Posted on 08/28/2007 4:39:18 PM PDT by Bigun
The People Must Demand The Fair Tax
By Doug Patton
August 28, 2007
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.
Why would social psychology need to be used to convince and encouraged women to do what Hostage claims they already want to do?
Perhaps he knows what women want better than the women, themselves.
To subsidize the necessary child baring that takes women out of the work force.
The prebate is the pacifier for the nanny set. It is also a benefit for the after tax retired set. It also shuts up the "No Fair" crowd.
Perhaps he knows what women want better than the women, themselvesOnly because they haven't attended Doctor Hostage's reeducation camp.
I wonder if he makes his wife walk 3 paces behind him...in a Burka.
Why is the prebate necessary if prices remain the same and people have the same amount of money to spend?Not only that, but how does that and even more (empty) promises make the "true cost of government more visible"?
Basically, a political rather than an economic decision intended to get votes. An awfully expensive and socialistic means to an end, wouldn't you agree?
What is it about these groups that makes them incapable of understanding that prices and incomes won't change, meaning a prebate is not necessary for anyone?
"It is also a benefit for the after tax retired set."
True. Every little bit helps. But it comes nowhere near reimbursing them for what they've obtained with post tax dollars.
They're living up to their word. Via the prebate, they're making the increased cost and size of government more visible. It's for all the dingbat voters who will be thinking, "It's about time that I got something from the government for a change".
Politics is the art of compromise.
In order to slay a dragon you may have to sacrifice a few knights.
Politics is the art of compromise.Sadly, only Republicans live by that rule.
When you quote something, try to include the source, if it’s not too hard on you...
We are giving him $500 because most people in his position are too stupid to see the benefits of the bill, and must have something tangible. It eliminates the argument that will surely be brought forth by liberals that the Fair Tax will “hurt the poor.”
what the FTN’s can’t get their heads around, is that the pitfalls of the bill far outweigh the benefits. It matters not how bad the current system, the unfairtax does nothing to correct the addiction to government spending.
"The wheels of the general government having been thus clogged, and the arrearages of taxes still accumulating, it may be asked what prospect is there of the government resuming its proper tone, -unless more compulsory powers are granted? To this it may be answered, that the produce of imposts on commerce, which all agree to vest in Congress, together with the immense tracts of land at their disposal, will rapidly lessen and eventually discharge the present encumbrances. When this takes place, the mode by requisition will be found perfectly adequate to the extraordinary exigencies of the union. Congress have lately sold land to the amount of eight millions of dollars, which is a considerable portion of the whole debt." --Patric Henry
It will never happen because the bottome 50% don’t pay any federal income taxes. That’s the whole problem with the tax code. Not enough people pay taxes to get any reform.
John
Yes but it won’t pass because half the public doesn’t want it because they don’t pay any taxes now.
That’s the whole problem with the tax code. Only a small% pay the bills.
Our tax code is unconstitutional because it victimizes a minority of the taxpayer by making them paying why more then there share.
Top 1% pay about 35% of the federal taxes.
John
I don’t count ss taxes as federal taxes. Plus most people dont’ pay any federal income taxes. That 15% bracket is before all the exemptions. 50% don’t pay ANY income taxes.
It will take the courts to declare our system unconstitutional before anything gets changed.
John
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