It's easy to dismiss campaign promises, especially this early, but at least six candidates running for president say they support the "FairTax" initiative, a plan to replace the federal income tax system with a progressive national sales tax.
Five of eight GOP candidates and one Democratic candidate have promised to "sign it into law" if passed by Congress, according to FairTax spokesman Ken Hoagland.
John McCain, Tom Tancredo, Tommy Thompson, Mike Huckabee and Duncan Hunter are backing the Fair Tax Plan on the GOP side. Fred Thompson is also on board.
The top Democratic candidates, who like taxes and plan to raise taxes even more if elected, are slow to jump on the Fair Tax bandwagon. So far, only Mike Gravel supports it. Yeah, I know. You're wondering who Mike Gravel is. He's a former U.S. senator from Alaska.
Getting past Congress is another big "if" in the debate. With so many special interest groups using the current tax system to their benefit, it's unlikely lobbyists will give up their tax breaks so easily. It also involves repeal of the 16th Amendment and you know how hard it is to get rid of those amendments once they make it into the Constitution.
But supporters are optimistic.
"At campaign stops in the early primary states of South Carolina, Iowa, and Florida as well as elsewhere in the nation, FairTax supporters are visible, vocal, and insistent," Hoagland said in a statement released Tuesday.
FairTax.org is a growing national grassroots campaign with legislation by Rep. John Linder of Georgia now pending in Congress as H.R. 25. You can read more about the movement at http://www.fairtax.org/
The FairTax Plan is simple: Replace the federal income tax system with a progressive national retail sales tax. And before you IRS lovers harp in about sales taxes hurting the poor, the Fair Tax Plan includes a "prebate" provision to ensure no American pays federal taxes on spending up to the poverty level.
"While some in Washington are determined to protect the current system because of power and profit motives, Democrats, Republicans, Independents, and a lot of Americans who have given up on any political party have flocked to our cause in recent months," Hoagland said. "It is the only tax proposal that does not pit income groups or political beliefs against each other, no matter how hard some in Washington try to confuse the issue."
Former Sen. Fred Thompson, who has yet to formally join the race for the White House, told a group of FairTax supporters last week in Houston that if he were president he would sign the FairTax into law, according to Hoagland.
"The question is not whether to continue or amend past tax breaks or whether to raise or cut income taxes but whether the income tax system itself is damaging the national economy and bedeviling every taxpayer," Hoagland said. "We believe that past attempts prove the federal tax system cannot be fixed piecemeal. Scores of economists have predicted that the FairTax is the very best tax reform for our economy and our national interests, and we are promoting the issue and the legislation in every way we can."
2 comments:
First, excerpts from . . .
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Where is the outrage over sky-high taxes, regulatory costs?
by Steve Higgins
7/15/07 - New Haven (CT) Register (Fair Use excerpts)
"Reports last week from two nonprofit groups should serve as a wake-up call to Americans to start agitating for tax reform . . .
"On Monday, the Competitive Enterprise Institute reported that the cost to consumers of complying with federal regulations exceeded $1 trillion in 2006 . . . almost 10 percent of the nation's gross domestic product. It's nearly half the amount of government spending !
"Even more worrisome, the cost of complying with these multitudinous regulations exceeds the amount of individual income tax paid in 2006, about $998 billion, as well as corporate incomes taxes of $277 billion.
"According to the Washington, DC-based advocacy group [ Americans for Tax Reform ], the average American had to work through July 11 this year just to pay all federal, state and local taxes, as well as regulatory costs including workers' compensation and unemployment benefits.
"Congress should take one of two paths: Either cut tax rates and government spending drastically, or adopt the FairTax, an innovative proposal that would involve abolishing the Internal Revenue Service and its income tax and replacing it with a simple national sales tax."
Full article here: http://snipr.com/wherestheoutrage
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. . . The U.S. income tax system and the U.S. economy are inter-related, and are in DIRE trouble. If we, the citizens of these United States, do not act aggressively to spread the FairTax plan with family, friends and associates - our "nest eggs" stand to be devastated through a coming economic meltdown. ( "Laurence J. Kotlikoff on Long-Term Fiscal Problems in the U.S.," summary and podcast at http://taxfoundation.org/news/show/1859.html - Dr. Kotlikoff is an expert economist, and advocate, of the FairTax plan)
Politicians are putting demogoguery and pandering above responsible governing - and they're able to do it because Americans do NOT understand - at the "get go" - politicians' / bankers' hunger for ever-increasing shares of the working person's bi-weekly paycheck; Americans do NOT understand the totality of taxes they pay. The FairTax shines the "light of day" on this, putting citizens back in charge to forcefully demand spending reductons.
YOU AND I MUST ACT to mobilize public opinion, and get the FairTax enacted, because the signs point to a probable devaluation of the dollar (for reissuance of an "Amero" ? - under a U.S.-sovereignty-busting North American Union ? http://youtube.com/watch?v=6hiPrsc9g98 )
[ NOTE: Does this help clarify your understanding of what's going on globally? a) Bush's persistence on rewarding illegal immigration? b) the North American Highway now under construction in Texas (to stream cheap labor into the covertly-planned North American Union marketplace designed to compete with 21st-century China market? c) the gradual increase in value of the Chinese yuan by China corresponding to China's economic growth? (This will result in the dumping of dollar-denominated debt as its manufacturing economy grows stronger - which guarantees devaluing and ushering-in of the Amero.) ]
Keep in mind, this NAU strategy - supported by the "super-rich" (member-owners of the Fed) - together with their politician buddies who want NOTHING to do with FairTax - runs contrary to simply making the U.S. a "tax free zone" for business under the FairTax. Politicians and bankers lose power when the U.S. is returned to a "savings-driven economy" from a "debt / interest-driven" economy).
Powerful "elites," members of political and monied-interest "clubs" reaching into the halls of power in Washington, depend on keeping you and me uninformed of their plans. It is up to YOU and ME to ACT - and not live in a state of denial - based on what we now know is clearly happening to our financial futures.
After you consult the Kotlikoff interview (above):
• (If you're a member of your State FairTax organization) Contact your state or local FairTax Director to learn what you can do. Find yours here: http://snipr.com/localftleaders
• (If you're just learning about the FairTax bill) Join FairTax.org here: http://snipurl.com/scrapthecode
Here's what else you can do: make your voice heard loud and clear to your elected officials, in unison with your fellow Fair Tax advocates across the nation.
www.OperationOffTheFence.org
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