Misguided

A couple weeks back, I followed a link from the Heartless Libertarian’s place to a blog posting on a subject that is very near and dear to a number of folks whom I know and respect. I, however, cannot find one single reason to agree with them on this topic.

This topic is the so-called “Fair Tax”.

I posted my point-by-point comment on the topic at the other blog, and was chided for being too stupid to see how good an idea the “Fair Tax” was. For reasons unknown to me, I was either blacklisted or am otherwise moderated in the comments section. No comment I attempt to post there show up after I hit the ‘Submit’ button.

At first I thought that maybe they closed off the comments section to keep spammers out and that I had returned too late to respond. But a couple of days later I was still receiving emails of other folks’ comments because I ‘subscribed’ to the thread, so I knew that wasn’t the case. I sent off emails asking why I had blacklisted/moderated, and after nearly a week, I have still gotten no response.

So today, I am going to expand on my previous thoughts on the “Fair Tax”.

If you would like to read the other blog’s post, you will have to click through the Heartless Libertarian’s place to get there because I refuse to link to a blog that claims to be about liberty, and then proceeds to shut down folks who disagree with them.

I expect to have my comments ignored or to be otherwise moderated at liberal and/or ‘progressive’ blogs, after visiting them for more than four years. But when someone says they stand for the fair exchange of ideas and then cuts off a person with significant points opposite of theirs, it kind of ‘harshes my mellow’.

I am sure that if you are even an on the fence “Fair Tax” supporter, your sensibilities may get insulted here. But that is OK, because unlike at the other blog, we can discuss that here.

This post will go beyond my previous objections to the “Fair Tax” which consisted of the plan basing the entirity US economy on the Consumer Confidence Index and will show the plan as being a combination of the worst parts of socialism and ‘big L’ Libertarianism combined.

While I will be trying to stay away from using the hyperbole and name-calling used at the other blog, I cannot guarantee it 100%. I will, however, be bringing things like “Logic” and “Reason” into the discussion to try and offset those habits of mine.

So, if you’ll follow me below the fold. Don’t forget your popcorn.

First, for those who have ventured over to the other blog and have read the previous attempt at discussion, I will admit that I had previously never read the “Fair Tax FAQ”. But after having been pointed to it by the blogger who partially responded to my comment, I ventured on over to the “Fair Tax” website and read it from 1 to 49.

And because I am more generous than the other blog site, I will even give you all a link to the site. For some reason, while they espouse it to be “The Best Thing For America”, they don’t link to it themselves.

Secondly, everyone I’ve ever spoken to about the “Fair Tax” fantasy claims that it will uncomplicate the tax system. This is a half truth, and we all know that the you cannot tell the whole truth, you are lying. Hence, this claim is a lie. Maybe they’re not knowingly lying and they just haven’t read the “Fair Tax FAQ”, but it is still not the truth.

There are progressive scales for your ‘Spending Allowances’. You can see them in FAQ #3. This scale keeps the current tax system’s idea of ‘Married’ and ‘Unmarried’ people (which keeps governmental fingers unfairly deep into your hyper-personal affairs).

These progressive ‘Allowance Scales’ offer “Rebates” depending upon the size of your household. This “Rebate” gives you a check of your own money back every month and sybmolizes the tax you have paid on essential goods and services.

However, FAQ #4 say that “Exempting items by category is neither fair nor simple”. I guess it is just easier if they figure out behind the scenes what the ‘essential goods and services are’ and what the average person spends on them for you and give it to everyone, no matter what your actual expenses are.

There is, of course, no plan in this “Fair Tax” fantasy to keep legislators from playing one group against the other by increasing any of the “Rebate Check” values. So much for future “Fairness”.

And this isn’t the last time that the plan gives the government the ability to ‘take care of things for you’.

I was under the impression that one of the main tenets of Libertarianism was to reduce the number of involuntary interactions the citizen has to have with the government? Apparently I was wrong, because this tax plan takes everyone from having to only dealing with their federal taxes on April 15th to waiting for their mommy-state “Rebate Check” every month.

And speaking of getting a check every month, can we demand that it be sent as a check and not directly depositied into our bank accounts? I like to keep the fed as far away from my account routing number as possible, thank you.

