Their lies. Oh, and add to the list of those I hold in contempt, the lazy, stupid (self-lobotomized), selfish, demi-wannabe-sociopaths that make up the thundering herd of sheeple who lap up politicians’ *spit* and Mass Media Podpeople’s poison and beg for more.
Most recent example: the onslaught of lies, damned lies and typical “news reportage” damning the Fair Tax. A typical example is Bruce Bartlett’s “Fair Tax, Flawed Tax” in the August 26 edition of the Wall Street Journal’s Opinion Online. Since Bruce Bartlett is widely known as an intelligent man, one who claims to do his homework and know whereof he speaks, and therefore can be assumed to have done as he purports and have actually read the Fair Tax proposal, then one may fairly characterize each and every comment he makes in criticism of the Fair Tax to be a witting, deliberate lie.
Neal Boortz does a fair shirtsleeve summation of Bartlett’s lies (charitably assuming that Bartlett simply relied on the lies or misunderstandings of others), but let me just give a (redundancy alert! :-)) brief précis of the most egregious lies:
“In reality, the FairTax rate is not 23%. Messrs. Linder and Chambliss get this figure by calculating the tax as if it were already incorporated into the price of goods and services. (This is known as the tax-inclusive rate.)”
While Bartlett does say something that is true here, he places it in the context of stating that Fair Tax proponents are lying about the 23% rate. That in itself is a pernicious lie. What Bartlett does is ignore the simple fact that all the taxes (plural!) that the Fair Tax would replace–income taxes, Social Security taxes, Medicare taxes, etc.–are also tax inclusive! Bartlett goes on to (FALSELY!) claim that “every other” tax is calculated at the “tax-EXclusive rate” when such a claim is patently false.
Liar.
Bartlett further exacerbates his lying with something that a soi-disant “economic pundit” has no excuse for uttering–either complete and absolute stupidity, worthy of a brain damaged seventh grader, perhaps, or an outright, deliberate lie. Let Bartlett chose which it is.
“If a product costs $1 at retail, the FairTax adds 30%, for a total of $1.30. Since the 30-cent tax is 23% of $1.30, FairTax supporters say the rate is 23% rather than 30%.”
I’m going to Neal Boortz for the rebuttal on this one (even though Boortz all too charitably starts off simply saying Bartlett is wrong *heh*):
Wrong, wrong, wrong. If a product costs $1 at retail …. It costs $1, with the FairTax already included. This is so easy to understand, you almost get the idea that people are intentionally trying to confuse the facts here. That $1 item Bartlett is referring to costs $1 at retail today! But instead of including the FairTax in that price, all of the embedded taxes from every business and individual involved in bringing that item to the marketplace are included. You remove one, you add the other. And that bit about 30 percent to the federal government on top of the purchase price of your new home? Another lie. The embedded taxes are so high on the price of a new home today that when they are removed and the FairTax added, that home could be a percent or two cheaper! Come on, Bruce. This really isn’t that hard. Let’s try to spell this out plainly for everyone:The 23 percent FairTax is not added to the price of everything you buy … it is already included in the price of everything you will buy, just as the embedded taxes are included today. You remove one, you add the other.
Let that sink in again: the Fair Tax replaces all the taxes that are already–NOW–added into the price of everything you buy, from new houses to laundry detergent, from new cars (the Fair Tax would not apply to used goods) to tires for your old car (unless you bought used tires–*heh*). It replaces all the now hidden taxes on everyone and every business from raw materials through manufacturing, distribution and finally retail. No more paying for a business’ taxes and all the taxes on all the businesses that have led to the retail counter. Replace, not add to.
More Bartlett below the belt lies:
Since sales taxes are regressive–taking more in percentage terms from the incomes of the poor and middle class than the rich–some provision is needed to prevent a vast increase in taxation on the nonwealthy. The FairTax does this by sending monthly checks to every household based on income.
Aside from the incredible complexity and intrusiveness of tracking every American’s monthly income–and creating a de facto national welfare program–the FairTax does not include the cost of this rebate in the tax rate.
Lie #1 above: “The FairTax does this by sending monthly checks to every household based on income.”
Bullshit lie. In no way, shape, fashion or form does the Fair Tax proposal at any time or in any way specify “sending monthly checks to every household based on income” and so it would not in any way require the lie in the following sentence (Lie #2 above), either. What the Fair Tax does do is send a “prebate” to every household based on family size, period. All a family needs is valid Social Security numbers for family members. (Nice. No prebates to illegals!)
Lie #3 above: “…the FairTax does not include the cost of this rebate in the tax rate.”
According to Congressman Linder, the primary author of the Fair Tax bill, if the cost of the prebate had NOT been included, then the Fair Tax rate would have been 5% less, 18%. Bartlett either knows this and is lying or is stupid. No other options, save that he is lying and is stupid enough to think no one will call him on it (but crafty enough to know that the sheeple will lap up his poison and ask for more).
