We’ll just get the FairTax done, despite your opposition.
Have at. I'll be working to expose the BS all the way.
If you don't like the "prebate", are you so desperately driven by hatred of the present system you'd swallow that turd with the soup, or are you one of those "Let's just pass it, we'll fix it later" types?
Either way, whatever replaces the current tax system had better be thought out well before it is emplaced, because if it is flawed, considering the speed which programs are 'fixed', we'll be dealing with those flaws for a long time.
Why not fix it before you pass it?--because it won't be any harder to fix now and pass than it would be to pass and then fix.
So, here is who gets hung out to dry with the tax and prebate system:
Those who have serious and ongoing medical issues.
Sure, you'll tax the boob jobs, face lifts, and gender reassignments, but you'll also tax the families who have a kid with cystic fibrosis, MD, MS, leukemia, spina bifida, or any one of a slew of ailments which require significant and far above average medical expenses. But they'll get their prebate, right?
People who need more.
By virtue of geography, those who live and work in the parts of the country which have miserable weather, be it subzero winters and blizzards, or heat waves and hurricanes, will be taxed for the extra they have to pay to stay alive, and recover from any damages. Whatever the average is, they'll be paying more. Smack 'em again while they're down, along with the people whose house burned down.
But....but they'll get a prebate check, right? (as soon as they get a mailbox again). Because there is nothing in the "Fair Tax" to allow for catastrophic losses, theft, vandalism, etc.
And if you lose your job? Well you get to keep paying those taxes, there is no mitigation for the reversal of fortune displayed in your bottom line. Pay the tax on that formula, the diapers, the food you eat, because it is more important for the Gubmint to have that extra dollar to give to someone else.
Now, I'm not saying the present system isn't lousy. It is.
I just got done with 2013, after a series of unfortunate events, and the governments combined (State and Federal) got six figures out of me, not counting the two on the right side of the decimal place--more extracted from my income than I made in most 5-year periods in my life.
Yep, that sucks.
Being penalized for being successful after decades of busting my butt and enduring hardships most would not is a raw deal, period.
So, if we're going to replace that system, one which penalizes people for not being prescient, let's do it with one free of gimmicks, one which is at least predictable, and, even more important, let's stop the Government from pissing away those hard earned dollars it squeezes out of us in a fashion which would embarrass the most intoxicated of mariners on shore leave.