Isn't the Fair Tax just rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic?

Question

No amount of alteration of the tax code will reduce government spending. The real problem is NOT how taxes are raised but that government spends too much in the first place. Cut government spending first and the tax burden will diminish. Why rearrange deck chairs on the Titanic? The ship is still sinking.

Answer 1

Well, as long as the leftist commy folk continue to serve in politics we'll have a problem.... How about the senate passing war funding with only 3 no votes today (thought the left wasn't for that) but in-bedded in the war funding is allot of money for a Kennedy project.... Hope the pres. vetoes this it's a joke 1/3 of the funding for the war given to Kennedy's base for non-defense stuff....

We Citizens have got to stand against this. A bill should address the issues it is titled for and no others. sneaking in pork barrel crap to force the President to give you something is outright embezzlement (these jerks are trying to embezzle money) while our troops need support. Kennedy is a real loser. and if Bush doesn't veto, I'll know he is too.

Answer 2

I think the whole "Fair Tax" idea is absurd. Let's go back to the original concept when taxes were first instituted in this country. A graduated tax system. A flat tax system. $50,000/yr or less, no tax. 50-100, 12%, 100-150, 14%, etc. Just putting those numbers up for an example. For corporations, we'd just have to eliminate the "deductions".
As for government spending, I'll vote for anybody who'll reign it in. That is the real problem. If things were left just the way they are and we eliminated all the greed and corruption from the government, they'd be sending you a check every year.

Answer 3

You are mostly correct. The FairTax wouldn't reduce goverment spending directly or immediately and indeed that isn't its purpose. However, I think it might have the side effect of making people more aware about just how much money they are giving the government (since it is all given in one big chunk at the cash register, not a little bit here for Medicare a little bit there for Social Security and a little bit somewhere else for income tax), which in turn would make people more likely to hold their members of Congress accountable for how much money Congress spends and where it goes. As for the actual purpose of the FairTax, which is to make the tax system more transparent and reduce compliance costs, I wholeheartedly support it over the currect tax system. Fairtax.org has a lot more information if you're interested.

Answer 4

Isn't the Fair Tax just rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic? Yes.

Answer 5

I agree with you. Changing the system won't solve the greatest problem, which is spending. That's why I prefer Ron Paul's approach of just eliminating the income tax and not replacing it. Based on our current budget, that would only require us to switch back to the budget from the year 2000, which isn't too much to ask, is it?

But, in some ways, even the Fair Tax might be an improvement. The idea of taxing income is so harmful to the incentive structure...it hampers productivity. So, perhaps even switching tax regimes would help our country. In any case, it can't be much worse.

Answer 6

Government will never pay less in a time of war. Our use of the government like a credit card is hurting our economy down the line. If we were in a time of peace, I'd agree we need to cut government. But let's cut the right things, like corporate welfare, and keep the right things, like welfare to work programs, and government jobs for those who can't find employment. We have the hardest working and maybe the best qualified workers in the world, let's take advantage of that resource.

Answer 7

I don't think those that support the Fair Tax are saying the government shouldn't spend less... they are just saying.. hey... you want everyone to be taxed the same, rich or poor.. here's a way to do it.

Answer 8

Fair tax- sales tax. A flat tax is a tax for all including business with no deductions. Just one fixed percent tax . But, who pays most or all of the sales taxes. Not the rich or big business .

Answer 9

These guys are using Bill Clinton's approach to scandal. Create a new dictionary. Bill Clinton's Abridged Dictionary redefines words like "is" and "sex". If I used his definition of sex, I suspect my wife would strongly disagree. Now we must redefine words like "trick" which people like Dana assure us was just an innocent technical word that was taken out of context. Earlier an IPCC bureaucrat took it upon himself to redefine what "peer review" is. We have changed the name global warming to climate change. I wonder if these guys might just publish the new dictionary so the rest of us can understand what they are actually talking about.

Answer 10

1. taxes are never goona go away
2. Fair Tax -- taxes are never fair
3. congress is run by individuals that want their hand in ur pocket -- only way they can get the $$$$$$$ is by raising taxes -- and they are not fair