The People Must Demand The Fair Tax

Last year, during the United States Senate race in Nebraska, Republican challenger Pete Ricketts suggested that every option must be considered when looking at ways to reform our federal tax system. Among the list of alternatives Ricketts said should be on the table was a national sales tax known simply as the "Fair Tax."

The Democrat incumbent, U.S. Sen. Ben Nelson, launched an attack on his opponent that was, at best, distorted and condescending, at worst, irrational demagoguery. One would have thought that Ricketts had suggested stealing all the assets of the poor and handing them over to Warren Buffet and Bill Gates.

Recently, the panel of pundits on ABC's "This Week with George Stephanopoulos," discussing the apparent rise in popularity of former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee's presidential campaign message, scoffed at Huckabee's unabashed promotion of the Fair Tax.

George Will, the token "conservative" on the panel, brushed it aside with the disbelief of an elitist who cannot understand the burden of the average worker who would love to take home his or her entire paycheck, as the Fair Tax would allow him or her to do. Will opined that Huckabee's second place showing in the Iowa straw poll was even more amazing given the fact that "he supported a national sales tax of thirty percent, which means that if you buy a one million dollar house, you'll be writing a check to the government for three hundred thousand dollars." Of course, the others on the panel readily agreed.

The elites of this country, who buy those million-dollar homes, are not enamored with the Fair Tax. They would be if they took the time to understand its appeal.

The Fair Tax would replace all federal income taxes. No more federal withholding. No more Social Security withholding. No more Medicare withholding. No more stealing from the paychecks of American workers before they even see it and then pretending to give them a refund, without interest, at the end of the year. No more saving receipts for tax deductions. No more IRS audits. No more April 15th.

Instead, the Fair Tax would put us in control. All consumer items would be taxed. Business purchases would not. By allowing us to make the determination about what we buy and when we buy it, the ability of our legislators to manipulate our behavior is eliminated. That is why the elites don't like it. They can't control the public's spending habits under such a system.

The current federal tax system is broken. It cannot be fixed. Since the inception of the federal income tax with the passage of the 16th Amendment in 1913, federal corruption and control have turned it into a Frankenstein monster that torments the people and serves the special interests. A tax on a person's income is a tax on production, and as Ronald Reagan once said, "Whatever you tax, you get less of."

Because the poor are forced to spend a disproportionate percentage of their resources to cover the tax on necessities, the Fair Tax hits them the hardest. That issue can be addressed by simply issuing a "prebate" check each month to every household in the country. Unlike disingenuous tax credits, deductions, exemptions and other loopholes in the current income tax code, a prebate check is a clean, honest method of covering the sales tax on food, clothing and shelter - up to the poverty level.

Of course, removing the income tax on corporations will reduce the cost of everything we buy, since corporations don't pay taxes. They simply pass them along to consumers. The Fair Tax plan calculates that removing the corporate income tax will result in a reduction in the cost of virtually every consumer item on the market. In fact, it will just about offset the tax on those products. Imagine paying the same price for something but having your entire paycheck to buy it.

And then there are the billions of dollars that flow untaxed through our economy today: drug dealers, prostitutes, pornographers, foreign tourists. Imagine how much revenue could be raised simply by taxing the things those people consume.

There would be no more audits, no more justifying deductions, and April 15th would become just another spring day. But only if the people stand up to the elites and demand it.

I really don’t want you posting to me as you have gone over the top in your insinuations of my statements. I find them very disturbing.

I find your statements disturbing too.

Ask others these questions as I don’t want to be reminded of your previous posts.

Considering the nature of the bulk of your posts to me, I find that pretty amusing. As a mother, I've had the opportunity to observe small children - they can be quiet nasty to each other and yet are genuinely shocked and outraged when their behavior elicits negative behavior in return from their victims.

The fact is, you wrote Abortion issue plays a key role here. In an unemotional assessment of age demographics and the change in culture with women abandoning childrearing in favor of entering the workplace, whether willingly or not, the verdict appears to be that civilization requires an economic system where women are content and dignified to be mothers and family educators. This is a contentious issue but it is what it is. The bottom-line is the American civilization needs to have many more babies to offset the imbalance in the upper age stratum. But to create a baby boom environment requires a tax structure that can afford larger families, The average number of children per family needs to increase from 1.9 to 3.2. This can only occur if economic conditions allow it and if social psychology is employed to convince and encourage women that having more children is the ‘new norm’.

There is no mention there of what women want for their own lives (freedom), but what the state, or to use your words, American civilization, needs. Then you go on to suggest that psychology be used to "convince (manipulate?) and encourage" women to accept a productive role as baby factories to mitigate the economic impact of retiring baby boomers (talk about Ponzi scheme).

You acknowledge the issue is contentious, and then are offended when you get contention. That doesn't sound very conservative or grownup to me.

Further, I am a woman, a mother, and a baby boomer. I grew up in the era when being a secretary, nurse, or teacher were all "good jobs for a woman". I heard phrases like "good pay" with the qualifier, "for a woman".

I had and have many arguments with the women's movement, but I would never choose to go back to the time when daughters could not freely choose to do what they loved and had an aptitude for, but were rather guided to lesser (and it was lesser) socially accepted gender appropriate careers.

As a baby boomer (the decision was not mine), I am sick and tired of being identified as the wreck and ruin of the US. It began with elementary school and the pressure of our numbers, to college (not enough room for us) and into the work force. We were told things like the pie wasn't big enough for us to get our piece (fooled 'em, didn't we), and now, here we are poised, after a lifetime of working and raising our children, to destroy the American economy by retiring.

You, sir, have offended me, not only with your personal insults, but with your generalizations as outlined in the text quoted and your plans for my daughters.

Listen up sonny, it is time for you to choose; stand up like a man and accept the contention you create, or slither back into your hole, feel sorry for yourself and lick your wounds.

You don't want me to post to you because you don't want to be reminded...That rather puts me in control of your feelings, doesn't it? No wonder you call yourself "hostage" while living in the freest country on earth.

“There is no mention there of what women want for their own lives (freedom), but what the state, or to use your words, American civilization, needs. Then you go on to suggest that psychology be used to “convince (manipulate?) and encourage” women to accept a productive role as baby factories to mitigate the economic impact of retiring baby boomers (talk about Ponzi scheme).”
WELL SAID!

“As a baby boomer (the decision was not mine), I am sick and tired of being identified as the wreck and ruin of the US. It began with elementary school and the pressure of our numbers, to college (not enough room for us) and into the work force. We were told things like the pie wasn’t big enough for us to get our piece (fooled ‘em, didn’t we), and now, here we are poised, after a lifetime of working and raising our children, to destroy the American economy by retiring.”

If you can read thank a teacher, if you can read in English, thank a soldier.

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