Dear Editor:
The contempt government has for "We the People" makes it clear that the time to implement the Fair Tax has arrived. The IRS, just like all other government institutions, will do all within their power to penalize anyone who supports downsizing government.Â
Politicians and the IRS have the ability to punish those who endorse smaller government, while rewarding those who feather their nests (continued employment, campaign contributions, etc.) by providing tax breaks to campaign contributors while punishing supporters of smaller government with audits, etc.
Much has been said about the flat tax. Don't confuse it with the fair tax." A flat tax just adds another method of taxation that begs to be misused.
What we need is the fair tax," similar to that proposed at http://www.fairtax.org/site/PageServer. A simple sales tax, paid by the end user of new products (buy a used car pay no tax, buy a new car and you pay the tax.) It would replace federal income taxes including personal, estate, gift, capital gains, alternative minimum, Social Security, Medicare, self-employment, and corporate taxes..
To minimize the number of federal employees needed to administer the program, households with a holder of a valid Social Security number would receive a monthly prebate.
The annual amount of the prebate would equal the cost of federal taxes paid on all purchases of new items up to the poverty level.
Basically, after the prebate a couple with two children would pay no federal taxes on the first $30,000 they spent for new items. Today that couple pays $2.200 just in Social Security and Medicare taxes. A couple with two children who spent $500,000 for new items would pay over $100,000 in taxes, after the prebate. That certainly should be progressive enough to satisfy even the most rabid liberal/progressive.
Over six billion hours annually are spent trying to comply with the federal tax code. Virtually all of these wasted man-hours could be put to productive use if the fair tax were enacted. Probably 90,000 of the 100,000 plus IRS workers would have to find real jobs, rather than sucking at the taxpayer teat.
The House bill proposing the Fair Tax has 64 co-sponsors, the companion Senate bill has seven. Sadly only two, Billy Long and Sam Graves, of the 64 co-sponsors in the House are from Missouri. Neither of our Missouri senators have supported the bill.