The “Fair Tax” fantasy folks also claim that the plan will be the end of the Internal Revenue Service. This is another one of the “Fair Tax” fantasy’s half-truths. If you’ve been paying attention, there is a mandatory citizen interaction with the fed every month, and someone is going to have to verify 1. Those fantastic “Rebate Checks”, 2. Your marital status, and 3. The size of your household each and every month.

So while this plan may actually get rid of the IRS, all we’ll have to look forward to thereafter is the entertainment provided by Congress as they try to come up with a clever new name for the new and monsterous Treasury agency who will do those three things.

Another one of the main ideas in this fantasy tax plan is that business-to-business transactions are exempt from the sales tax. They say it will save the consumer money, and it probably will in most instances. So, you say to yourself, “Cool, I’m going to set my family up as a Limited Liability Corporation and be able to buy stuff without paying the sales tax.”

Wrong bucko! You need to read FAQ #48 and read about how this tax fantasy plan also comes with multiple new provisions as to who and what can become a business. Whole new agencies worth of registration of private citzens and how they interact with one another.

Oh, how fun! More citizen interaction with govenment!

And FYI, businesses actually still do pay the sales tax on items, they just get to “Rebate” it back to themselves out of the taxes they collected, which they have to report to the government every month. Of course, the government is going to have to have a person who will examine those monthly returns.

So much for getting rid of an invasive government agency.

Again, I always thought that Libertarianism stood for government keeping its paws off of business. I guess I was wrong again.

This plan sounds like something the Democrat Socialists would thoroughly enjoy. They not only get to take a peek into every American household every single month, they also get to regulate small businesses further and keep their tax compliance officers walking through the doors of medium and large businesses every month instead of every quarter.

Now let us go back to FAQ #3 for a moment.

If you look at the small print (it is always a good idea to read the small print) you will see that “Alaska and Hawaii have different poverty levels different Fair Tax rebates” .

While I admire the dipshit who came up with this overly complicated and insipid fantasy tax plan for being able to read a bookt hat told him about the different costs in the non-contiguous states. However, if he/she were smarter, they would also know that California and New York also have different poverty levels, especially when compared to states like Kansas and Georgia.

Why not have a different “Fair Tax Rebates” for states with smaller populations or some other determining factor? Don’t worry, I am abslutely positive that some state’s group of Senators and Representatives will figure this out shortly after this legislation is enacted and make it happen.

Another one of the half-truths that is commonly spoken of is how this sales tax will be combined with the sales tax in your current state of residence. One of the most vocal proponents of this tax fantasy is radio personality, Neal Boortz. Boortz will tell you that this tax will not be combined with your state’s sales tax, which is a lie. If the major spokesman has to lie about the plan in order to sell it, it can’t be that good of a plan, now can it?

The fed cannot tell states how they will collect their operating revenue, so now not only would I have to pay a 23% federal sales tax, I also have to pay another 8.9% to the State of Washington for a grand total of 31.9% in sales taxes.

Sure, I could move to a state that doesn’t have a sales tax, but then I’m back to having the government involved in my paycheck with a state income tax, which is the whole point of the “Fair Tax” fantasy; to get the government out of my paycheck.

I hope you all have your “Economic Functions” books open, because you’re going to need them starting now.

To me anyway, the most annoying slight of hand involved in selling the “Fair Tax” fantasy to the general public is how much weight it puts on sticking it to “The Rich”. You would almost think that these folks hadn’t quite understood how disgusting classifying people by income and then playing one off the other was with how many references they include in the FAQ (See #12, #14 & #49 especially).

FAQ #12 talks explicitly about how much “The Wealthy” like to spend their money frivolously. FAQ #1 tells us that the purchase of ‘Used Items’ are not subject to the tax.

From these two talking points, we can assume that 95% of the population will have to rely upon the 5% of the population who are considered “The Wealthy” for items, or be stuck with having to pay the sales tax.

FAQ #12 also says “They buy expensive cars, big houses and yachts” , and this is true. But it forgets that People don’t become “The Weathly” by being stupid. Nothing is stopping “The Wealthy” from buying their yacht or their “expensive car” from a dealer in Mexico or Canada.

