By now, both readers of twc *heh* know that I’m pretty much a “Fredhead”–that I believe Fred Thompson’s the only sane, adult human candidate running for the presidency. *heh* Yet still, there are a couple of things I’d certainly like to sit down and have a long discussion with him about, things I think he ought to address seriously in some way. One involves his reasoning for a couple of his senate votes. Oh, I understand his reasoning; I just disagree with him. The other is his inexplicable lack of support for the Fair Tax (and his own proposed tax plan).
Neal Boortz‘s article yesterday (January 7–by the time you read this, he may already have shifted it to his “archives” section, h.t., Hugh, a regular reader) touches on one of those things talking heads always–always–get wrong about the Fait Tax, either because they are too stupid to understand these things (or too lazy to do their homework) or because they have a specific agenda and are simply lying by omission or comission: imnedded taxes in the current plan and how the Fair Tax eliminates them. In yesterday’s article, Boortz takes one such Mass Media Podperson to task for getting this massive benefit wildly wrong… by simply not mentioning it.
There are several core principles of the FairTax, and one of them is that the new national retail sales tax will replace the federal taxes that are already embedded in the price of everything we buy. We didn’t make the embedded taxes up. The study was done by Harvard economists. I thought the left loved Harvard. These economists determined that, on the average, 22 percent of the cost of everything we buy represents the total embedded tax burden of every person or company responsible for bringing that product to the marketplace. Those taxes disappear under the FairTax, and when they disappear competitive marketplace pressures will drive that tax component out of the price. Then along comes the 23 percent FairTax to replace it. Result? The item costs pretty much the same. Now any reporter who wanted to do any research at all would be able to figure this out … yet Redburn makes absolutely no mention at all of embedded taxes in his article.
Why? Sloppy reporting? Or an agenda? This is a concept that hundreds of thousands of waiters and waitresses, truck drivers, construction workers, electricians, retail and service workers, farmers, hotel housekeepers and yes, even accountants understand .. but a New York Times reporter can’t?
But wait! There’s more! Redburn, of course, repeats all the fake talking points of Fair Tax opponents (except the political expediency talking point: the Fair Tax is gaining such broad based support that that lil point is starting to drop off the boards *heh*), including the old fake, “But most analysts say the tax rate necessary to replace current federal revenues, under any likely plan, would actually need to be much higher,” argument. The “most experts” referred to there are either the ones on or twice-removed, self-proclaimed “experts” citing the President’s Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform, which was forbidden to review the Fair Tax plan! So, such “experts” are talking “peaches” to the Fair Tax “apples” and any observations they made/make are invalid, period.
Let me repeat myself: every single critic of the Fair Tax plan that I’ve read or heard has either lied or through a lack of actually doing their homework repeated the lies of others in their attacks. Kinda makes one wonder just what their agenda really is, eh?
Oh, it’s simple, really: any tax plan that deposes the political power of Washington politicians *spit* and bureaucraps to meddle in folks’ lives is anathema to these statists. The Fair TAx plan is the ONLY plan that’s been floated that
a. returns the Federal government to the consumption tax principles, though not the exact model, of the Framers
b. puts the power to actually pay taxes back in the hands of the ones who pay and
c. removes that bureau of Satan, the IRS, from the electorate’s back
Each of these things gives statists the willies, which is why, absent any substantive arguments against the Fair Tax, they lie.
*sigh*
But that still doesn’t adequately explain to me why–while not openly opposing it–Fred Thompson hasn’t jumped on the Fair Tax bandwagon with all he has… and that’s something I’d dearly like to have a sit-down with him about.
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