Americans for Fair Taxation recently called for a debate on tax issues. The goal was to discuss new ways to improve the country's tax structure to make it fairer and more equitable for citizens and businesses, yet revenue neutral so that the taxes collected continue to fund current programs already in place. A plan was presented to the Senate Ways and Means Committee, and AFT anticipated a dynamic nonpartisan discussion, with no rancor or negative politics.
However, the Democratic staff of the Senate Ways and Means Committee, using taxpayer dollars, issued a partisan criticism of their political opponents along with a defense of the current income tax system. They had been charged with the responsibility of a dispassionate discussion of tax issues, a charge they obviously ignored in favor of a report full of errors and misrepresentations of the proposals involved as well as a defense of the current income tax system. It seems as though the Democrats if the committee have decided the current 60,000 page tax code is the best the American people can do. That's not surprising -- Democrats are forever calling the rest of the country "dumb" and "stupid."
So let's look at the issues they addressed along with actual facts.
First, the goal of the Fair Tax is to replace current income taxes and payroll taxes. It isn't helpful to reject that out of hand without discussion in favor of the status quo as suggested by the Democratic staff. Fixing the broken tax structure can only lead to more confusion in an already hopelessly confused situation.
Part of the reason members of Congress (especially those who have been there for some time) are not interested in changing the system has to do with their vested interest in the current system. “There are so many vested beneficiaries for each sentence in each Code that the Code itself represents an employment security act for many members of Congress who represent those special interests (of lobbyists) and for legions of accountants, tax collectors, and others necessary to prop up the unstable system."
Thank goodness there are people in Congress who put the people and the nation before their own personal interests. Most of them you'll find on the co-sponsor list of the two bills, HR 25 and S 25. However, it's time we citizens took over the control of our government and insisted on responsible debate on changing the income tax system. The nation was intended to be "by the people and for the people." Not by Congress and for Congress.
The income tax got into the mess it is with the help of both parties, so one can't put the blame entirely on the other. And we, the people, let it happen. So let's get on with changing it.
So let's look at the Fair tax as an alternative to the present income tax structure. The first step would be to repeal the income tax, the payroll tax and the capital gains tax. There!
In spite of what the Democrats would have you believe, the Fair Tax would revitalize American manufacturing for several reasons, among them the fact that it's the only plan that places the same tax on imports as on domestic production. The current tax structure gives the advantage to imports.
The Democrats' report claimed that the Fair Tax would hurt farmers and ranchers, overlooking the fact that the Fair Tax plan is already listed in the American Farm Bureau Federations policy book -- the book that presents that organization's legislative intentions and preferences.
Now, online HERE is an Acrobat file you can download. It compares middle class taxes under the current law with the fair tax law for families with incomes of $65,000 a year and $130,000 a year. It's certainly worth examining. The bottom line: Both wage earners have a lower tax burden under Fair tTax than they do with the current income tax structure.
With your help we can get the Fair Tax passed. Support grows daily and we need YOU. Learn more at www.fairtax.org.
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