If you remember back to the Preisdential campaigns of 2004, Kerry came out as anti-SUV, and shortly thereafter it was discovered that he owned a big ass Chevy Suburban SUV. But he didn’t really own it, did he? No, it was owned by the Heinz Corporation, which, of course, was a cop-out. But under this fantasy tax plan, there would have been no tax paid on that ‘expensive car’.

And since “The Wealthy” only buy “expensive cars”, just where am I supposed to buy a used Ford F-150 or Toyota Corolla? I guess I’ll either have to wait until a charitable member of “The Wealthy” buys one and feels like getting rid of it or buy it new and pay the tax.

We’ll all be waiting for those used vehicles so that we can get out from under this oppressive sales tax. But only 5% of the population will be the suppliers of an item that the other 95% of the population needs. You all know the laws of supply and demand, so tell me what that’ll do to the prices of those used vehicles. Correct, they’ll be more expensive than they were when they were new, being held 10% below the price of a new one with the tax added.

And don’t forget the troubles of buying used. You could be buying a “someone else’s problem” car with no factory warranty. That $1500 repair just got bumped over $1800, not counting your state’s sales tax, of course.

If the believers in this tax fantasy actually believed everything they wrote, they would also see FAQ #12 as the destroyer of not only the new car market, but also of the new housing construction market.

Yes, this oppressive sales tax includes new home purchases. So now that house you thought you were buying for $200,000 is $246,000. So what if interest rates are slightly lower, you’re now paying the same or more afterwards due to the principle cost (FAQ #21 doesn’t bother addressing this point).

“That’s OK, I’ll just buy a used house instead” you say. Sure, unless you work in the construction industry, in which case you won’t have a job to pay the mortgage because everyone else is saying this as well.

Nevermind all that, just how many used houses are there out in the market? Surely you’ve heard of San Francisco’s housing market, how’d you like that market inflicted upon Anytown, USA?

You won’t have to wait for long. How many members of “The Wealthy” do you know who buy 3 Bedroom/2 Bathroom houses on a quarter acre? Even the FAQ says that “The Wealthy” only buy “big houses”.

At the Fair Tax website, they are talking about getting 12,000 people to a rally in Orlando, FL. If you tell people they’ll pay less in taxes if they just put their support behind an overly complicated tax plan they’ll probably never understand, they’ll show up in droves. If you toss in a celebrity like Boortz, they come in from out of state to wave their signs.

But if you tell them that the plan bases the economy on false premises and assumptions that have been proven false in the past, and will effect the amount of money available to pay off the national debt and fund the military, also known as “The Truth”, they’ll stay home.

The premise that the “Fair Tax” supporters use to sell it is no more honest than that used by supporters of socialized medicine, oops, I meant “National Single Payer Health Care”. Both use the income classifications against one another and both of them have rather innocuous names that make people feel shiny and happy.

I, for one, don’t like to feel shiny and happy. I also don’t like getting sushine blown up my ass by people who haven’t got a clue as to what they’re wishing for.

“Fair tax” supporters go so far as to tell people that they’ll even be able to choose whether to pay taxes at all, which is not only dishonest, unconscionable. If you are going to consider yourself a citizen of the United States of America, you have no right to try and get out of paying taxes to, at the very least, cover the protection provided to you by the US Armed Forces.

I’m not going to use this rant to lay out my preferred tax plan, I’ll do that some other time. But off the top of my head, the only group I can think of who deserve to NOT have to pay any taxes are active duty military (and possibly certain retireees).

Deep, deep down, under the surface motives of the “Fair Tax” fantasy supporters, there is the the belief that enacting this tax code will choke the government off and bring it back to fiscal sanity.

Anyone who admits to this is a fool and has no idea how government works. Government will always find a way to pay for what it wants, no matter what the prevailing public opinion is. If the Presidency of W hasn’t shown them this, then I don’t have an idea of what will.

If you want the fed to get some fiscal sanity, then stop campaigning for an idea in the form of a new tax code and get to campaigning for some decent people. The big-L Libertarian trouble with this is that ideas don’t let you down, while people, especially those put into positions of power, almost always do.

Elect the people first, then get your ideas made into law. To do it backwards is begging to be let down and used.

Under this plan, in terms express by this plan, the lower and middle classes will be scavengers feeding off “The Wealthy”, hoping that “The Wealthy” make a shopping decision that will benefit them.

Disgusting.