You have it precisely backwards.
There is no huge bureaucracy to monitor anyone's life. Everyone with a SS number who registers for the prebate gets it for their household regardless of income. Yearly (and when your situation changes) you report the number in your household along with the SS numbers. That's it. Once in the system, it's a mouse click to issue the checks.
Exempting items is what got us into the mess that we have now. Granting exemptions will allow the corrupting lobbyist business to continue.
The prebate makes it politically feasable by protecting the lower income households. It will defang the demogogues who would yell 'regressive'.
There may be provisions that will or maybe should change. The prebate and a single rate for everyone on everything is the way to go. That is what must not be changed.
Yep. The most expensive entitlement program in American history.
Regarding bureaucracy, you are an optimist. The rebate will become a vehicle to promote social policy & redistribute wealth, just as the current tax code does now.
Already, the so-called marriage penalty is a part of this legislation. Social policy manipulation! And it hasn't even passed yet!
No huge bureaucracy? Who is gonna record & keep track of all those births, deaths, marriages, divorces, income changes. Address changes alone will keep an army busy. What about people who challenge the amount of rebate? Who do you call when "the dog ate my rebate check"?The gov't will need people & offices to respond to these things - bureaucracy.
And since the rebate will be paid monthly, wont any changes to your "rebate status" need to be reported promptly to the new IRS, meaning many people will have to file multiple status reports every year, meaning even more bureaucrats to continuously process this never ending paperwork. Tax filing - once a month? Not for me!
And what about people who cheat the system? Its real hard to cheat the clerk at the store - either pay for your purchases, or leave empty handed. You might think beer should be exempt as a food (I do, too), but if you don't pay the tax, you aren't taking home the beer. No room for millions of cheaters there.
Much easier to cheat a system that must track numerous facts about every citizen in the US - marital status, age, # of kids, income, dependents, etc. So, we're gonna need an investigative & enforcement agency - more bureaucracy, & the WORST kind!
Can't you see this is the old system, in reverse? It will be just as corrupt, bureaucratic, & hated as the current system.
I will never support a tax system where there is a direct exchange of money between the individual citizen & government. Anytime this occurs, the gov't & pols uses this to manipulate the people for political purposes, which is contrary to Lincoln's "of the people, by the people, for the people".
If the Fair Tax ever gets into the national spotlight, most of the contention will center on the rebate, as greedy pols always gravitate to the source of money & power. Watch & see! Hopefully, that will prove the flawed rebate provision, & it will be tossed.
As to exemptions, you confuse our current income tax exemptions, which are nothing by blatant social manipulation & wealth redistribution, with sales tax exemptions, such as food, that would be applied EQUALLY to every purchaser. Nothing could be fairer, or more democratic. From day one, a rebate will be neither.