Wednesday, December 19, 2007
"Tax-Hike Mike"
Interesting:
"The real problem with Christian conservatives’ support for Huckabee isn’t the bogeyman of religion intolerance. Rather it’s that Huckabee is not a conservative at all. The former Arkansas governor has tried to rehabilitate his dismal record on taxes by embracing a crackpot talk-radio panacea called (in perfectly Orwellian language) the 'Fair Tax.' Huckabee says he’ll abolish the income tax and IRS and institute instead the 'fair tax,' which is notionally a national sales tax of 23 percent—but really, as Bruce Bartlett points out, 30 percent: 'If a product costs $1 at retail, the FairTax adds 30%, for a total of $1.30. Since the 30-cent tax is 23% of $1.30, FairTax supporters say the rate is 23% rather than 30%.' Want to pay 30 percent more on everything you now buy? Then the 'Fair Tax' is for you. The rate is so high because, like every fraudulent tax reform, it’s revenue neutral. For most Americans, it would be a tax hike, since sales taxes are regressive, affecting the middle class and poor more than the wealthy, while our current income tax is progressive, disproportionately hurting the rich. Progressivity is unjust, but why should a middle-income family of four in, say, Arkansas, pay more taxes so that George Soros and Warren Buffet can catch a break? Ask Tax-Hike Mike."
"The real problem with Christian conservatives’ support for Huckabee isn’t the bogeyman of religion intolerance. Rather it’s that Huckabee is not a conservative at all. The former Arkansas governor has tried to rehabilitate his dismal record on taxes by embracing a crackpot talk-radio panacea called (in perfectly Orwellian language) the 'Fair Tax.' Huckabee says he’ll abolish the income tax and IRS and institute instead the 'fair tax,' which is notionally a national sales tax of 23 percent—but really, as Bruce Bartlett points out, 30 percent: 'If a product costs $1 at retail, the FairTax adds 30%, for a total of $1.30. Since the 30-cent tax is 23% of $1.30, FairTax supporters say the rate is 23% rather than 30%.' Want to pay 30 percent more on everything you now buy? Then the 'Fair Tax' is for you. The rate is so high because, like every fraudulent tax reform, it’s revenue neutral. For most Americans, it would be a tax hike, since sales taxes are regressive, affecting the middle class and poor more than the wealthy, while our current income tax is progressive, disproportionately hurting the rich. Progressivity is unjust, but why should a middle-income family of four in, say, Arkansas, pay more taxes so that George Soros and Warren Buffet can catch a break? Ask Tax-Hike Mike."
# posted by Joltin' Django @ Wednesday, December 19, 2007 
