The Fair Tax Humbug

You may hear more from Republicans about the fair tax; it’s a sales tax that is supposed to replace the income tax.  I don’t think it’s a good idea to add it to the other taxes until we do a few other things. Otherwise, it would take on a life of its own.  In any event, it’s way too early to consider it. 

Our priorities should be to take the restrictions off coal, allow for drilling oil and natural gas everywhere, repeal the endangered species act, double water production and put all land into production.  We need to earn our way out of this economic hole.  We need to produce and sell everything that is in demand including coal, oil, gas, food, water, timber and minerals.  Giving all federal land to the states would result in closing the Interior Department.  States should use revenue from the sale of land for roads and bridges.

We also need to close the border, send illegal immigrants home and suspend legal immigration until our real unemployment is under 4%. Our current real unemployment is about 20%.

Before we even talk about a “fair tax”, I would first like for us to repeal the 16^th Amendment in its entirety and close the Federal Reserve, then cut back federal government responsibilities to comply with the Constitution and Amendments (as written) , then replace the revenue with a combination of tariffs and a sales tax. This would end the income tax and close the IRS.  Closing the Federal Reserve would end inflation and allow interest rates to be set by the market.  That would allow citizens to set up their own retirement funds and apply their own market forces on investment options. The dollar would begin to recover and become sound money.

States, counties and cities will need to absorb functions from the federal government and will need to make room by getting out of everything that can be done by the private sector. 

Closing the Federal Reserve will allow interest rates to be set by the market.  Workers should be able to open retirement accounts and expect enough earnings to build a retirement account without the wealth eating inflation they experienced with the Fed. Social Security should be privatized some time after the Fed closing. All Defined benefit (Pension) plans should be replaced by Defined contribution plans.

The federal government would not be allowed to collect taxes that it doles back to the states or anybody else. These governments would need to be cleaned up. I would ensure that each level of government is audited and scandal-free.  Legislative Bills should be “single issue”; no pile-on Omnibus Bills or horse trading would be allowed.  The Governors and President would have line-item veto power. There should be term limits on all elected jobs. With state, county and city governments receiving the bulk of our taxes, we need to have real campaign finance and government practices reform. 

I would only allow registered voters to contribute to candidates who would be on their ballot.  That would take special interest money out of the electoral process.  Special interest groups can have free speech on their own websites or by running their own ads for their own causes and positions on issues.

Selecting candidates would be completely different. We wouldn’t need all Sales Guys.  We should actually elect people who know something and do their homework.  

U.N. Agenda 21 implementation in the U.S. would cease. Government would sell its land to U.S. citizens to put into production.  95% of all land in the U.S. would be privately owned by individual citizens or U.S. corporations.  Foreigners could lease land.

Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader