The Editorial Staff at the Augusta Chronicle put out a pretty good essay about the FairTax last month. They basically said that just because the Democrats won both houses of Congress and the White House doesn't mean that the FairTax is dead. Nope, in fact, far from it.
The idea is as viable as ever and the cause is growing. Here is some of what they said:
| A proposed 23-cent national sales tax, the Fair Tax would replace the current federal system of taxation -- meaning no income tax and no Social Security tax. That means power to the people, because, first of all, they get their entire paycheck. Secondly, they determine the amount of tax they pay by the decisions they make on their purchases. The Fair Tax also contains a feature called a "prebate" -- money that would wipe out federal taxes completely for those at or below the poverty line. Ironically, even as Democrats who have not quite warmed up to the idea are set to take control of both Congress and the White House, a new benefit of the Fair Tax has arrived: If taxpayers received more of their paycheck in take-home pay, they would be more equipped to make their mortgage payments. So perhaps fewer Americans would be losing their homes to foreclosure. |
Barack Obama has already admitted that he is not the Messiah and that the economy is going to get worse before it gets better. I am absolutely certain it will get worse because history has shown us that socialist tax increases coupled with government deficit spending merely prolongs our economic plight. Thus, as the economy worsens over the next four years due to Democrat meddling, I believe people will want real reform in D.C. The FairTax can deliver that.
More:
| And just imagine how much more luminous and fragrant the spring would be if you didn't have wrestle the IRS every April! And guess what that wrestling match costs Americans every year: $265 billion in tax preparation costs. That alone is cause for dumping tea in Boston Harbor. It's too bad that some have demagogued the Fair Tax, especially at election time. It's not a tax increase; it's tax reform of the best kind, because it shifts power from Washington to the people. The Fair Tax is so-called because it brings the underground economy into the light, and closes the many loopholes the powerful exploit to avoid taxation. Moreover, experts predict it will prompt offshore assets to flow back to the United States. Why? Because they would no longer need to hide from the long nose of the IRS. Philosophically it's a winner, too, because it shifts taxation from industriousness and production to consumption. Such a reward of hard work and investment would be just the thing a struggling economy such as ours could really use. |
Absolutely.
You can access the complete editorial on-line here:
The Definition Of Fair
Editorial Staff
Augusta Chronicle
November 16, 2008
An Open Letter To The President, Congress And The American People
And who supports the FairTax? Hundered of Economists and Professors from our nation's most prestigious institutions. Check out who signed the above letter:
Donald L. Alexander
Professor of Economics
Western Michigan University
John Greenhut, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Finance & Business Economics
School of Global Management and Leadership
Arizona State University
Ben Pierce
Central Missouri State University
Wayne Angell
Angell Economics
Darrin V. Gulla
Dept. of Economics
University of Georgia
Michael K. Pippenger, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Economics
University of Alaska
Jim Araji
Professor of Agricultural Economics
University of Idaho
Jon Halvorson
Assistant Professor of Economics
Indiana University of Pennsylvania
Robert Piron
Professor of Economics
Oberlin College
Ray Ball
Graduate School of Business
University of Chicago
Reza G. Hamzaee, Ph.D.
Professor of Economics &
Applied Decision Sciences
Department of Economics
Missouri Western State College
Mattias Polborn
Department of Economics
University of Illinois
Roger J. Beck
Professor Emeritus
Southern Illinois University, Carbondale
James M. Hvidding
Professor of Economics
Kutztown University
Joseph S. Pomykala, Ph.D.
Department of Economics
Towson University
John J. Bethune
Kennedy Chair of Free Enterprise
Barton College
F. Jerry Ingram, Ph.D.
Professor of Economics and Finance
The University of Louisiana-Monroe
Barry Popkin
University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill
David M. Brasington
Louisiana State University
Drew Johnson
Fellow
Davenport Institute for Public Policy
Pepperdine University
Steven W. Rick
Lecturer, University of Wisconsin
Senior Economist, Credit Union National Association
Jack A. Chambless
Professor of Economics
Valencia College
Steven J. Jordan
Visiting Assistant Professor
Virginia Tech
Department of Economics
Paul H. Rubin
Samuel Candler Dobbs
Professor of Economics & Law
Department of Economics
Emory University
Christopher K. Coombs
Louisiana State University
Richard E. Just
University of Maryland
John Ruggiero
University of Dayton
William J. Corcoran, Ph.D.
University of Nebraska at Omaha
Dr. Michael S. Kaylen
Associate Professor
University of Missouri
Michael K. Salemi
Bowman and Gordon Gray
Professor of Economics
University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill
Eleanor D. Craig
Economics Department
University of Delaware
David L. Kendall
Professor of Economics and Finance
University of Virginia's College at Wise
Dr. Carole E. Scott
Richards College of Business
State University of West Georgia
Susan Dadres, Ph.D.
