Chairman’s Report - May 1, 2015

Don’t Assume That They Understand How The FAIRtax Works!
 
In the 1990’s a Member of Congress warned me to never assume that any staff member or Member understands anything more than the FAIRtax is a retail sales tax. He explained that while many of the people in Washington, D.C. are very bright, they have so many demands on their time and attention that they can normally be familiar with proposed legislation on only a very superficial level.  

It has taken me a number of years to really appreciate this. Here are a few things that we discovered that one or more Members or their staff, who publicly support the FAIRtax, didn’t understand about the FAIRtax:

•    It will be collected by the states and there will be no individual tax returns, removing the need for a federal agency like the IRS 
•    It is assessed only on new goods and services
•    It is border adjustable and removes many of the reasons why companies move operations overseas
•    All taxes are “regressive” unless provisions are made to protect lower income people
•    How the prebate works
•    The Social Security tax is the most regressive tax of all since it starts at the first dollar of earnings
•    Since Social Security is funded by the FAIRtax and not the payroll tax, it will not go bankrupt 
•    All responsible economists agree that the US economy will grow much faster with the FAIRtax than any income tax
•    Prices contain the costs of the income and payroll taxes and when these are removed, competition will cause prices to reduce by these costs
•    One of the major features of the FAIRtax is that all of our residents are consumers and daily will see the cost of government even though they receive the prebate equal to the FAIRtax up to the poverty level

If you are briefing your Member or their staff or asking a question at a town hall meeting, please keep in mind that they may not even understand the basics of the FAIRtax. Of course, we don’t make any progress by embarrassing the Member or staff. Instead, when we brief them or ask questions, it is important to include the basic information in the question.

For example, if you want to talk about eliminating the IRS, you could ask the following: “Since the FAIRtax is collected and administered by the states and there are no individual tax returns, isn’t it the only tax reform proposal that eliminates the IRS?”

Or, “Since we know that all taxes are regressive, none more so than the Social Security tax, doesn’t providing the prebate, which exempts all new goods and services from the tax up to the poverty level, make the FAIRtax much less regressive than other tax reform proposals?”

My point is that you should explain why the FAIRtax does what you are asking. This is not only insurance against embarrassing the Member but also helps make clear to the others in the audience why the FAIRtax is the best alternative.

Our Washington Trip: April 28-30

Early next week, we will be sending a detailed report on the results of our trip. The FAIRtax is now very much one of the alternatives for tax reform in Washington, D.C.  

Peggy is doing an incredible job not only coordinating and arranging the meetings but also as an active participant in the meetings. Like the rest of us, Peggy is a volunteer who is donating her time to help the FAIRtax become a reality.  

Please let her know how much you appreciate her efforts by emailing her at peggy.green-ernst@fairtax.org.


Thank You For Opening The FAIRtax Chronicles, Our Sponsored Mailings 

We are sending another sponsored mailing and another fee of $3,000 will be paid to AFFT! These funds help us pass the FAIRtax.

We plan to do several of these mailings each month. If you take a minute to open the sponsored emails and click through to the website, you are making an in kind contribution to AFFT. It is not required to actually make a purchase, but your minute of time will ensure that AFFT is paid ever larger amounts from people paying for us to send their offers to our supporters.

Again, we are making every effort to ensure that we work with only reputable companies. If you feel that any FAIRtax-sponsored email is objectionable, please email us at info@fairtax.org and tell us why. You can also opt to not receive these sponsored email messages but still receive FAIRtax emails.
  
Thank you for staying FairTax strong!