The Fair Tax

[Benjamin Morgan]

I was inspired a bit by Opie & Anthony who were talking about taxes the other day. The most important thing Anthony said was the toad in the boiling water scenario. If you place a toad in lukewarm water and slowly heat it up, it will get used to it and take a while for it to realize the water is too hot. But if you place the toad in boiling water, it's going to hop out.

That's what has happened to our tax system. They've turned up the heat (taxes) so slowly that we are all just looking around now asking "How the hell did we get here? This sucks!"

They government taxes our income two-fold: They tax it when we get paid (income tax) and then again when we use the net pay to purchase goods and services. How do they manage to tax us that much?

There obviously needs to be some improving here. I've read the book The Fair Tax Book and it made a lot of sense to me. Here's some info on the Fair Tax:
www.fairtax.org/site/PageServer?pagename=about_main

There is a lot of support in Congress for this. A couple of the Democratic presidential candidates support the Fair Tax. Obviously the numbers are the big issue on whether or not this will work. But I want to double and triple check everything and make sure that this is the best solution. I will consider all the consequences.

Bottom line: taxes suck in America! We need change!

[42jeff]

Mkay....so say I'm somebody without the time to read said book. Give me a quick synopsis on this?

[Benjamin Morgan]

That link has an overview on the Fair Tax. You could probably get the gist of it by spending a few minutes on the site.

[42jeff]

But let's say I'm part of that 30% of America that is too LAZY to do anything for myself and demand that I'm entitled to you to read it for me and tell me what it's supposed to mean...

You know...like most CNN and MSNBC viewers....

[Benjamin Morgan]

From the site:

The FairTax Act (HR 25, S 1025) is nonpartisan legislation. It abolishes all federal personal and corporate income taxes, gift, estate, capital gains, alternative minimum, Social Security, Medicare, and self-employment taxes and replaces them with one simple, visible, federal retail sales tax administered primarily by existing state sales tax authorities.

The FairTax taxes us only on what we choose to spend on new goods or services, not on what we earn. The FairTax is a fair, efficient, transparent, and intelligent solution to the frustration and inequity of our current tax system.

The FairTax:

Abolishes the IRS
Closes all loopholes and brings fairness to taxation
Ensures Social Security and Medicare funding
Brings transparency and accountability to tax policy
Allows American products to compete fairly
Reimburses the tax on purchases of basic necessities
Enables retirees to keep their entire pension
Enables workers to keep their entire paycheck

We live in a free market system where competition is important. If competing companies make a similar product, one will eventually be dropping their price because they are paying no corporate tax. So this additional 23% tax on goods will be added on but you'll be getting your full paycheck and the price could drop from the producer.

If you add the tax on marijuana, and a stronger anti-black market organization, we could see a freer market where competition becomes more prevalent and more revenue for the government. Maybe we could knock down that national debt, which is a subject no politician will take on these days. But I will. ;D

[Kimmy]

I like your frog analogy. Very thoughtful and appropriate

[42jeff]

I am all for it doing away with welfare. But it still rewards people for being lazy. The family spending allowance is a bonus.

I'm still leery about its effect on small businesses with the sales tax boost. If people know that what was once $100 is now $130...they may not buy it. States already have their own sales tax in place, and the extra 23% just seems like it would drive consuming down and thereby lowering revenue for the government to do good things like paying my paycheck.

[demsul]

Just E-mail Neil Boortz. He'll be glad to explain it. It's basically a consumption tax. If you don't make any purchases, you don't pay any taxes. Forget what study it was, but it found that the "Fair Tax" was actually the fairest of all the proposed tax systems.


Notice how "THE IRS" spells THEIRS?