Department of Economics
Southern Methodist University
Peter M. Kerr
Professor of Economics
Southeast Missouri State University
Carlos Seiglie
Dept. of Economics
Rutgers University
Henry Demmert
Santa Clara University
Miles Spencer Kimball
Professor of Economics
University of Michigan
John Semmens
Economist
Phoenix College
Arizona
Arthur De Vany
Professor Emeritus
Economics and Mathematical Behavioral Sciences
University of California, Irvine
James V. Koch
Department of Economics
Old Dominion University
Alan C. Shapiro
Ivadelle and Theodore Johnson
Professor of Banking and Finance
Marshall School of Business
University of Southern California
Pradeep Dubey
Leading Professor
Center for Game Theory
Dept. of Economics
SUNY at Stony Brook
Laurence J. Kotlikoff
Professor of Economics
Boston University
Dr. Stephen Shmanske
Professor of Economics
California State University,
Hayward
Demissew Diro Ejara
William Paterson University of New Jersey
Edward J. López
Assistant Professor
University of North Texas
James F. Smith
University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill
Patricia J. Euzent
Department of Economics
University of Central Florida
Franklin Lopez
Tulane University
Vernon L. Smith
Economist
John A. Flanders
Professor of Business and Economics
Central Methodist University
Salvador Lopez
University of West Georgia
W. James Smith
Dean of Liberal Arts and Sciences and Professor of Economics
University of Colorado at Denver
Richard H. Fosberg, Ph.D.
William Paterson University
Yuri N. Maltsev, Ph.D.
Professor of Economics
Carthage College
John C. Soper
Boler School of Business
John Carroll University
Gary L. French, Ph.D.
Senior Vice President
Nathan Associates Inc.
Glenn MacDonald
John M. Olin Distinguished Professor of Economics and Strategy
Washington University in St. Louis
Roger Spencer
Professor of Economics
Trinity University
Professor James Frew
Economics Department
Willamette University
Dr. John Merrifield
Professor of Economics
University of Texas-San Antonio
Daniel A. Sumner, Director,
University of California
Agricultural Issues Center
and the Frank H. Buck, Jr.,
Chair Professor,
Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics,
University of California, Davis
K. K. Fung
University of Memphis
Dr. Matt Metzgar
Mount Union College
Curtis R. Taylor
Professor of Economics and Business
Duke University
Satya J. Gabriel, Ph.D.
Professor of Economics and Finance
Mount Holyoke College
Carlisle Moody
Department of Economics
College of William and Mary Robert Vigil
Analysis Group, Inc.
Dave Garthoff
Summit College
The University of Akron
Andrew P. Morriss
Galen J. Roush Professor of Business Law & Regulation
Case Western Reserve University School of Law
John H. Wicks, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus
Department of Economics
University of Montana
Ronald D. Gilbert
Associate Professor of Economics
Texas Tech University
Timothy Perri
Department of Economics
Appalachian State University
F. Scott Wilson, Ph.D.
Canisius College
Philip E. Graves
Department of Economics
University of Colorado
Mark J. Perry
School of Management and Department of Economics
University of Michigan-Flint
Mokhlis Y. Zaki
Professor of Economics Emeritus
Northern Michigan University
Bettina Bien Greaves, Retired
Foundation for Economic Education
Timothy Peterson
Assistant Professor
Economics and Management Department
Gustavus Adolphus College
2 comments:
Thank you for posting this blog I found it very informative. Real estate may be down, but there is grants to bring it up. I was facing foreclosure, and found this. It might help you and your readers as well.
Foreclosure Grants Research
I've done research back in my college years regarding the programs that were created by the New Deal. I've never believed that FDR would approve of the current Social Security system and how much taxes are taken out of paychecks (6.2% employee, 6.2% employer for athe first 102,000 earned). Originally Social security was to tax no more than 3% in 1949 (incrementally phased in from 1% in 1936 to 3% in 1949) for the first $3,000 in wages. In 1949, the average worker made $2,700, while the average worker in 2007 made $40,500 (salaries have increased by 1500% in 58 years). So if you multiply $3,000 by 15, the social security limit would be approximately $45,000).
If you made $100,000 in 2008, your social security tax would be $6,200. If the wage limit was $45,000, and the % taxed was 3%, you would pay $1,350, resulting in an increase of $4,850 over what the original system would have taxed you.
The biggest obstacle for the fair tax IMO is that we have lived with a system that has been expanded immensely over its original purpose. In today's economy, there are many people who have not properly planned for retirement EVEN WITH a social security check, and that's sad. And on the federal government side, social security will eventually be bankrupt if they don't fix the current system.
My plan is that we phase in a fair tax system much in the way that FDR did SS in 1936. I think consumption tax is much better than a tax on one's earnings.
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