FairTax in Ways and Means committee...

[Hobbit]

I know this thread has been dead for a while, but I'm reviving it because I'm nearly finished with the Fair Tax Book and I feel...enlightened. We've been getting screwed for nearly a CENTURY. It's time we fixed that.

 

[007]

I believe the answer to all taxation is a flat tax. With successful working examples already in play...

http://www.heritage.org/Press/Commentary/ed032403.cfm

... all this folly with such things as "fair tax" is nothing more than fancy window dressing for another way to screw people.

At this stage in my over taxed life, I don't trust the damn government to do ANYTHING that will benefit ME, and NOT benefit THEM. Government is all about big money, and come hell or high water, government is going to get theirs LOOOOONG before they give a damn about you or I.

The way the government passes up a flat tax for something else tells me one thing, that there's not enough ways that they can FUCK with it to their benefit. So, they ignore it.

 

[Hobbit]

I believe the answer to all taxation is a flat tax. With successful working examples already in play...

http://www.heritage.org/Press/Commentary/ed032403.cfm

... all this folly with such things as "fair tax" is nothing more than fancy window dressing for another way to screw people.

At this stage in my over taxed life, I don't trust the damn government to do ANYTHING that will benefit ME, and NOT benefit THEM. Government is all about big money, and come hell or high water, government is going to get theirs LOOOOONG before they give a damn about you or I.

The way the government passes up a flat tax for something else tells me one thing, that there's not enough ways that they can FUCK with it to their benefit. So, they ignore it.

The Fair Tax concept had little government involvement. It was dreamed up by citizens and is designed to benefit citizens. From what you have said, I believe you have a complete lack of or misunderstanding of knowledge of the Fair Tax. Now, I'm not going to ask you to drop $30 on a book on blind faith, so I ask that you instead visit http://www.fairtax.org/. If you're interested, the book is a good read (it's flying off shelves even now that it's old news.)

As far as what you've said in the previous post, here's the refutation.

- You don't have to trust the government on the Fair Tax, as nobody in government thought it up and government officials only became involved when it grew in popularity and a few congressmen more interested in their constituents than themselves. In fact, the movement for the Fair Tax started because the government has been using income tax as a way to screw the American people, buy votes, buy more votes through class warfare, and do it all with you hardly noticing ever since February 1913, when income tax was passed, and even more so since 1943, when witholding started. Trust me, this is not something the "screw you" government wants. If it was, they'd do the same thing they did for witholding, con Disney into making a propoganda film that lies to you and takes advantage of feelings of patriotism. Income tax is the biggest nest egg Washington ever thought up. It's a system that was thought up for the sole benefit of the politicians, and trust me, once public support gets really big for this, you'll see a lot of vote buyers fighting tooth and nail to convince you how bad the Fair Tax is.

- A flat tax isn't entirely a bad idea, except that soon, all the K Street lobbyists will start talking about how much a flat tax hurts the poor. It WOULD involve raising the rates for those in the lower tax brackets. The Fair Tax, on the other hand, gives a prebate for tax on expenditures equal to the poverty level, thus releiving the poor of their tax burden for basic necessities, meaning that one only pays tax on spending past the poverty level. The other thing about an income tax is that it discourages saving and investing and hides a lot of costs. Whenever you buy anything, the price before state sales tax is about 22% taxes levied against those who have a hand in making the product, give or take a few percent depending on the industry. A flat tax will not eliminate these charges. The Fair Tax will ensure the good is only taxed ONCE, at the checkout stand. The Fair Tax will also ensure that money is not taxed until it is spend, encouraging people to save their earnings instead of spending. In fact, if this works well enough, Social Security may solve itself through a generation of people who aren't dependant on a handout for their retirment. This actually help politicians, too, since Social Security will draw from the general fund and if Social Security needs little in terms of funding, that's more money they can spend on buying votes.

Lastly, what would you do if you knew it would eliminate the IRS. Well, this will do it, and it will acutally put MORE money in your pocket without actually raising prices

 

[insein]

The main opponent of this is human fear of change. People would rather stick with the broken way of losing money then to fix it and have a period of confusion.

I like the fairtax idea but i grow more skeptical as to whether or not it will ever be implemented.

 

[Mr. P]

...
I like the fairtax idea but i grow more skeptical as to whether or not it will ever be implemented.

I'm Afraid I am starting to feel unsure of any change in the near future myself. I don't think most people really understand the whole issue of tax, nor this program (fairtax).

 

[BaronVonBigmeat]

Pro Fair Tax:

http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig4/cox7.html

Con:

http://www.lewrockwell.com/cox/cox8.html

 

[Hobbit]

A lot of the cons are about how the book doesn't address the issue of government spending or reducing taxes, but the book does address these issues by stating that abolishing the income tax is daunting enough and that while there are other battles they'd like to win, they'll fight them one battle at a time, and the Fair Tax will bring taxes to people's attention and lead them to ask the question, "What the hell is the government spending all this on, anyway?" This, of course, lead to decreased spending.