"It is not irrational. The FairTax would create an entirely new government entitlement program-- the prebate. It would immediately be larger than Social Security or Medicare, and it would require the FedGov to increase the amount of revenue collected as compared to today by a very large amount. "
Oh, but it IS irrational - as is this post of yours. The prebate - as has been pointed out continually to you - is not an entitlement; it is a rebate which is "... a return of a part of a payment ...". An entitlement is a different word with quite a different meaning. The fact you continue to ignore this fact is, indeed, irrational.
Nor is the prebate anything like the size you pretend - with no basis in fact (also irrational on your part) - since it amounts in the FairTax to $429 billion (not $600 billion as you continually misstate) and that is even setting aside the fact that the government spends $725 billion now on tax loopholes and tax exemptions. And the entire "cost" of the $429 billion is covered in the 23% revenue neutral rate.
And it is very clear to most who understand economics that the FairTax will greatly boost the economic activity of this country and not "blow it up" (which is merely another of you over used scare phrases and not true in any event).
And since the prebate is NOT a return of anything, and since you don't need to pay any taxes to get it, your definitions, like those of the FairTax hucksters are an attempt to play word games.
The socialist prebate, that puts everyone on the dole, is the first thing that the politicians would start tinkering with once they realized that even a 40-50% tax rate wasn't gonna collect enough revenue. The second thing would be to bring back the income tax on the "rich".
Making things up again? I haven't used that number at all, it relies on a way too low FairTax rate (23% ti), since the "prebate" entitlement is equal to the FairTax that would theoretically be collected on poverty level goods and services, then a much larger FairTax rate makes the prebate cost grow in a linear fashion with the rate. If the rate is actually 50% higher, then the prebate program cost would be 50% higher.
Using your definition then, Social Security is not an entitlement program because those that receive payments from the system have paid money into the system. Its a rebate, right?