This was posted to the comments here last night, and although I find fault with some of it, it is a pretty thoughtful post. Looks like a canned response to anyone who supports that Fairtax bill, and I am sure has been posted to more than one website:
So, you support the Fair Tax proposal?
American Constitutional Research Service
7-14-05
It is saddening to learn that there are so many who support the so called fair tax proposal. Perhaps those who support it have not had time to study the proposal in depth, its consequences, and then compare it to our founding father’s original tax plan to raise a federal revenue, which is the tax plan which a freedom loving people would support.
Not only is our founding fathers tax plan based upon a number of principles to disburse the costs of our federal government in a fair and equitable manner, but it also includes a number of necessary checks and balances designed to constantly encourage Congress to adopt sound fiscal and economic policies.
There are a number of half truths and outright inaccuracies being proffered by some of those who support the FT. For example, in an article titled ANSWERING A FAIR TAX QUESTION Neal Boortz wrote:
“It doesn’t matter that paying taxes will be voluntary under the Fair Tax plan. It doesn’t matter that nobody pays the retail sales tax on the basic necessities of life.”
But the truth is, all consumers pay the tax on the basic necessities of life under the so called fair tax. What Neal is referring to when he claims nobody pays tax on the basic necessities of life is the plan’s concocted “family consumption allowance“, a clever part of the proposal which is a monthly check given to each American household by government to offset taxes paid on the basic necessities of life by the household’s members..
In essence, the so called fair tax proposal rations tax-free basic necessities of life by the dollar amount of the family consumption allowance which will be given to each American household, and, the consequences in giving each American household a monthly government check is, it cleverly puts every American household on the government dole and makes the majority of Americans dependant upon this monthly government check. How nice!
What the fair tax proposal promises to do is give Senator Ted Socialist Kennedy a very valuable gift called the family consumption carrot, which he, and his socialist disciples in Congress will promise to increase during election time to buy millions of votes and remain in power, just as these socialists now do with the minimum wage, social security payments, aid to families with dependant children, and even corporate welfare___ the only difference is, the family consumption allowance promises to extend the tentacles of socialism to every American household in America with a monthly government check for their subsistence, completing the socialist takeover of America!
Were we not warned by Hamilton in the Federalist Papers that control over a man’s subsistence is a control over his will?
In addition to making American households dependent upon a monthly government check, the fair tax proposal expands the number of tax gathers to include individual tradesmen and entrepreneurs, and, even ordinary working people engaged in self employment, forcing them to all “register” with folks in government in order to pursue a livelihood [ see SEC. 502. REGISTRATION]. In short, the FT proposal would require these poor souls to become a modern-day regiment of enlisted tax gathers for government, increasing the number of tax gathers throughout the United States to an all time high, and compelling each to maintain burdensome and inquisitorial records and reports under a penalty of perjury [just as is now done with the income tax] to satisfy the wants and fancies of tyrants in government___ all the above to be implemented under the pretext of the “Fair Tax Reform“, a reform which promises to abolish the IRS and income taxation, but in substance and truth will only tighten the iron fist of government around the people’s productivity, while demanding the people to shamefully kneel to the iron fist of government, to receive their monthly government check .
Another glaring defect in the proposed legislation,H.R.25, and, S.1493 is, if adopted by the House and Senate today, legislation which would not bind a future Congress, and, Congress would be free to tinker with the proposal and manipulate it, just as is now done with the current system. It should also be noted that the architects of the Fair Tax proposal, to the best of my knowledge, have yet to propose any specific wording for a constitutional amendment which would, in a constitutional sense. preclude and forbid Congress from laying taxes calculated from “income”. But yet, the fair tax is pimped as a means to end income taxation!
Make no mistake, even if the 16th Amendment was repealed, as the architects of the FT promise, Congress would still have the constitutional authority to impose taxes calculated from income, impose taxes calculated from the profits and gains of corporations, from investments, impose death taxes, inheritance taxes etc., and do so under Congress’ power to lay excise taxes as established in the Flint vs. Stone Tracy Case, which was decided prior to the adoption of the 16th Amendment!
Absent a constitutional amendment being ratified with specific wording to forbid Congress to lay “any” tax calculated from profits, gains, interest, salaries, wages, tips etc., i.e, forbid any tax calculated from any lawfully realized money, but which the architects of the FT proposal are suspiciously not promoting, Congress will still maintain the dormant and residual power to calculate taxes from income via its power to lay an excise tax..
Why does Neal and so many others support the adoption of meaningless and unenforceable legislation containing utterances which amount to nothing more than a whimsical promise? Were we not warned by Thomas Jefferson: “In matters of Power, let no more be heard of confidence in men, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution”?
So what should freedom loving Americans be promoting? A return to our Founding Father’s original tax plan which can be accomplished by a simple amendment to our Constitution to the effect that: The Sixteenth Amendment is hereby repealed and Congress is henceforth prohibited to lay any tax or burden which is calculated from profits, gains, interest, salaries, wages, tips, etc., i.e, forbid Congress to calculate any tax from any lawfully realized money.
For an outline of the Founding Father’s original tax plan CLICK HERE and scroll down to :
American Constitutional Research Service Before the
Committee on Ways and Means
United States House of Representatives
June 1995
Mr. Chairman and Members of this Committee:
Before carrying the ball for the so called fair tax, I suggest those interested in the adverse effects of the fair tax proposal study:
The Fair Tax: A Trojan Horse For America
Regards,
John William Kurowski, Founder
American Constitutional Research Service
..with all these blessings, what more is necessary to make us a happy and a prosperous people? Still one thing more, fellow-citizens—a wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned.This is the sum of good government, and this is necessary to close the circle of our felicities__. Thomas Jefferson, First Inaugural Address
