I repeat these messages every chance I get:
| Rep. John Linder July 23, 2008 Statement on the FairTax Like all the great nations and societies of history the United States is rapidly coming to the end of its existence as a great and powerful country. The shackles of our nearly 70,000 page tax code are making us less and less able to compete in the global economy. Our tax on capital is cutting our businesses off at the knees. Our highest earners have half their income confiscated by the IRS. All of these taxes along with the cost of complying with nearly unfathomable tax regulations put us at a severe disadvantage as competitors in the global economy since these expenses must be added to the price of the goods and services we sell. Ireland with its business friendly tax laws has experienced a huge economic boom while because of its punitive taxes the United States has experienced an economic slowdown. The Irish are praying that we do not adopt the FairTax. They recognize that the relocation of American companies to Ireland was precipitated by our smothering taxes on capital and labor. Ireland realizes that the establishment of the FairTax would give America the best business climate in the world drawing its American companies back home along with attracting many other foreign businesses. The passage of the simple, fair, and transparent FairTax Bill, only 132 pages long, will abolish all Federal income taxes, including personal, estate, gift, capital gains, alternative minimum, corporate, payroll, and self-employment taxes, and replace them with one simple, visible, personal consumption tax. It would tax what we remove from society by consumption instead of taxing what we contribute to society by production and investment. Every American household would receive a cash distribution every month to cover the consumption taxes they would spend for their basic nourishment, housing, transportation, and medical needs. There will be zero taxes paid for necessities. Beyond what Americans spend for necessities 23% of what they choose to spend at the retail level for personal use will be forwarded to the treasury. The FairTax will replace dollar for dollar the current revenues confiscated by the IRS. Politicians have been changing the tax code since 1913 to gain the favor of one voting bloc or another. We have had some 16,000 changes to the code since the mid-eighties and the problems these changes were supposed to help have been exacerbated or replaced with other problems. Therefore, the changes go on and on and on and the power it yields to our politicians corrupts them more and more and more. Our tax code has driven $2 trillion into the underground economy costing us about $50 billion in tax collections. Our tax code has driven $12 trillion into offshore financial centers. These funds should be working in our markets and banks. We are spending between $400 and $500 billion each year just complying with the code. That money is a total and unnecessary loss to the economy. Everybody complains about the complexity, unfairness, and intrusiveness of the IRS. Our politicians in response to our complaints all claim to be for reforming the tax code but reforming it is not the solution. It does not need reforming. It needs to be replaced by the FairTax. Top American businessmen, tax experts, and economists have devoted years to the development of the simple, fair, and transparent FairTax Bill. These experts spent some 12 years formulating the FairTax Bill. At the pace of our “do nothing” Congress it would take 1200 years to reform our hopelessly complicated Tax Code. Tweaking the Tax Code fixes nothing. Getting rid of the IRS fixes everything. When John Linder and some of his FairTax supporters presented the FairTax Bill to former Secretary of the Treasury, John Snow, he said, “You have just proposed the largest magnet for capital and jobs in history.” It is a good thing for all Americans for the United States to be the outsource destination for jobs. It is a good thing for all Americans for our nation to be the world’s safest and most stable tax haven. The FairTax will give us these results as well as a business climate that will expand freedom. |
You can access the original column on-line here:
Rep. John Linder July 23, 2008 Statement On The FairTax
Americans For Fair Taxation
July 25, 2008
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