The Flat Tax Defined

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Sunday, November 16, 2008
By: Augusta Chronicle Editorial Staff

Hopefully election results won't kill national sales tax movement
Democrats have won both the executive and legislative branches of government. They will pursue a vastly different national agenda in the next four years.
Sadly, that risks putting several important agenda items on the back burner. One of them is the Fair Tax.
A proposed 23-cent national sales tax, the Fair Tax would replace the current federal system of taxation -- meaning no income tax and no Social Security tax.
That means power to the people, because, first of all, they get their entire paycheck. Secondly, they determine the amount of tax they pay by the decisions they make on their purchases.
The Fair Tax also contains a feature called a "prebate" -- money that would wipe out federal taxes completely for those at or below the poverty line.
Ironically, even as Democrats who have not quite warmed up to the idea are set to take control of both Congress and the White House, a new benefit of the Fair Tax has arrived: If taxpayers received more of their paycheck in take-home pay, they would be more equipped to make their mortgage payments. So perhaps fewer Americans would be losing their homes to foreclosure.
That's just one example of what the Fair Tax could do by empowering people to have more control over more of their money.
And just imagine how much more luminous and fragrant the spring would be if you didn't have wrestle the IRS every April! And guess what that wrestling match costs Americans every year: $265 billion in tax preparation costs.
That alone is cause for dumping tea in Boston Harbor.
It's too bad that some have demagogued the Fair Tax, especially at election time. It's not a tax increase; it's tax reform of the best kind, because it shifts power from Washington to the people.
The Fair Tax is so-called because it brings the underground economy into the light, and closes the many loopholes the powerful exploit to avoid taxation. Moreover, experts predict it will prompt offshore assets to flow back to the United States. Why? Because they would no longer need to hide from the long nose of the IRS.
Philosophically it's a winner, too, because it shifts taxation from industriousness and production to consumption. Such a reward of hard work and investment would be just the thing a struggling economy such as ours could really use.
Talk about a stimulus package! And this stimulus wouldn't cost money.
It's an awful shame that such a partisan shroud has fallen down around the Fair Tax. On Nov. 16, at the Gwinnett Center in Duluth, there will be a Fair Tax "Truth" rally to clear up some of the lies and distortions about the Fair Tax featuring GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, nationally syndicated radio host Neil Boortz and U.S. Senator Saxby Chambliss as guest speakers, among others.
This isn't a Republican or Democratic idea. Fact is, it's a grass-roots movement that has been catching steam in recent years. What a tragedy it would be if Nov. 4 were to sap the energy out of the movement.
We can't let that happen, and certainly not now. The Fair Tax has too much potential to lift the economy out of the doldrums, stimulate manufacturing and labor, and keep people in their homes.
Neither is this a matter of impulsiveness. The Fair Tax has been debated, researched and vetted by prominent and knowledgeable economists, business people and other leaders. It's a system that would work, because it would once again allow American wage earners to keep what they earn and spend it as they see fit.
That's smart. That leads to prosperity.
And it's the definition of fair.
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