128 Representatives, 21 Senators Support FairTax
From a new article by Jim Clark in yesterday’s Tahoe Bonanza, in Nevada:
As I reported last month I attended the week-long Western Republican Leadership Conference held aboard an ocean liner plying its way through Alaska’s Inside Passage. Many national GOP luminaries attended and gave presentations including Tom Wright, executive director of Americans for Fair Taxation.
Proposals have been made in the past to eliminate the Internal Revenue Code and replace it with a national sales tax but for such a proposal to be revenue neutral the tax rate would have to be pretty hefty. However Washington think tanks and academics have massaged and honed the concept and the proposal is now before Congress as H.R. 25 and S. 25. At present 128 house members, including Nevada’s Jim Gibbons and John Porter, have taken positions favoring the concept as have 21 senators, including Nevada’s John Ensign and Harry Reid. Additionally 81 economists from major US universities have signed an open letter to President Bush and Congress endorsing the proposal.
See the full article for more… My favorite part:
Fierce opposition is expected from Washington DC lobbyists and attorneys. Go get your violin.
UPDATE Oct 18 2005: Jim Clark’s figures cited above are inaccurate. (There are nowhere close to 128 supporters in the House of Representatives.) See the Oct 18 figures from Senator Linder for an accurate count.
Wait I just did a double take while reading the article. Harry Reid supports the FairTax?! As in Leader of the Senate Democrats Harry Reid? Maybe the FairTax is closer to political reality then we think.
[From the mailbag]
Joshua,
I do not believe “cosponsors” and “supporters” are one in the same. Therefore I tend to believe both numbers [Linders' & Clark's] could be correct, just counting different levels of support……………
Chet Wilcox
Picayune, Miss.
Per the current scorecard (asof Oct 25) (http:FairTax.Cycloid.US)
Senate
====
For 6
Leans for 16
Leans against 10
Against 12
Uncommitted 56
———————-
Total Supporters 22
Total Opponents 22
House
====
For 62
Leans for 72
Leans against 38
Against 47
Uncommitted 221
——————–
Total Supporters 134
Total Opponents 85
House: HR 25 Cosponsors = 43, plus Linder-GA (http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d109:h.r.00025
Senate: S25 Cosponsors = 1 (Coburn-OK), plus Chambliss-GA (http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquerytr/z?d109:SN00025
We do not know about the “uncommitted.” Check the scorecard and write your congressman.
this site is full of all the good reasons to support the FairTax. So I am confused, specifically, what are the key bad reasons that the [mostly] democratic opponents will cite against the FairTax bill?
Most of the arguments against the FairTax are already addressed in the FairTax Book—and also many of the questions raised and addressed on this site.
A big one is that the FairTax is a sales tax and sales taxes are regressive. True, sales taxes are regressive—however, the prebate makes the tax progressive. A family spending at or below the poverty level results in a 0% net sales tax. Spending at twice the poverty level results in 11.5% net sales tax. Very high spending consumers will pay closer and closer to 23% as they spend more and more money. Accordingly, the tax is progressive, but not abusively so.
Another is that prices will not fall and the poor will be hurt the hardest. Well, prices will fall. They may or may not fall 22%. Over time with growth and new improvements to productivity, they may fall more than 22%. Some wages will also fall. The will not fall below current take home, but some gross wages will fall. Wage earners at or near the minimum wage level cannot drop any-by law (minimum wage is gross and that cannot drop). I think unions will be able to resist wage drops better than the average Joe, so they should be better off than average. I would expect unions to follow party lines—I just don’t know which party line they will follow. So the poor and unions will do well under FairTax. Once they realize that, what are the Democrats to do?
Honestly, I think that the reason for the opposition is that it will actually help the poor. FairTax will provide them with an incentive to save money. With personal savings, they will become self empowered and clime out of poverty. Once they do that, who will the Democrats have to protect?
We just may be able to take out the IRS and Democrats in one fell swoop. AFFT is non partisan. They do not promote any one party over the other. The Democratic leadership is opposing FairTax and making the issue partisan—just look at FairTaxScorecard.com and sort by part.
I am 17 years old and I am writing a article about this fair tax matter in the Henry County High school paper. I just wanted you to know that though I am not a regular listener to the Neil Boorze show on newstalk 750, that I support this movement in everyway. Again I know that I can not make a difference in what this country thinks, but they should know that with this Fair Tax bill that things would become a whole lot simplier. Right now hardly 60% of this country pays taxes. With the fair tax bill everyone would pay, including those immigrants that are illegal. Though I am just telling you what you already know, the fact is, is that I am 17 and know what is good for this country. I am not an ignorant teenager, I am proud America.
Thanks for your time-Megan A. Hall
Megan,
You can do what you can do and that is enough. Educate just one person at a time. Work on your classmates and have them work on their parents and friends. If we each can educate one more person every week, our numbers will double every week. Collectively, we can change the way America thinks.
I have a serious concern about the fair tax. I have about $500,000 saved that has already been taxed about 40%. I would assume that any money that has already been taxed will not be taxed again by the fair tax. (Of course, any money in a traditional IRA has not yet been taxed, so it is OK to tax that.) It would CLEARLY BE UNFAIR AND RIDICULOUS to double tax money that has already been taxed. So, does the fair tax provide a way to separate money that has already been taxed from money that has not yet been taxed? It is certainly possible to do this, but I have not seen it discussed.
Richard, you have to take one step back sometimes to take 2 or more steps forward. In the mean time, you will be earning interest on that $500K and would not be taxed on that until it is spent. So there is always another way of looking at it. In the end, it will benefit your children, nieces and nephews and make things better in the future. Hopefully in the end, there will be a compromise that kind of works for everyone. Maybe they will give a rebate against money saved that has already been taxed.