The Sunday Wall Street Opinion Journal published an article (8/26//07), “Fair Tax, Flawed Tax” (link below) by former Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy (1988-1993). It is obvious that the Journal editors and Mr. Bartlett didn’t do their homework.
Many citizens will dismiss the FairTax Plan out-of-hand by reading this distorted play on words from the pen of Mr. Bartlett. Dismissing his assertion of the FairTax being connected to the Church of Scientology---a gorgeous lie to behold---he proceeds to lambast FairTax supporters with so-called evidence that it will not work and will cost more at the cash register by tacking on a 30 percent National Sales Tax.
Mr. Bartlett’s proclamation of “FairTax” facts lack the knowledge that millions of citizens know from reading the book by radio talk-show host Neal Boortz and Congressman John Linder (R.,GA), “The FairTax Book.” And the fact that the IRS will disappear from our lives. Those citizens know that Bartlett is way off base on the FairTax Plan.
He gets into trouble right away by giving examples which do not represent the FairTax. Anyone familiar with how the FairTax would work knows that any product, right now, includes embedded corporate-business taxes. So much so, that we citizens don’t really know for sure how many taxes we’re paying on any one product and service. [Don’t Rug Cleaner services and Doctors pay taxes in running their medical practice (business)? Aren’t a few taxes passed on to consumers and hidden in the price of those services?]
Researchers and analysts, after years of study and exposing those taxes to the light of day, have ascertained that the estimated embedded taxes are around 22 percent. Folks, that’s after withholdings from wages and before the state and local sales taxes are added to your purchase at the checkout. But you’ll never know it.
What Bartlett failed to accentuate about the FairTax Plan is the fact that the hidden embedded taxes are eliminated from the price and then, only then, is the 23 percent included. He offers a weak example: retail product price tag, $1.00, adds a national sales tax of 30 percent to make it $1.30. His big Calculation Error exhibits an example unrelated to the FairTax plan at all.
The True FairTax Plan would subtract the embedded corporate tax of 22 percent and add 23 percent---
$1.00 - 22 % = $0.78
$1.00 x 23% = $0.23 + $0.78 = $1.01
OR $0.78 x 29.5 % = $0.23 + $0.78 = $1.01
Depending on how you figure the FairTax math, either way, it comes out about the same.
Another distortion by Mr. Bartlett: The prebate to “all” households is not based on amount of annual income, but on the number of people in a household.
Mr. Bartlett’s warped article makes a mockery of the FairTax Plan but also exposes either his lack of knowledge or his complete and intentional distortion. Other FairTax opponents have weighed in with their own skewed versions of FairTax facts, but this article takes the cake when it comes to misrepresentation. It is a brilliant example of how to persuade people to be “anti-something without really trying,” much like global warming.
The faithful to our current tax system, promoting class warfare and progressive tax exemptions, are going to fight against the FairTax Plan to the end. The present IRS tax code with its thousands of pages plus more added annually by Congress continues to obey the Second Law of Thermodynamics---order to chaos. Disorder is what we experience now. It is time to replace this monster.
A near-future “FairTax” book will respond to all the criticisms. Both Rep. Linder and Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R., GA) have introduced the FairTax bills (HR25 and S.1025) in Congress. You may see the content of the bills online at Rep. Linder’s site or through the American FairTax Organization (links below).
Attacked from all sides, FairTax proponents must continue to hammer home to the public the facts versus the distortions. The mainstream media, lacking its own FairTax education, doesn’t recognize the errors and distorted lies of those promoting other tax reform agendas and calling them “FairTax” as Mr. Bartlett has done.
We Americans must educate ourselves and understand this total replacement of the IRS plan so we may make informed decisions. Read the book. Explore the links below to truly understand the FairTax Plan and its simplicity. It will benefit all of us---government, citizens and the corporation-business sectors.
© 2007 Bonnie Alba
Links:
www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110010523
boortz.com/nuze/200708/08272007.html
linder.house.gov/
linderfairtax.house.gov/
www.fairtax.org/site/PageServer
www.fairtax.org/site/PageServer?pagename=about_bills