = 31%
It’s really not that hard but this guy seems to have no understanding of what taxes there already are. (3:14 in the video)
Start at 3:36 and check the answer. Uh... Barber needs to pay attention.
Start again at 4:17. He still didn’t answer the question.
He doesn’t know the answer but he wants to make this law.
He’s done no research beyond talking points and it’s obvious.
Start again at 5:35. Utter bull$hit. He still can’t explain anything and goes back to his talking points.
I just re-watched half the video and Barber just looks stupid with not answering questions and not knowing what he’s talking about. I’m done, it’s painful.
All he does is copy and paste buzz words and phrases in his head and sends it to his mouth.
Barber lost this debate and really looks bad. I wouldn’t vote for this guy because he obviously is in over his head.
Matthews did not make an ass of himself, if anything he tried to get answers from this guy so Barber could get his message out. Barber failed and you can see the frustration on CM’s face.
100 percent agree.
Its a shame too because we need guys with his passion in office. Not his idiocy
Here’s what I saw:
Barber talked about tax evasion when it came to ‘illegal acts’ and that’s certainly an illegal act.
Matthews was idiotically trying to get Barber to add state/local sales taxes to the Fair Tax to get some kind of soundbite out of Barber and Barber didn’t bite. He defended his position quite well, IMHO.
I don’t agree with much of the rest of your characterization of the conversation. I think Barber answered those questions as well as they could be answered.
For the record, I think you might just see frustration on Chris Matthews’ face if he was debating a willow tree. This probably doesn’t change your opinion on Barber and may make you wish for a willow tree as a candidate instead, so YMMV.
It was Chrissy that did not understand. Barber said He would repeal the income tax and replace with a Fair tax, or a "Consumption tax" he tried to explain to Chrissy that this would not be added to the local sales tax as an added tax, but rather it would replace the already existing income tax. Chrissy latched on to the 23% as a made up number.
In actuality the percentage would be much lower.
Chrissy just did not want to hear that the Consumptin tax would replace the income tax.