Monday, February 11, 2008

No Fair (Tax)


Even if there wasn't some undefinable quality I didn't like about former governor and current Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, his enthusiasm for the so-called "fair" tax would be enough to cost him my support. Now, I know it feels good to hear phrases like "abolish the IRS" and "fair tax," but no one votes on emotion, right?

The basic idea behind the fair tax is to eliminate the income tax, replacing it with a national sales tax. In order to provide the federal government with the same level of revenue it currently receives, this sales tax would have to be somewhere in the neighborhood of 30%. Of course, this would be on top of the state sales tax. We can't deprive the state governments of their fair share of our incomes, after all.

Gone will be the days of rewarding individual charitable donations through the deduction system. Instead we will have a nation crippled ever more by debt, as credit card balances bear the brunt of consumption-based taxation.

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