Bartlett lies about other things (of course), including the old chestnut that the 1990s “Church” of Scientology *spit* proposal for a national sales tax IS the Fair Tax proposal. (By this point in Bartlett’s article I was almost convinced that he’s become a full-blown Mass Media Podperson whose mind is fully under the control of the Hive Mind dictates from a Mother Ship orbiting Uranus–almost convinced.) Utter bullshit, as any responsible person would have determined before uttering it. (at the link, you can check out the origins of the Fair Tax proposal and determine for yourself that none of those involved have any connection to the Cult of Scientology and that the Scientology Cult tax proposal was substantially different to the Fair Tax.)
Go read the Bartlett article. The do your own homework and see. It’s true: the Fair Tax opponents have nothing but lies on their side.
(h.t. to HtH via email for the original link to Boortz and to Bartlett’s article)
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I am encouraged at all of the FairTaxers out there that are countering such lies (as you’ve correctly ascertained them) as Mr. Bartlett tells.
The following is a concise synopsis of WHY the FairTax MUST become the Law of the Land:
While many who are invested in the current income tax system seek to demagog the well-researched FairTax plan, its acceptance in the professional / academic community continues to grow. Renown economist Laurence Kotlikoff believes that failure to enact the FairTax – choosing instead to try to “flatten” what he deems to be a non-flattenable income tax system – will eventuate into an irrevocable economic meltdown, because of the hidden aspects of the current system that make political accountability impossible.
Here is why the FairTax MUST replace the income tax. It’s:
• SIMPLE, easy to understand
• EFFICIENT, inexpensive to comply with and doesn’t cause less-than-optimal business decisions for tax minimization purposes
• FAIR, loophole free and everyone pays their share
• LOW TAX RATE, achieved by broad base with no exclusions
• PREDICTABLE, doesn’t change, so financial planning is possible
• UNINTRUSIVE, doesn’t intrude into our personal affairs or limit our liberty
• VISIBLE, not hidden from the public in tax-inflated prices or otherwise
• PRODUCTIVE, rewards, rather than penalizes, work and productivity
Its benefits are as follows:
FOR INDIVIDUALS:
• No more tax on income – make as much as you wish
• You receive your full paycheck – no more deductions
• You pay the tax when you buy “at retail” – not “used”
• No more double taxation (e.g. like on current Capital Gains)
• Reduction of “pre-FairTaxed” retail prices by 20%-30%
• Adding back 29.9% FairTax maintains current price levels
• FairTax would constitute 23% portion of new prices
• Every household receives a monthly check, or “pre-bate”
• “Prebate” is “advance payback” for monthly consumption to poverty level
• FairTax’s “prebate” ensures progressivity, poverty protection
• Finally, citizens are knowledgeable of what their tax IS
• Elimination of “parasitic” Income Tax industry
• NO MORE IRS. NO MORE FILING OF TAX RETURNS by individuals
• Those possessing illicit forms of income will ALSO pay the FairTax
• Households have more disposable income to purchase goods
• Savings is bolstered with reduction of interest rates
FOR BUSINESSES:
• Corporate income and payroll taxes revoked under FairTax
• Business compensated for collecting tax at “cash register”
• No more tax-related lawyers, lobbyists on company payrolls
• No more embedded (hidden) income/payroll taxes in prices
• Reduced costs. Competition – not tax policy – drives prices
• Off-shore “tax haven” headquarters can now return to U.S
• No more “favors” from politicians at expense of taxpayers
• Resources go to R&D and study of competition – not taxes
• Marketplace distortions eliminated for fair competition
• US exports increase their share of foreign markets
FOR THE COUNTRY:
• 7% – 13% economic growth projected in the first year of the FairTax
• Jobs return to the U.S.
• Foreign corporations “set up shop” in the U.S.
• Tax system trends are corrected to “enlarge the pie”
• Larger economic “pie,” means thinner tax rate “slices”
• Initial 23% portion of price is pressured downward as “pie”
increases
• No more “closed door” tax deals by politicians and business
• FairTax sets new global standard. Other countries will follow
The time for sitting around, pontificating, is over. We have NO CHOICE but to demand Congress Scrap The Code – NOW!
(Freely redistributable, citation not required)
Hey! Love your analysis. I didn’t even bother to read it. I knew as soon as I read the title, he didn’t have a clue. Have you heard what Huckabee said? He wants there to be a national ban on smoking! DAMN HIM. Why is it that whenever someone looks as though they may be alright, they turn out sucking? I will NOT now, nor EVER vote for a freakin’ socialist who has not the first clue what the Founding Fathers’ had in mind when they wrote the most important two documents ever written. Yes, ever. That is because they used the Bible to write them! SHHH! Don’t tell anyone. Obviously the schools are not, but that’s a different topic…
I told the people that called to ask me what I thought was important (Fred’s trying find a platform, duh), and I brought up the Fair Tax. I also mentioned that when the 16th Amendment passed, they did not put a cap of 4% on it, because they were afraid the government would automatically raise taxes to the limit. God, do I wish they had! Why should the government get more money than God? Have you ever thought about that? Hmm…